I rang Steve last week to see if I could interest him in a walk. He came back to me immediately to say yes and we arranged for Friday. On Thursday he asked if I was happy to see Garry as well, and, of course I agreed.
We all met up at Rickmansworth Station at 10:30 and with Steve guiding instead of Garry we headed down towards the Aquadrome. We took the back ways around the numerous lakes that used to be gravel pits. The sun shone and we enjoyed the warm glow that it gave off. However in the shade it was still chilly.
The conversation ambled along about programmes we watched, the government and lots of other trivia. We arrived at the canal and proceeded to the bridge by the Coy Carp and climbed up the hill to The Old Orchard.
With the sun beating down on the terrace we decided to have lunch and drinks on the terrace. we remained alone in this aspect with all the other diners and drinkers inside. The lunch of fishcake and poached egg tasted good, Garry and I shared a portion of chips while Steve tucked into a burger.
When we came to leave the cold air had begun to bite into my bones so I shivered for awhile until we started moving again. We descended the hill when we left the pub and arrived back at the canal. Here the midges had come out in their hundreds of thousands. We couldn’t talk because of the fear of eating a mouthful of insects. After 10 minutes or so they disappeared and we continued our aimless chatter until we reached Rickmansworth again.
All in all we covered nearly 10 miles and I felt fairly knackered.