Calne-Chippenham Cyclepath (Saturday 9 March 2019)

Instead of hopping into my car when I needed to go into Chippenham, on a last minute whim I decided to use my free bus pass and sat upstairs on a 55 bus. I was in the town centre just as quickly as if I'd gone in Archie and I had a bird's eye view of my surroundings en route, even seeing a heron fishing on the Marden which I couldn't have seen from the car.

My plan had been to walk along the north side of the Avon in Monkton Park and rejoin the bus route on the east side of the town.

There are a number of footbridges over the river but after the Baydon Lane bridge they came to sudden stop and rather than retrace my steps after walking on for quite a while I decided to continue to Black Bridge as I knew it leads on to the former railway path, which runs back to Calne.

It was a beautiful afternoon and I enjoyed seeing swans, rabbits, sheep, wild primroses and daffodils, magpies, robins, song thrushes and even long-tailed tits. Perhaps the most impressive sights, however, were a number of glorious weeping willows both in Monkton Park by the river and along the cyclepath. The blip was taken from the path between Chippenham and Stanley.

I have walked some sections of the path before, at both ends, but never gone from one end to the other. I emerged on the main road at the bottom of Black Dog Hill just outside Calne.

I'd intended to use the bus again for the final leg but there was no stop nearby and the next one was only one stop away from where I would get off, so I ended up walking the whole way - it was only 6 miles in all, starting from Chippenham bus station, but it's been a while since I have done such a walk and it took from 1450 hr to 1737 hr. I was pretty exhausted and achey when I reached home. Some mulled cider revived me (and then sent me to sleep).

The cyclepath is part of the North Wiltshire Rivers Route 403 and the Black Bridge over the Avon was built in 2001, the original railway bridge having been removed many years before. A £600,000 Sustrans grant, of which it used nearly half, made it possible. Calne's Millennium Bridge on the Black Dog Hill was similarly funded and was one of the first of eight official Millennium Bridges, creating this much used green route for walkers and cyclists, but incredibly Wiltshire Council have announced their intention to close the path in March 2020 (I've signed the petition).

L.
10.3.2019 (1144 hr)

Blip #2862 (#2612 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #005
Blips/Extras In 2019 #39/265 + #022/100 Extras
Day #3270 (668 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2004 (#1845 + 159 in archived blips)

Trees series
Landscape series
Sheep series
Paths series
Spring series

A Walk From Chippenham To Calne, 9 March 2019 (Flickr album of 34 images)

Taken with Pentax K-50 (Yellow) and HD P-DA 55-300 mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

Chippenham to Calne Railway Path (Viewranger)
Chippenham Calne Cycle Track (You Tube video by ChippenhamTown)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
The Comet Is Coming - Summon The Fire (2019)
From Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery.
The Comet Is Coming go by the pseudonyms King Shabaka, Danalogue and Betamax, namely Shabaka Hutchings (sax), Dan Leavers (keyboards), Max Hallett (drums).
''The name of the group comes from a BBC Radiophonic Workshop piece of the same name. Once we heard this piece, with its allusions to sci-fi, cosmic remembrances and general space, it instantly struck a chord. We're exploring new sound worlds and aiming to destroy all musical ideals which are unfit for our purposes so the name stuck.'' - King Shabaka, in marlbank, 2013

One year ago:
The Old Forge (Tree Fern)