An evening stroll
Published on 14th July 2009 
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutesWith all of the computer goings-on (there have been some confidence-deflating mishaps this year) and the need to give my house a good tidy (it is that time of year for me), I wasn't able to get away for a longer outing over the weekend. So, I opted for a more freestyle amble on Sunday evening than is my wont. Anything that allowed me a short break could not be dismissed.
Very unusually for me, maps were left at home as I explored the greener ways, many of them off-road cycle paths serving local schools, around Macclesfield town. Most of them were metalled, but one took me on an about-turn through muddier terrain. Opting to stay on better known thoroughfares after that, I followed the road towards Gawsworth before turning left onto a quiet lane that took me right around that village. The number of times that I have visited the place might explain how I knew my way around so well.
While I was minded to stay on tarmac all the way until I joined the Macclesfield canal near Oakgrove, memories of a previous wander about the area caused me to take a chance and leave the road again to test my memory. It didn't fail that test as I found my way to and through Danes Moss wood, a Wildlife Trust reserve and part of a cutaway peat bog, to a crossing over the troubled West Coast Mainline to reach the aforementioned canal.
That was followed until Gurnett where a towpath closure caused me to follow roads from there back home; I think that the closure is due to a collapsed wall, but it will continue until early October anyway. Though devoid of sunshine, the evening had been fine and pleasant, and it would have been foolish to dismiss its possibilities. It is the longer hours of daylight that allows quieter strolls like the one that I enjoyed, making something of the torpor of summer after the wondrous rush that was spring.
