Mum had to get the car serviced today, so we had plenty of time to have a great explore around Buxton. She had got this new book of walks that she wanted to use. It described a series of walks linking up the wooded areas in Buxton. She knows I really like Grinlow Woods, and this was one of the woods that was included in the book. I was quite excited and pulled mum up the hill towards my favourite spot.

Pooles Cavern isn’t too far away from the garage, so we trotted up the road. I thought I was going to have some great  fun chasing squirrels and rabbits in Grinlow Woods, but mum cajoled me along and begrudgingly I followed her up the road on a different walk.  Pretty soon I was taken by the new urban smells around Buxton.  I’m not used to lots of traffic and smelly cars, so I didn’t much care for crossing the roads and wandering along pavements.

Pretty soon though, I was able to sniff the stinky wild garlic and eat lots of long lovely grass, much to my mum’s disgust.

Several times, my attention was taken by the squawk of a Pheasant but they were always too far away to get at – although the one the other side of a gate, looked pretty interesting, and mum had a bit of a tussle with me, as I was convinced I could get under the gate and say hello to the bird!

Soon we were trotting along the golf course footpath, mum was looking a bit worried, and as I looked about, I could see a few golfers practising their shots, as long as they didn’t come close to me, I wasn’t too worried….

Soon enough though we were heading to a gate at the end of the golf course, I watched mum, stop and read the huge notice that was stuck ominously to the fence “Beware Cows and Bulls” – it didn’t look too inviting, but neither of us fancied trudging back the way we’d come. We confidently strode through the field, looking unconcerned as the cattle stared at us. We soon got the other side of the field to relative safety or so we thought……

Suddenly there was a viscious barking and growling and the nastiest looking collie dog was sat just a few feet away from us, luckily on a chain.  We hot-footed it around the farm yard and straight towards a couple of angry looking geese. At least that’s what my mum told me they were.  I didn’t know what to do, I was just glad my mum dragged me out of there quickly. She used a few words I hadn’t heard before, and I don’t think they were meant for doggy ears.

Mum heaved a sigh of relief once we’d shut the gate on the geese, but that was too soon, because we had the Championship Limbo Goose in front of us, it continued to chase us up the field. Thankfully it gave up pretty quickly, I like to think I frightened it off!

After that adrenaline burst we had to stop for a quick slurp of water, before we continued up the hill apparently through Watford wood.

There was a lovely view of Buxton appearing next to us, and mum stopped to take a couple of pictures.

Mum then had to struggle a bit with a gate because the owner of the garden which we were about to walk through had used a bicycle tyre as an ingenious way to fasten the gate.

The garden and the view from the house was gorgeous.  A few chickens gave me something else to think about as they poked their heads out from underneath the bushes – if I hadn’t been on that lead, they wouldn’t have stayed their for too long…..

Anyway we walked down a great big hill and passed some very posh looking houses and up towards a farm, where the farmer obviously wasn’t too keen about the walking route passing right through his farmyard as they had made it none too easy to get through the gate. It was like Fort Knox with several chains, lead ropes and goodness knows what else stopping us from getting through.  Soon enough though, mum had sorted it and we were away through the fields.  A pesky rabbit shot out in front of me through Shay Lodge Wood and then disappeared into nowhere?  One minute it was there and the next gone? I ran around that spot for ages trying to find it, but no luck….

Finally we headed through some fields towards Macclesfield Old Road and eventually reached my favourite place – Grinlow Woods.

I had loads of fun running after squirrels and lots of lovely smells everywhere.

To finish off our walk we went into Pooles Cavern coffee shop. They don’t mind hairy mutts and mum let me in, as long as I was a good girl – which of course I was (just don’t tell her about the water I slurped that had overflowed from the plant pots………)