Sue’s Report: Six of us set off from Tring Station and had only walked a few paces along the pavement when we noticed a spaniel on the opposite pavement, minus its owner. The dog spotted us and with no regard to the road traffic he made a beeline across the road towards us, just narrowly escaping a near miss with a car! He ran up to us in a friendly manner but obviously needing help. Some of us managed to hold onto him whilst others were looking round for its owner. A short while later a young lady walking another spaniel appeared up the path from the canal looking frantic and distressed. Having signalled to her she rushed over in an upset state, then suddenly relieved and thankful that we had managed to take hold of her dog. All ended happily! thank goodness!
Following our dog rescue we steadily ascended ‘The Ridgeway’ to Tring Park, (1st Photo) much admired by us and soon entered the older part of Tring town. We enjoyed a break in the peaceful, well maintained memorial gardens by the lake in view of the giant Wellingtonia tree, this area was originally part of the 19th century Rothschild Estate. After a quick look in the large parish church we walked along a green pathway out of the town to join the Wendover Arm of the canal where we later sat for a short while to eat our sandwiches. After following a short diversion around the side of Wilstone Reservoir (due to reinforcement work on the dam embankment) we walked to Meads Farmhouse Kitchen Cafe where we were looking forward to meeting up with Janet and Martin, so enjoyed a long, leisurely tea break with them, catching up with their recent house move news. (2nd Photo ). They then walked a short distance with us towards the canal, before we said farewell and they headed back to their car, whilst we continued along the GU canal, passing two other reservoirs and many interesting locks on the last leg of the walk. Everyone had a good day together, enjoying fine walking weather, with plenty of chatter catching up on news.
