Fifteen walkers met at Coal Aston Wesleyan Reform Chapel on a cool Tuesday morning. Several of us enjoyed a hot coffee or tea with a toasted hot cross bun before we started.
Adrian, our walk leader, warned us that there would be mud, despite the first section of the walk being along Owler Car Lane which is a made track. Our first obstacle was to cross over the river where the Sickle Brook meets the Moss. The ford was a little too deep and the footbridge had been destroyed by storm Babet, but we all navigated our way across without too much difficulty.
We continued on the track up to Povey farm, where we had our coffee stop, and onto Hazlehurst Lane. After a brief time on this quiet country lane we took the left turn towards Bridle Road Wood. This section was the area that Adrian had warned us about. It was muddy but we took our time and reached the end of the track without incident. On reaching the top of Dowey Lumb we took the lovely path through Long Wood and later Nor Wood to enter the field just below Cross Lane. There are a few Cross Lanes in this area, this is the one that you can access via Dyche Lane.
The last stretch of the walk took us back to the Chapel via farmers fields and enclosed tracks in Coal Aston.
Thanks to Adrian for leading us round, it was a very enjoyable walk and we even saw bluebells.
