A Circular Walk around the Five Pits Trail

For my @wednesdaywalk initiated by @tattoodjay, I went for a walk along the Five Pits Trail. As the poster states, when the collieries along the Great Central Railway closed, the land around here changed. A lot of the railway lines were removed, but you can still walk the route of where the old railway and the old coal mines used to be.

I've always liked this bridge. It used to have a lot of naff graffiti scrawled on it, but I was glad to see it's been cleaned off. You can pass under the bridge and do a five mile circular walk, or you can do an eleven mile walk by going straight through to other villages. I have done the long walk several times when I was in training for the London Marathon. I was a lot younger then, so this time I didn't go under the bridge!

I decided to do the shorter walk around the park. It's a small circular walk, but you can add a bit more distance by walking through the wooded area.

I was travelling light today without my camera, so I just took a few snaps with my mobile phone.

It was quite muddy in parts as I approached the wood. I think they do a bit of pony trekking here so the ground was cut up a lot.

There was lots of grey willow about. The male catkins change to yellow as they ripen.

There's a golf course next to where I walk, so you sometimes find the odd stray golf ball. There's a metal fence between the walk and the golf course so the golfers don't bother looking for their lost golf balls. If I find any, I usually pass them on to people I know who play golf. The one I found today looked as though it had been chewed by a dog, so it went straight in the bin.

The blossom is now appearing. I could smell the lovely aroma before I even got close to it.

In a few weeks, the blossom should be all out so I will make a return visit.