As Geoff flies to his apartment in the french Alps on Tuesday, for the whole of January.

Today was our last chance for a good walk together for a few weeks.

I decided I would like to do one of my favourite walks from Cambridge to Anglesey Abbey.

One of the reasons I wanted to go was to see the stunning Himalayan silver Birch trees.

I have often wondered why these trees always seem so sparkling and smooth, compared to other silver birch trees that I have seen.

I now know the answer ………. A lot of water and elbow grease.

As quoted by Richard Todd, head gardener for the Abbey 

"its because we wash them. we use a pressure washer at the beginning of November and once more during the winter season. It takes best part of a day but the impact on the garden is huge." 

So that is the secret for anyone wanting to try this at home 🙂

A bracing 17 mile walk in the winter cold taking around 5 hours.

Geoff’s Everytrail route can be seen here