After walking down the hill from Lea Marston, the next three miles were through the lovely Kingsbury Water Park and Nature Reserve. A good part of this was on a causeway in between lakes, ponds and rivers. We next walked along the tow path of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal for another two miles. Easy and enjoyable walking with just the birds and ducks for company.

As we headed north, we walked on a mixture of surfaces, but mainly country lanes, with a small section of uphill climbing over fields. Once again we came upon the HS2 works, and later spoke to a farmer who has lost land because of it, and is still awaiting compensation! We are now in Staffordshire.

It was perfect walking weather and we made good time to our B & B in Lichfield for a welcome cup of tea before heading into town for dinner. Lichfield is an attractive city, the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, who was responsible for compiling the first English dictionary. But the most renowned part of the city is the wonderful three-spired mediaeval cathedral.

A Backward Glance

Today was a long, hot, dry walk on good paths through parkland, along a canal and across large fields that herds of curious cattle kindly galloped across to make our acquaintance. The warmth forced us to stop three times for victuals and bladder top ups and three times the promise of a pub near the end of our trek got us up and moving again. We met a couple who were walking ‘The Heart of England Way’ over a period of many years studying its indigenous species and history. These are the people who deserve recognition, they quietly go about making notes of the subtle changes that are determining the future landscape and wildlife in the area. They spoke briefly to us about the impact of the HS2 construction work on the native ‘swallow’ population, not in a critical manner, but with an appealing, caring concern. We later met a farmer who got down from his tractor to welcome us into his world. He was growing a huge field of carrots and parsnips and picking up on my incredulity, explained how the stony ground was made perfect for the job. Technology enabled the separation of stone and earth to provide a tilled soil as fine as sand. He pointed out trees he’d planted over thirty years ago and how he was keeping a three to six metre margin around his land to encourage habitats for various creatures including partridges. People like ‘Jasper’ are not as rare as I’d thought and just a short time with him explained a lot of the clever provisions made by other farmers like him in fields we’d crossed while ignorant of the subtle reasons for the unusual crop layouts and their borders. The pub was closed!