A walk along the old canal path
I had been meaning to walk the old canal path for years. It runs for about eleven kilometres between two small towns, and for most of its length it is flat, quiet and slightly overgrown, which is exactly the kind of walk I like.
We started early, before the cyclists. The first lock came after an hour: a pair of heavy wooden gates, long since sealed, with moss growing in the seams. A little further on a heron stood in the shallows and did not move for the whole time we watched it.
There is not much to see in the conventional sense. No viewpoints, no cafes with terraces. What the path gives you instead is a steady rhythm and a lot of time to think. By the second lock I had stopped checking my phone altogether.
If you go, bring water and something to eat, because there is nowhere to buy either. Wear shoes you do not mind getting muddy, and do not rely on the signs after the second bridge: one of them points the wrong way.