cloudy, light shower
Added 3 miles to my route by following the river sow out of Stafford a town making itself pretty with a very nice park that has the river through it’s middle, then well sign posted walks along the river out of town where it closes on the canal, at Milford i was back on course on Staffordshire and Worcester canal.
There are two aqueducts over rivers (sow and trent) before the junction with the Trent/Mersey canal where i turned north west. (having passed first goslings i had seen this year)
The path is good and through quiet countryside, i passed a sign describing an old salt works that a century ago made this small area a busy spot the canal being important in its transport and saw a reed bunting. Plenty of friendly people along the canal as i approach Stone, this area seems to be really rejuvenated by the interest in canals, there being a lot of marinas and associated support for the huge number of barges here.
Also perhaps worthy of mention is the variety of decoration seen on barges, this one obviously having a passion for non british mammals.
This ties in nicely with the unusual story of a local zoo where one of the gorillas had assumedly got tired of life behind bars, he had rather cleverly dismantled his climbing frame in the night and used one of the longer poles from it’s structure to Pole vault over the moat and fence surrounding the enclosure to make good his escape for no doubt a brief taste of freedom, you just never know what may turn up on a hike.
LeJogPlod Reader 