We met at Strode Road car park in the rain, 8 of us decided to go ahead as the weather forecast was the day getting better!

We drove to Long Ashton Park & Ride and caught the metro bus to Temple Meads Station, we then walked a short way down the main road to the River Avon path where we left behind all the noisy traffic.

It was a pleasant walk by the river, with interesting things - the bridges that were built over the Avon to the island where originally the new arena was going to be built but will now be student accommodation.

Next to the footpath was an industrial estate and the Bristol Cats & Dogs home which was separated by a high brick wall and was painted by artists - the wall by the Cats & Dogs home had animals made out of brick incorporated into the wall.

There were several other bridges for pedestrians built many years ago, we walked over the small suspension bridge which lead us to Arnos Vale Cemetery passing through many houses with large murals painted on the side of their property.

We had already been informed that there was a large funeral going to take place in the morning so we changed our route to accommodate this, which did not matter to our walk.

We started off with a small video in the gate lodge about the history of crematorium then we went to the basement of the cafe where their is a small museum and the original burner etc. - we decided to have a coffee break down there which was very original.

We looked around various parts - the cemetery is 44 acres so we did not look around fully. The trust looks after the place and a natural habitat is maintained to encourage all wild life, trees and plants.

We left via the top gate which leads into a Totterdown housing estate which is built on many very steep hills which gave us good views, we then walked down to the main Bath Road over a bridge and back down to the river path and back to Temple Meads.

We walked through the building at the side of the station which took us to the backs of new buildings some apartments some office blocks and had lunch in the Wetherspoons.

After lunch we walked through the new buildings and caught the metro bus from Cabot Circus and home.

The weather was kind to us although there were small showers which did not bother our enjoyment.

Report by Jenny Ellis
Photos by Jenny, and Maureen Humphries