Distance: 23.00km
Accessibility: Footpaths in the main, apart from clambering at the start. Be mindful of the water, and areas where the grass has overtaken.
Landscape: Canal path.
My last walk will stay in the book, but I consider it an interrupted failure. I wanted a proper exploration of the waterways. Have a sit down. Swirl my fingers around, and get a sense of the temperature.
So I pumped the canals of Wicga Ear up the list, and laced my shoes.
You have to cross a field, and clamber over a style to reach the canal. This is not a casual trail you stumble across by accident. Industrial design fights with nature. The path is flat because someone designed it to be flat. What looks like a river has never met a mountain. Yet the wildlife knows no difference.
Thick grass and tulips rip at the brickwork, destroying the myth of construction. Spring is underway and cooking. Insects shoot around faster than you can focus on, and fish open their mouths near the weeds. A few ducks patrol. The dragonflys are bigger than sapphire broaches.
I used to drag Archie to a similar canal near the City House. This was in his early teenage years, when he demanded to know the monetary value of everything. He plodded along, asking what the point in all these open fields. Why we did not level them out, and build new houses. New shopping centres. Everywhere we went. Cute at first, but tiresome in the second hour.
I suppose it got him there in the end.
My ‘canal moment’ appeared thirty minutes into the walk. On the left hand side of the path was a hole. Not a natural one caused by badgers or collapsing trees. A perfect circle of red bricks ran around the top, hemming in a greasy sheen of water went. If you squeezed yourself into a pencil shape, you could probably dive straight in.
This was my chance to make a connection. My fingers plunged in.
I did not expect to touch something solid.
::Too much Archie stuff Barbara? I find myself slipping towards these old anecdotes sometimes. My keyboard types his name, and the stories emerge. Should I have been stricter with him? Taught him the value of the land
Getting off track. Another bizarre find down the hole. I worry the readers won’t believe my find. You can see what I mean below.::
