Such is progress... Path Works

From the top of our drive we can walk 50 yards down a path to the river, Bielwater and then going along the the riverside we can either go over the bridge to the salt marshes and dunes of Belhaven Bay or if we continue down the river and bear right we can go round to Seafield Pond with the sea wall on our left and the views across Belhaven Beach including the Bridge to Nowhere. Normally this path is fairly overgrown and certainly with the wet weather last year it could be difficult to negotiate because of muddy puddles and prickly growth. It was therefore somewhat surprising in the middle of last year that this path was designated a cycle path and sign posts were put up to the effect.

The upshot of this, beginning about three weeks ago, and no doubt using end of the year budget underspend, a private company was employed to upgrade the path and I don't mean a simple upgrade with a bit of hard core filling up the puddle areas. This is a full blown upgrade to a proper tarmac path. This work is now well on the way to completion and the path along side the river has already been finished.

This path is my regular route for walking the dogs in the afternoon and whilst it is nice not to have to squelch through mud and puddles, I do have some misgivings about this improvement. It felt good to be out into the countryside just a few yards down the road from our drive. Now it feel as if your are walking in a formal park. Admittedly you only have to go over the bridge and walk towards the beach to traverse a quagmire and encounter the true rural and coastal experience. Now if the had put some hard core down on this side of the bridge to help us navigate this muddy pathway that would have been really welcome.