Those boots were made for walking....

And that's just what they did.

Seeing as I can't ride at all yet (can't even sit on my bike never mind ride the thing!) I decided that a walk was in order to try and retain some strength in my thigh and limit the amount of time in physio later.

So on went the nice clean walking boots and off I set in search of mud!

I had to cheat a little (bus) to get to the start of my walk in Bardsley, but once there it was bliss.

Nobody about, just me and the tweeting of the birds, the quacking of the ducks and the sound of silence.

I set off along the disused and bullrush congested Hollinwood branch canal with nothing but farmland either side of me and only the ducks for company as the birds fluttered off as I wandered past and over Valley Aqueduct and Waterhouses Aqueduct to Sammy's Basin at Daisy Nook Country Park.

On the approach to Dark Tunnel I spotted a route off to my left down to the River Medlock and chose to head this way as I've never been on this bit before. It turned out to be a very good choice!

This part of the route was rather hilly with not much of it on the flat, and it followed the river as it meandered it's way through the countryside.

Lots of mud and climbing up and down the hills and far too soon I was at the site of Riversvale Hall which was sadly ripped down many, many years ago; a little trip along Riversvale Drive and then I returned via a diversion actually into the river (very shallow here) to clean my boots a little and headed back to the Dark Tunnel and on into the John Haworth Centre for a very welcome mug of tea.

By now the unseasonably warm weather meant I was pulling my jumper off and stuffing it into my bag as 2 layers was far too many!

Once refreshed I set off onto the Jericho Trail to a cute little bridge some of you may remember from my January walk along here. All too soon I was at Cinderland Bridge and along the track squashed in between Cinderland Hall Farm and a school - getting ripped to shreds by the brambles that I'd forgotten were here!

Before I knew it I'd walked about 3 miles - not much really, but when you consider my broken pelvis has only had 1 month of healing with more to go... - I'm impressed with how far I managed to get. Even more impressed with the state of my boots now.....caked in mud, despite my attempts to wash them in the river!