Leicestershire Round:Burbage to Dadlington

20th December 2007
It was cold, frosty and foggy but we decided on a LR walk. We drove to Burbage country park, although there was a bit of a problem as they have moved the A47! I directed us to the A47 which is now a bypass. We found the right road eventually. It was -2 as we got ready. We set off along the LR. It was all very crisp, and the trees were lovely.

It did not feel cold once we were walking. A heron and then a bullfinch and greenfinch flew across in front of us. We walked through Barwell which was a bit industrial and then along more lanes and fields. It was very foggy so there were no views. We crept across one field with cows in, hoping that they wouldn't see us in the fog, but they spotted us when we were about 100m from the stile and decided to investigate. I just about beat them to the stile. We saw a flock of goldfinches in the next field. We walked along a stream until we came to the road at Dadlington. We left the LR here and went to the Dog and Hedgehog for lunch. As we walked back it was a little warmer as all the frost had melted but we were walking into the wind so it felt colder. We also had to cross several planted fields which were very muddy and we ended up with very heavy boots. As we crossed one field we were approached by two friendly donkeys, and then by a third who rushed at us braying very loudly. They were very friendly - from the other side of the stile!

We got back to the car at about 4pm after 15 km walk.

Leicestershire Round:Aston Flamville to Burbage

11th December 2007
We decided on a walk as it was bright and clear but frosty. We drove to Aston Flamville to continue our LR. We drove round the village looking for somewhere to park but encountered a very abusive villager who threatened to scratch the car if we left it in the road opposite his house! We decided we couldn't cope with the hassle and so drove on and found somewhere to park in Burbage. We walked back to Aston to start the walk (about a km) and John could not remember locking the car so we had to walk back, check the car which was locked, and then back to the start again. We walked along the side of the M69 for a while and then cut across fields including one with 3 llamas, and then lots of bullocks. It was quite hard underfoot where it was frozen but very wet and muddy where it wasn't. We eventually got to Burbage woods where a heron flew across and then a bullfinch.
We crossed Burbage common to the road and then left the LR. We walked back across the golf course and followed the path back to Burbage. The walk was quite interesting as the council had been painting all the footpath signs so although they were all visible all the pointers had been removed so there were no direction arrows and you didn't know if it was a junction of 2 paths or not. We walked about 11 km.

Leicestershire Round:Sharnford to Aston Flamville

4th December 2007
We have had a bit of an enforced setback on the walking front but decided today to see how I would manage a short walk. We drove to Sharnford to do a shortened section of the LR. It was all across fields and just as we started a heron flew in front of us and landed in the next field. We then walked through a field with some very friendly horses, one of which stood in the gateway and wouldn't move, John spoke to it and it eventually let us pass. We went past Aston Flamville and up to the M69 where we passed a field of Alpacas.

We left the LR here having only walked about 2 mile and walked through the alpaca field and back to Aston Flamville. We had planned a diversion off the road but there were two very excitable rottweillers behind a gate but they had knocked down part of the fencing keeping them in and I thought they could get out if they really wanted and I was not prepared to give them reason to try so we kept to the road. We continued back to Sharnford where we went into the Countryman and had gammon steak for lunch a walk of about 6 km that showed I was ok for walking. Hopefully will get back to some longer ones soon.

Leicestershire Round:Claybrook Parva to Shenton

Tuesday 6th November 2007

It was a nice day so we did part 11 of the LR. We drove to Claybrook Parva and parked. We went to look round the church but there was a playgroup in session, but we were impressed with a notice on the door that said that "walkers were invited to look round, eat their sandwiches in the porch and use the toilet". First time we've seen that! Our walk followed across fields to High Cross, where the Fosse Way meets Watling Street. We walked along the nice level Fosse Way Roman road for about 1.5 miles. We then diverted off to head across fields towards Sharnford. We went through a nice nature reserve called Fosse meadows with a secluded wildlife lake which was viewable from a hide which had been beautifully decorated by local junior school children. We stood and watched the birds for a while and then continued to Sharnford where we saw a woodpecker. We had a nice lunch at the Countryman (£3.95). The other pub in the village had been converted into a chinese restaurant, something we are seeing more often. After lunch we left the LR and headed back to Claybrook Parva. Our way crossed lots of fields and we saw 2 hares. In one the dairy cows decided it was milking time so followed us across the field in a line -we just about beat them to the gate. In another field we came across a dead cow. We saw some farmworkers and told them, but they knew and were actually removing a dead calf so it looks like it was a bad birth - very sad. After being chased down the drive by a Jack Russell-more bark than bite thankfully, we followed the road back to High Cross where we saw the remains of the cross that marked the crossing of the 2 Roman roads. We got back to the car at 4.30, just as it was getting dark. 17.7 km.

