With Strines Road closed, the 358 bus to Hayfield had been rerouted via High Lane and Disley.  This was our last opportunity¹ to take advantage of the new route to explore a different part of the locale.Roger took pity on Stuart’s ankles to plot a gentle route of around 4 miles from High Lane to Disley via the wilder fringes of Poynton, with only a few small climbs.  (A good day for avoiding upland treks; the higher hills were shrouded in cloud.)
(Roger was also responsible for reminding me that when I first uploaded this blog post, I missed out the photograph of the caravan.  This has now been remedied.)

Mystery object number 1.  Probably not a mystery to the population of High Lane, but this is being written by an outlander from Marple.   (In case this is a mystery to the reader, it might be noted that a moment after this photograph was taken, there was the noise of a passing train.)

The day was dry, in the sense that it wasn’t raining, but our legs were damp, in the sense that we were wading through the long wet grass of an English summer.

Mystery object number 2 was genuinely unknown.  It’s a huge wall made of engineering bricks and, at this point, with a substantial buttress, indicating that it was under pressure from the far side.  Explanations welcome!

With John unavailable for the walk, other focal points were needed for photograhs, so here is a horse with hairy fetlocks.

The next surprise (for me) was a manned level crossing with manually operated gates.

Vintage road vehicle, in need of minor repairs and a new one horsepower engine.

More engineering.  Somewhere above this huge culvert runs the Macclesfield Canal.

This week’s des. res. comes surrounded by its own garden.

Stile of the week offers substantial hand rails enclosed in hawthorn.  If the walker wishes to forego those deights and instead take hand-holds on the steps, then there is the likelihood of close encounters with nettles.

Skirting the edge of Lyme park, we got to a request stop on the A6 in Disley.  When we flagged-down the 358, the driver asked if we were sure we’d got the right bus.

1. Of course, as soon as I had written that it was the last opportunity to take the 358 on this route, Roger found out that Strines Road is likely to be blocked (and therefore the bus diverted through High Lane and Disley) for another two weeks due to late arrival of the precast concrete culverts which are the whole point of the road closure.
   (And, of course, after I had written that, and after lobbying by local councillors, the two weeks turned into a couple of days and a set of temporary traffic lights.)