River Rea; Middlemore Rd - Popes Ln.

Another blog post based on a walk down the River Rea, this time, from Middlemore Road near Northfield Railway Station, to the start of Kings Norton Nature Reserve & Wychall Reservoir near Popes Lane. This follows on (quite nicely!) from my previous posts ‘Daffodil Walk’ and ‘RiverRea, Mill Lane’. This route is a continuation of the National Cycle Route 5 and starts where this black signpost can be found.

You probably won’t see much of the river from the path unless you actually walk to the edge to find it. The path takes you near to the river, and you can hear it babbling away. The path is tarmacked along the route, and there are also dirt tracks, and sections of grass are mowed shorter to indicate pathways too. People cycle, walk, jog and walk their dogs down here. There is more open space in this part of the park.

After a short distance you will cross a bridge;

And the path continues to the left, although you can turn right (this takes you up to Bridge Piece and a rather large estate). If you go to the left, the river will now be on your left, and the route continues towards Wychall.

Continue walking along the route. Eventually you will come to what looks like the end of the route – to continue, cross the road (you are on Wychall Road) and pick up the route opposite.

This next section is relatively short. It takes you along the back of some gardens, down towards Kings Norton Nature Reserve. There is open land to the west of the path – you can get to this by either walking to the end and turning left down Popes Lane, or by going onto the grassland at the start of the route instead of onto the path. Google Earth/Maps probably explains this better!

The total length of this walk is less than a mile, and is quite a nice walk. You don’t see much of the river but it’s always there. I walked down this way as a means for walking up to Cotteridge. A lot nicer than jumping on the bus!

I shall cover the next part of the walk in a new post.

The path down here is mostly tarmacked, though there are parts that need work (potholes etc.). There are routes off the main path that you could take. Bins are sparse; please take waste away with you. It is a cycle route, so be prepared to share the path!

L x

Bonus Pics:

More pics are here.