I used to hate walking as a child. Going on a nice healthy walk seemed pointless when I could be running around playing with my friends or trying to get the light to work on my Sturmey Archer powered bike. The light on the front seemed as big as a cars headlight and was powered by a small generator on the back wheel. When it was on a small wheel clicked against the rim of the back wheel and turned to generate the power. This also acted like a brake, so getting any sort of light out of the floodlight on the front depended on very strong legs and no going up hills. Downhill was always best, so you would then be able to illuminate exactly where you were going to crash.
I like walking now. A trip out by the river Severn with good friend Mike along the busy M5 and then onto the A38 turning off for Arlingaham which is a surprising distance from civilisation or perhaps it's the reverse as Arlingham is a gem of a village with no through traffic disturbing the peace and any odd car going through to the Old Passage Inn can get no further than this Inn on the river. At present closed and with 'stuff going on' it used to be some years ago a high-end fish restaurant, serving high-end fish, you know the sort: tiny fish/big plate, massive price. I'm told that people used to be flown into it by helicopter such was it's reputation. I bet that only happened once but the story has stuck.
I used to visit when I worked for the print company, we did bits and pieces for them. I recall arriving one early winter morning and being offered a warming small cup of fish stock as a reviver, and it was! Nice people, chef as mad as a jugged hare of course. It did not survive and after a relatively brief period as a more 'chips and pasty place'took over, it too has now closed. No passing traffic obviously did not help. No helicopters dropping in for pasty and chips.
We designed a little posh envelope for that posh fish restaurant so that they could present the tatty computer generated bill to their customers, giving the impression that it was really something. So that I could make a decent mockup I asked the lady who ran the place to generate a fake bill so that I could tell what it looked like and how to fit it in the card. I took it back to the office. This fake bill for the fake lunch was in excess of two hundred quid. I presented it to my sales manager adopting a slightly 'liquid lunch demeanour', slight stagger and my best Shakespearean Drunken Salesman speech saying quite softly " I hope you don't mind old fruit but I've had a client lunch down at the old thing inn and here's the old bill for expenses, I can safely say that our relationship with the client is perfectly cemented...pause...shet in concrete" Sitting at his desk he glowered at me suspiciously before my cover broke. Joining in the subterfuge he grabbed the bill and took it to his brother, the MD, saying he'd try it on with him. Apparently brother Simon took one look at the bill, drank in the story, went pale, and simply put his head in his hands groaning like he'd got food poisoning from some old prawns. They both eventually forgave me.
The view from the Old Passage is right across the River to the small town of Newnham. Just the width of the Severn across but in actual fact about an hour or so round to get to it. I assume there used to be a passage across here many years ago, now the only way across is a circular round trip via Gloucester
Mike and I were not intending to strain ourselves and this is just the walk to not strain yourself. Flat throughout.Walking by the River which was at very low tide. Atmospheric and with the addition of some scudding cloud. Reeds by the River swaying in the gusty wind I was hoping we might hereto "Hewlett Packard Printer Charging Bird" which is the Reed Warbler. I've never seen one but have heard one in this area and it sounded just like my printer when charging with new ink. Sadly none evident, possibly the wrong time of year. Plenty of other birds around, including buzzards checking us out , as well as some late swifts just doing their packing before the big winter trip to the sun.
Further down the river some lovely cows mooching about chewing the cud, just like Mike and I. I like a walk with talk and we both take pictures. This walk follows the river as it loops and is almost circular, eventually you set off across the fields after photographing old farm machinery with blackberries ready to pick on the hedges. Mike's water empty water bottle coming in handy. Eventually you get to the edge of Arlingham village. A large manor type of house, probably very old, has had some sympathetic restoration, with a huge brick wall replicating an existing wall proving that there are still bricklaying skills around, and getting me very excited to post on the UK Bricks Group on Facebook.
Another less well cared for farmhouse looks like nature is about to take over, despite some evidence of someone living there. Past the pub turn right and we are on the long straight road back to the River and the starting point.
Back into Mike's super dooper car and then onto Saul for a well deserved cheese on toast at the Stables Cafe next to the canal that runs along from Gloucester to Sharpness Docks. 5 star lunch.
Most excellent day out.
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