Leicestershire Round:Leire to Claybrook Parva

Monday 22nd October 2007
We drove to Leire to do part 10 of the LR. We walked along the footpath and diverted off to have another look for the cache but we still didn't find it. The LR went across fields, some ploughed, others pasture and then on the lane to Frolesworth, where we had planned to have lunch but the pub had disappeared under a housing development. We followed more fields including one that had signs up saying we were on the edge of the bluetongue protection zone. We eventually got to Claybrook Parva where we left the LR. We followed the road to Ullesthorpe where we had a late lunch and then walked past the windmill which is being renovated and across the golf course which ran beside the disused railway. The path eventually moved onto the railway and we followed the permissive path along the cutting back to Leire. Only a short walk today, 12.1 km.

Leicestershire Round:Willoughby Waterleys to Leire

Friday 19th October 2007
The one where John becomes a cowboy.....
It was a lovely day so we decided to do part 8 of the LR walk starting at Willoughby Waterleys. The route is getting ever closer to home as we went even less distance round the ring road. We set off across fields, the first of which had curious bullocks in who decised to follow us, but they stopped when John turned round and stared at them. As we crossed the field we met a girl with two dogs who was a bit wary of how the cows might react to her dogs (hopefully she got through them OK). We walked across lots of fields and beside a very nice fishing lake until eventually we had to cross the M1, another sign we are getting closer to home and moving round the county. After this it was across more fields and past a lake and mill house to Leire. We stopped for lunch here, a bit expensive and not wonderfully cooked. We then diverted from the walk to find a geocache. This involved a walk along a disused railway which has been changed into a nature trail. Some rangers were working there killing some tree stumps to provide more light for wild flowers. We had quite a chat as he told us about the railway and the drainage problems they were having. We found the place for the cache but could not find it although there were signs of damage to the wall where people had been hunting - a shame as the hider had said there was no need to remove stones. So after 10 minutes hunting we gave up and continued our walk. We walked along a path to a stables where an old man hobbling about with a walking stick was trying to persuade a very large horse to go into his stable. We helped direct the horse to the door but he would then just walk past. The horse had escaped the night before and had damaged its leg so was bandaged up. We tried enticing him in with hay and apples but he wasn't interested. Eventually John managed to get his halter on, albeit upside down, and the horse was led back to the stable. The old man was very grateful. We then continued our walk across fields and back across the M1 to rejoin a short section of the LR back to the car. All the bullocks in the first field had gone which was a relief. It was later than we expected (5.30) due to the delay with William the horse and was dusky (17km).

Leicestershire Round:Shearsby to Willoughby Waterleys

Saturday 6th October 2007

We drove to Shearsby today. There were no apples today which was a shame. An old man chatted to us and told us about the church and the village. He said the roof was replaced but was too heavy for the walls so they had to be replaced too. His wifes bequest paid for 4 lead urns to be placed at the corner of the tower to act as lightning conductors. The church was still locked so we looked round the churchyard and then continued our walk.

We walked across fields towards Bruntingthorpe and then towards Peatling Magna. There were lots of cows but they were mainly black and white dairy cows so were well behaved. There was also one field with big cows and a huge bull but they were quite good and the bull ignored us!

We had ham rolls at the Cock Inn and then walked to Willouby Waterleys where we left the Leicestershire Round and diverted off our planned route to find a geocache. It was nicely hidden under a rotten stump by an oak tree. On the computer it showed that it had last been found in late August but the logbook showed that someone had been there that morning. Its amazing to think that these boxes are hidden all over the place and you don't realise wh else might be hunting for them. We found a travel bug in the box which belonged to a young girl in Holland and so we took that to move onto another nice cache so she can follow its travels. We followed the road to Peatling Parva where we looked round the church (most of the churches have been locked along this part of the route) and then went through new woodland, farms and a newly ploughed field back to Shearsby where we saw a hot air balloon hovering over the trees.

