Seven Wanderers set off in cars from the Village Hall on what seemed to be a perfect winter walking day – sunny and crisp. However, as we headed to our start point at Cosmeston Lakes it got colder and foggier. Having got booted up and found out how to pay the parking fee we headed off – passing the medieval village and then crossing the main road and taking the road towards the coast.
We followed this quiet road down past the holiday chalet park to Swanbridge – admiring the properties facing the sea there and some walkers reminiscing on holidays spent in the area when they were children. The tide was fully out – but the consensus was that we wouldn’t scramble over wet rocks to visit the island
– so Graham took the group photo and we continued on our way. Just after the next holiday park we turned left through the gate to continue on the coast path. We had not recce’d this part of the walk (on Christmas Eve as it was getting dark) and it turned out to be a new bit of coast path for pretty much everyone – including Graham. Always exciting to find a walk Graham has not done before! The views were lovely, and again we walked by some lovely properties with gardens onto the coast path. We stopped at the benches at the sports ground for a cuppa and shared honey biscuits that Andrew had baked.
At the College grounds we turned inland – and then followed Cog Road. This was mostly through a built-up area with properties of different styles and sizes. Towards the end of the lane, it got quite narrow so we turned off and walked through the new housing estate to meet up with Swanbridge Road. Turning left for a short distance we picked up the footpath on the right at Home Farm to head back towards Cosmeston. Here we saw daffodils about to come into flower. It was a bit boggy and icy as we made our way round the massive manure heap and across the fields, heading downhill to the wooden bridge and followed the valley back to our start point, it also felt a lot colder. Some of the fields had curious white paint rings around uneven areas and this intrigued us until Andrew noticed that there was to be a cross country run in the coming days and these were to warn runners of potential twisted ankle hazards.
Arriving back at Cosmeston at 1.30 we headed straight for the café to warm up. The sign said due to staff shortages there was a limited menu – Bacon or sausage sandwiches and chips and hot drinks – Perfect! They must have spotted us all arrive as we had just got a table and headed to place our orders when they said they were no longer serving hot food as they didn’t have the staff to cope. So, taking Marie Antoinette’s advice we had no option other than to eat cake!
A bit of a chilly walk – but the weather was dry and the company was good. We explored new footpaths and hopefully everyone enjoyed the day. Richard’s gismo said that the total distance was 8.1km (or 5 miles).
Wick Wanderers 