28th Sept 2018 Walking from Cosby to Broughton Astley circular approx 4.5 miles.

We'd all been invited by a couple of our walkers to a Macmillan Coffee Morning at Broughton Astley, our half way point. 

Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning is a massive fundraising event for people and their families facing cancer.  People all over the UK host their own coffee mornings and donations on the day are made to Macmillan. Last year they raised over £27 million. 

We hope that our support may help in some small way. A big thank you to our walker and her husband for organising the event so that we could take part.

Cosby Park early morning.

Gathering at the start.

Walking out of Cosby over the crossing and into the allotments then out of the village into the fields.

The first of many stiles that we encountered on the way.

It was a cracking day for a walk - blue skies and sunshine. 

Croft in the distance.

Another of those stiles.

 Time for a group photo.

                                       

More country views.

Quite a popular route as can be seen by the path clearly trodden and snaking to the next field.

Broughton Astley seen from the top of the hill.

A queue for the next stile.

Somebody found a friend from the farm close by.

Friendly cows chewing the cud.

                                                

Yet another stile. We were getting well and truly hooked in the brambles making it difficult to get over without help.

Down to the farm and then on to Broughton Astley.

Across the busy ring road then guided by the local walkers we made our way to the coffee morning.

Coffee/tea and cakes, lots of them, what joy, absolutely scrumptious! 

It has been suggested to make this an annual event. A date for the diary - as if we could forget!

I think everyone had seconds.

Full of cakes and with big smiles we started on our return trip.

Through the gates and on the way to Cosby via the bottom fields.

Now this stile was a problem. Too high in the first place. The side posts were not connected so if you grabbed it you kept going in a downward motion.  Not good.

A helping hand or two was appreciated.

Or if you decided that the best way was to crawl under, a helping hand was there to get you back into a standing position.                                      

Not a pretty picture for some.

                                      


Oops!

Hilarious for others.

It certainly doesn't help if somebody is ticklish. 

The flying swan approach to the problem?

 Nearly all through.
                                     

On this set of stiles we were ambushed by a herd of inquisitive youngsters.This is the photo of them after the last man got over the stile.

Nearly home we diverted through the allotments and checked out one of our walker's allotment.

Great walk, very enjoyable. 

Another big thanks to organisers of the coffee morning for the Macmillan fund. An email was received from them:

Hello everyone,
Thanks to your great generosity we raised £95.60 this morning for Macmillan Cancer Support, which I shall be paying in to them asap.
Thanks again

We'll make it an annual event!
Lovely to have such a great group of friends to spend time with, we really appreciate you all xx

And, on behalf of the group - a massive thank you and looking forward to the event.