Leicestershire Round: Foxton Lock to Shearsby

Thursday 4th October 2007

We drove to Foxton Locks and parked in the carpark. We discovered that John had put the wrong walk into the GPS but luckily we had the guide book and maps with us. We walked along the locks and the canal and found that my camera wouldn't work. The batteries were flat and it took 3 attempts to find a working set. We eventually got moving at about 12. We walked along the canal and then headed off across fields to Gumley and then towards Saddington where we stopped for lunch at the Queens head, which we thought we had been in before but couldn't remember when - obviously on a previous walk. After lunch we walked towards Shearsby. We got a little lost as the LR signposts petered out and had to check the map and compas to find out which way to go. At Shearsby we saw two buzzards flying overhead. It was a pretty village with thatched cottages and a nice church where we looked for a geocache which we found easily behind a gravestone at the corner of the church. Geocaching is a new hobby that we have found which involves using the GPS to find treasure hidden in various locations around the country. We thought that it would add extra interest to our walks. A house at the edge of the village had a bucket full of free apples so we took 2 for the chutney that I planned to make. We left the LR here and walked along the A50 for a km and then headed off across fields to Mosley and Laughton through fields of sweetcorn and back to Foxton locks. We had several horrid encounters with bullocks and bulls in fields, they all wanted to chase us. The fields all seemed very big and interconnecting so we did not have good escape routes.

Leicestershire Round:Thorpe Langton to Foxton

29th September 2007

The forecast was not good today but we decided to walk anyway and take an assortment of waterproofs, hats etc. We drove to Thorpe Langton by a different route, M1, A563 south and A6 which shows we are working round the circle. We walked to East Langton through a field with cows and a big bull but he ignored us. The land was different today, much flatter but still across ploughed fields. The route in the guide book went through Bowden Inn Farm which had now disappeared, probably under the A6 roundabout. We arrived in Foxton to find that the pub had changed into a Chinese restaurant so walked on to the Black Horse where we had lunch. We then walked along the Grand Union canal to Foxton Locks, a flight of 10 locks which lifts the water up 75 ft. We sat and watched barges moving around for a bit and then left the LR to return. We walked along the towpath for about a mile, watching the ducks . We then had a boring walk which took us along the A6 for another mile but passing lots of rabbits who didn't seem to mind us, one even jumped under my boot, until we left and walked back to East Langton past a big lake with more ducks. We got back to Thorpe Langton by crossing the field with the cows and bull who still ignored us (17km). The weather had been warm and sunny and we had no need of the waterproofs or fleeces!

Leicestershire Round Hallaton to Thorpe Langton

27th September 2007
We drove to Hallaton and parked and walked past the church and into the fields. The forecast was for sun but it was overcast with a bitter North wind. Fleece hats were worn for the first time for ages! The terrain is very hilly, not steep but with lots of small up and downs - not rolling like the Downs but very lumpy! We walked across lots of fields which had been seeded (possibly barley) and some which already had new seedlings emerging (oil seed rape). We walked by Cranoe and through Glooston which had a nice pub but we were too early for lunch. The church was locked so we couldn't look round which was a shame as there were some very nice finials on the outside. We walked to Stonton Wyville where we looked round the 13th century church, it was very dark with a dark wood roof and few windows. It had a marble effigy in the corner. It looked like it was quite historical but there were no leaflets around.

We followed on towards Long Langton and had to pass through a field full of cows clustered round the stile, but they were well behaved. We arrived at the pub only to find it doesn't open during the week. We left the LR here and walked along the road (where we passed a very large fungus growing on the side of the road) to Welham where the "Olde Red Lion" was open.



We had very nice gammon steaks with chips peas and salad (2 for £6!)- very good value. We walked across the fields to reach the road to Slawston where we crossed the course of a roman road although there was nothing to see. We then joined the last footpath to return to Hallaton. All the fields had cows in and the last field had some boisterous ones who decided to try and cut us off from the stile. They got very frisky, jumping and running at us. I am definitely going off cows.

Leicestershire Round: Belton in Rutland to Hallaton

22nd September 2007

We drove to Belton in Rutland and parked by the war memorial. There were hoards of teenagers about, possibly DoE, obviously going on a hike. They set off in the opposite direction to us luckily or there might have been long queues to get over the stiles!

It is definitely getting Autumny. There were cobwebs on all the bushes and it was a bit foggy.

We walked through Belton and over the busy A47 to Alexton. This was a small village which is getting bigger as several new houses were being built. We looked round the small church which is no longer used but kept as a historical monument. The stone carving inside was very impressive but there were mouse droppings everywhere.

