Twenty two walkers met outside The Hyde Park Inn on a surprisingly fresh Thursday evening. We started out by crossing the bridge over the by-pass and walking down Cowley Lane until we reached a footpath heading off on to the right. This took us on a narrow path running behind Gainsborough Road, bringing us to the area known locally as Teletubby Land. After taking the urban route along Gosforth Drive and Ashford Road we entered Kitchen Wood. All the paths were very dry and cracked with hardly and water flowing in the brook.
We crossed over Cowley Lane by Four Acres and continued on to Cartledge. The impressive Cartledge Hall marked our turning point and we looped back to Cowley Lane, crossing over the lane close to Cowley Hall. After passing through more fields we re-joined our original route at Teletubby Land.
The last section of the walk seemed to pass quickly and we arrived back at The Hyde Park with plenty of daylight to spare. A group of us popped in to the pub for refreshment and did our best to answer some of the quiz questions for our own entertainment. Amongst other things we learnt that you shouldn’t use extra virgin olive oil on a barbecue and that the well done crust on your barbecued meat is known as bark.
Many thanks to Peter, our leader, for guiding us round a very enjoyable walk.