“Dr Livingstone, I presume!”
Two paths were reported by the County as needing immediate attention and ERC Working Party crew members stepped up to the plate to execute the work.
A fallen tree across a footpath off Red Lane was soon despatched and gathering our tools, we moved on to the harder task of dealing with a footpath from Hampton Ferry that was rapidly eroding into the river. Our ever-vigilant Footpath Champions, Geoff and Rachel, had earlier flagged this up. Heather from the County Public Rights of Way Team had noticed that the definitive map showed the actual route of the path much higher up the bank. Over time, walkers and boat owners had created a path near the river and the original route was now completely blocked by trees and brambles.
Undaunted, we split into two groups with Geoff, Dennis, Phil and Clive starting at one end and Glyn, David and Alan from the other. Much like the Channel Tunnel (or did they have a plan in mind?) we had no idea whether we were going to meet in the middle.
After a couple of hours of hacking, sawing, swearing (surely not from ERC members!) each party could hear the other at their labours, getting closer and closer, until we had a “Dr Livingstone, I presume!” moment when we glimpsed each other through the remaining few brambles.
Not ones to rest on our laurels in achieving this breakthrough, we then set about widening and tidying the route to ensure the statutory footpath width of two metres. Full of pride in our achievement, we returned to the cars just as the heavens opened.
Alan
Ed’s Comment: Alan and Glyn returned a few days later to install two waymarker posts (one at each end of the section cleared) to encourage walkers to follow the newly cleared route.