We walked across lots of fields which had recently been ploughed so it was quite hard walking. We arrived at Hallaton at about 1pm and had lunch at the Bewicke Arms- black pepper and seasalt coated scampi and chunky chips. Hallaton is a very pretty village which hosts the bottle kicking on Easter Monday. The vicar presents a hare pie which is carried to the butter cross and split and thrown to the crowds. The bottles (small casks of beer) are then thrown and chased from the Fox Inn to the neighbouring village of Medbourne. Photos in the pub suggest it is a bit of a riot with everyone getting very muddy.

John found a water pump in the village and had a go! The householder was walking past and said that the pumps needed priming before they worked. This involves pouring water into the pump to wet the leather valves. He told us that there were many pumps in the village and they needed pumping everyday to keep them working. He also said that there were 51 deep wells and they didn't get mains water in the village until 1961. We looked around the church which had very nice stained glass windows and then walked on towards East Norton across the A47.

It was easier walking now as the fields weren't ploughed. Another church to look round and then across more fields.

In one field there was a herd of young bullocks who decided to race us to the gate. We managed to get through only to find another herd in the next field. Luckily these showed no interest in us at all. We crossed the A47 again and watched a farmer planting seeds in a field - a very impressive bit of machinery and then followed a path back to Alexton and then back to the car.

Leicestershire Round: Owston to Belton in Rutland

Saturday 15th September 2007

We parked at Owston and walked along a green lane to fields where they had several methods of straw storage - big round ones, big oblongs, wrapped round and wrapped oblong.

We walked through Owston wood which was dry but very deeply rutted and potholed. We were later told by two walkers that it was used for tank practice during the war and it destroyed the sub-soil and has never recovered. We walked around Withcote Farm village and then over the hill to Launde Abbey (a C of E retreat). As we walked over a stream John attracted a friendly dragonfly who kept coming to sit on his hat. We followed more fields until we came to Belton in Rutland where we were disappointed to find the pub closed. Luckily we had apples and biscuits, so sat on a bench to rest. We left the LR here and returned via other footpaths. We chatted to a pair of walkers who were just coming to the end of their walk. Much of this part of the walk was along lanes and tracks which had been metalled so it was quite hard underfoot although we passed some nice lakes and saw a heron and a swan. The trees along the lanes are definitely showing signs of Autumn. We got back to the car at 5.30 after 22km.

Swanage, Dorset

August 31st to September 8th 2007

Off on holiday again. This time we stayed at Sunny Glade, a Caravan Club certified location in Harmans Cross, Dorset. This was a small sloping field, about 100m from the station on the Swanage steam train line. We couldn't see the trains going past but could hear them and see puffs of steam. It was fairly quiet for most of the week as we had the field to ourselves (apart from the flock of geese and chickens-very nice free range eggs). At the end of the week the Swanage steam rally saw an influx of caravanners. We met up with Dad, Wyn and Len to do some of the walks this week.

After setting up we drove to Studland (along a single track road) and parked in the NT carpark. We then did a 3.5 km walk along the dunes and heather trail to the point where the South West Coast Path begins. There may be a pattern developing here! We then followed the coast path back . A total of 7.8km. The beach was lovely and sandy and the sun was going down by the time we got back to Studland.

Saturday 1st September

We decided to walk some more South West Coast path. We drove to Studland and parked in the NT car park again. We then walked south along the beach for a km and then left it to follow the path to Fort Henry, remnants of a WWII observation post. We walked along the cliff top to Old Harry rocks and then the Pinnacles where we had a good view of the Isle of Wight and the Needles. We followed the cliff path up and down some steep sections until we came to the beach at Swanage where we had an ice-cream (very nice) and left the SWCP. We then walked through Swanage and up on to Ballard Down. It was a very steep climb up chalk steps to a obelisk which was dismantled during the war to stop it being a landmark for bombers, it was then reconstructed after the war. We walked across the Down with great views across Poole Harbour. We were followed by several cows who were moving downhill away from the impending cloud burst. We walked downhill towards Studland with a few spits of rain where we stopped at the Bankes Arms for a pint of Ocelot (J) and half of Solar Power (K). We retraced our steps to Fort Henry and back to the car. 17.1 km.

