We found ourselves back at the start today, in what we thought was going to be a quick strim over the path edges. However, the growth since the last strim has been really heavy and progress was slowish. We managed 250 metres and it’s 1.6 km to the underpass. I think we speed up as we progress onwards.

Lots of lovely dappled sunlight where we have eased the tree canopy back slightly.

Some might question why we are keeping the path cut back. If we don’t, it very quickly starts to look like this.

Which is no good for walkers and mountain bikers sharing, and also pretty rubbish on the legs as brambles, nettles, and insects that bite, will be hiding in the greenery.

Our coffee stop was a welcome break.

And gave us chance to chat about a mini-tornado that swept across the path at the weekend and brought down some trees.

Ian, who is standing, and his daughter, Wendy, cleared the branches as much as possible so people could clamber over the trunk, and then someone came along with a chainsaw and chopped the rest of it up. Thank you, whoever you are.

Our little bench took a direct hit and the loose bit was flung quite a distance.

We did an ad-hoc repair, just to keep the bits all together, really. We can fix it properly at some point in the next month or two. I’m sure there is a sponsor deal somewhere with DeWalt tools, seeing as every other blog post has one of their tools photobombing the pics.

We also had a group of lads from Bilton Grange Prep School doing a bit of a community session. They cleared the Hawthorn Trail and started to level the path.

Our YouTube of the Hawthorn Trail.

Fantastic work and a really hardworking group of decent young men. Thank you.

Someone has been pushing back the trail past the point where we stop at Potford Dam.

They have even put up a sign, no clue who this is, or how far they have got, but it does bring us neatly onto the Dunchurch Bridleway, which is where the path leads to, via a public right-of-way footpath.

We installed our benches on the Dunchurch trail and the quality is right up there, as is the comfort because of the wider top.

They’re made from reclaimed scaffold boards, which reminds us of the industrial heritage of the railway, and the bridleway that would’ve been used to ferry people to and from the Dunchurch railway station, back in the second half of the 1800’s. And it also gives us that shiver of “feel good” down our spines knowing that we are recycling and reusing stuff.

That’s about it for this week. Loads going on and loads to do.

We got to this bench today, so will be pushing on from there next week.

Until then!

Paul