The long loop along the river

The short loop is the one everyone does: down the lane, over the footbridge, back along the field edge, forty minutes with a dog. The long loop keeps going where the short one turns back, follows the river for another four kilometres to the old mill, and comes home over the hill.

About eleven kilometres in all. Two stiles, one of them wobbly. A stretch by the weir that floods every winter and was, today, merely squelchy.

There is a heron that stands on the same flat rock below the mill every time I pass. It waits until I am close enough to feel guilty, then lifts off with a single offended croak and lands thirty metres downstream, on another rock, facing away.

Practical notes

Boots, not trainers, after any rain. The path over the hill is unmarked for the first stretch; keep the hedge on your right. The blackberries along the last kilometre were ripe today and there were far more than one person can eat.