Wrexham County Borough 96- Bangor on Dee /the old chain bridge / a new walk and yet another new plan

---

Every day we wake and add to our knowledge and our interests .How true is that sentiment ? We wake each day to a blank page . We can fill it with something useful or equally fill it with nothing . That is up to us . The day can go either way.

The weather was changeable and the mornings have become rather chilly. There are so many signs of Autumn . The leaves are slowly turning brown and crisp. The flowers have gone over . The blackberries are ready for picking and the birds are starting to clear the berries on the trees. The bells are still not hung in the church . The return has fallen a week behind schedule . At a cost of 38K to refurbish them a whole raft of fundraising must begin . It is Gift day next week and there should be a chance to try your hand at bellringing .

I was on a plan of finding a different walk today . I knew that there was a chain bridge somewhere along our stretch of Dee but I had never found it . Apart from seeing a fleeting glimpse of it on Google Earth . Before leaving home I had set the alarm on my watch for an hour which should give me time to find the elusive chain bridge . I battened the hatches down and made the decision to try walking around fields I have never walked before . I had no idea if there were public footpaths to walk or permissable paths . I might have hope that I can find a way across a farmers field without at best being shouted at or at worse being shot at .

The first part of my walk took me down the tarmacced Graig Lane . I climbed up onto the river bank walking past some interesting cottages before dropping down to river level . Nettles covered my path and the dreadful tall flowers that are not native which are taking over the riverbank . By the time I got halfway across the first field my trousers were soaked . Even with all the dry weather the grass was still wet . No canoes on the river today . No-one to talk to . I walked on by the old railway bridge and into the next field . The first field were I might be trespassing . I walked quickly and with an empty mind started to ponder holidays . Albania and Romania out and Plan D implemented . A phone call to LV to see if they could insure us for Montenegro and Albania . We had insurance three years ago prior to Covid and prior to Brexit . Sadly the gift that keeps giving Brexit means no insurance available for those countries unless we risked moving insurance and then the underwriter might just insure us . Too much of a risk .

My path had been stopped in its tracks . I had to veer out of the field back to the road due to the stream that got in my way . I was now on a private road and thoughts of holidays were put to the back of my mind as I tried to work out how to get back to the river again . I climbed a gate and followed the field line back to the river . I was now on what looked like a well trodden path and perhaps I would find the old chain bridge . I could see the farm alongside the road so I was on the right track . I could see Pickhill Hall across the river . At one time I believed that it was possible to cross the old chain bridge and pass the hall . Now I was not so sure .

Just when I felt I would not find the bridge there it was . Black and rusty . Blocked off to prevent me crossing it . It was a pretty thing or once had been pretty . I only knew of it due to reading a blog where hidden history hunters had located it and photographed it . I stood by it for a while and marvelled it was still there . Would it survive much longer. Hard to say as nature was taking over .

I stood for a while before turning round and retracing my steps home . With Montenegro and Albania off limits the plan had now changed direction . Scandanavia here we come . A germ of a plan was forming . We would get a holiday . Today when I get home a phone call will be made to Anek to cancel our ferry . We should be refunded 80% of the outward trip and 100% of the return . A result we were not expecting . We just need to get the books on Denmark and Sweden out . With the butterflies starting we are getting close to the holiday . Sorted now . We dont have time to change our minds again .

---