Boot Wash, Eccles

A glorious day weather wise today so decided to go for a walk up into the foothills of the North Downs. We stopped for a while to have a pint in a pub and then decided to try and investigate a new path deeper into the countryside. The walk started by going past some rather unpreposessing outbuildings belonging to the local village football club (see today's shot) and then cut through some arable farmland. At this point the sky seemed so huge with the Downs as a stunning backdrop and the sun shining so brightly. Then, somewhat strangely, we came across a concrete road with crash barriers down one side - literally in the middle of nowhere!
We decided to follow the road to see where it went. In a short period we passed a solar panel farm and a large electricity sub-station, it's hum the only noise above the sound of all the birds singing. We were also passed by a group of cyclists in full racing gear.!The road eventually disappeared behind a high security  fence so we then followed a smaller twisting mud path through a beautiful little valley right next to the river. This eventually led to a rather smelly water treatment plant - but even this was interesting due to the design of all the buildings, they looked like they were built in the early fifties. We still had no idea where we were but then the path opened up into a road which we walked along until it's end - and rather amazingly we found we were back in our own village! Over the years I have passed this road probably hundreds of times yet I'd never even thought of walking down it before. Sometimes a real adventure can be very close to home.