Monday 3rd September 2007

We walked to the station at Harmans Cross to catch the train that Dad, Wyn and Len had caught at Swanage. Our train was a diesel and Len was waving out the window. We started walking from Corfe and went up 311? Steps onto Rollington hill. Wyn and Len made it quite well with a few stops. They were pleased we were there as they might not have had the confidence to do the climb on their own. We then had a nice walk along the ridge to Nine Barrow Down and then down to Ulwell. We noticed the soles were coming off Wyns shoes so we didn't walk the footpath to Swanage but stayed on the road (10 km). We had a nice cup of tea in Swanage and then they returned to their hotel and we caught the train from Swanage to Harmans Cross (£3.50) each.

Tuesday 4th September 2007
Another section of the SWCP today. We caught the train into Swanage and then walked the coast path to Peveril Point, Durlston Park and the Globe.
Then round Durlston head and past Tilly Whin caves and on to Anvil Point and Dancing Ledge where we climbed down to the quarry and sat in the sun for a while. Puffins are supposed to nest here but we didn't see any seabirds at all. We then carried on along the coast path to Whin Spit where we left the Coast Path and headed inland to Worth Matravers. We stopped at the Square and Compass and had some cider and a pasty (17km)

There were some interesting people telling jokes which kept us amused for a while. We continued along the road and back to the caravan.

Wednesday 5th September 2007
We drove to Kingston today. Wyn and Len had walked too much yesterday and so just Dad met us. We parked the car and walked across a field and lanes to the coast path. We had very good clear views of the Isle of Portland as we went. We walked along to Kimmerage bay where we sat and had a bit of lunch and watched the military guard keeping a lookout for walkers and surfers that might trespass into the firing range! We then looked round the marine centre and walked to Kimmerage which had lots of thatched cottages. We lost the path for a bit and ended up climbing a very steep and brambly hill only to find that the path was up the road a bit further. We walked across farm tracks back to the car (13 km). Dad called in for a cup of tea. We were going to go out for dinner but it was too nice sitting near the caravan.

Thursday 6th September 2007
We met Dad, Wyn and Len at the carpark at Worth Matravers and walked towards St Andhelm's head. We had a rest at the monument to Telecommunications. It was quite nice and very sunny. We looked round the chapel and were then told that a dolphin was following a boat. We watched for a while and saw it leap out of the water. We continued along the coast path but then discovered that the path went steeply downhill and then just as steeply uphill. We thought that tnis might be too much for Wyn and Len and so took a straight road back to Worth (8km). We all stopped and had a glass of cider and then they came back to the caravan for a cup of tea. Friday 7th September 2007
We wanted to join up our sections of the SWCP today and so we drove to the lower carpark in Worth and walked back to St Aldhelms head. We set off down the hill that we hadn't attempted yesterday (204 steps) and then 149 steps up the other side. We continued along the coast path which was very up and down to Chapmans pool where we had another 166 steps to climb. We continued on to the spot where we joined the coast path on Wednesday, so we have now done all the path from Haven point to Kimmerage bay (about 21.5 miles). At this rate it will take us about 30 weeks of holidays to complete the SWCP -we might have tohave a few more holidays down here. We then retraced our steps to Chapmans pool and then cut off towards the car park (14km). We were exhausted as it had been so hot. We then drove up to the Square and Compass and had a very welcome cider and pasty.

Hope, Derbyshire

Friday 24th August 2007

It was lovely weather today so we decided to make the most of it and go for a walk and hopefully avoid the Bank holiday rush. We drove to Hope in Derbyshire and started by walking gently uphill to Hope Cross, where we saw a hang-glider over Lose Hill. We then went steeply downhill through the forest to the path along the side of Ladybower reservoir. We sat and had lunch sitting by a stream, just out of the sun. The path was easy walking with good views of the water and of a floating branch with 3 Shags sitting on it and a brave fish which jumped out of the water just in front of them. We also passed under the Crook Hills. At the end of the reservoir we crossed to the picnic area to use the loos and had an ice lolly as it was so hot. We then walked uphill and across fields and through woods back to Hope where we were just in time for a cup of tea at the art gallery.

Leicestershire Round : Burrough Hill to Owston

Wednesday 22nd August 2007

Having had the guide books for the Leicestershire round for about 8 years I decided that it would be nice to be able to follow a local trail in the times when we can't get to dosome of our Coast to Coast walk.

The start of the Leicestershire Round is at Burrough Hill country park and we got stuck in a long traffic jam to Melton Mowbray before discovering that we didn't need to go that far, so we turned round and eventually got to the country park where I discovered that I had left the footbeds to my boots at home so had to walk without them. We walked to the top of the hill where the Round begins at a very impressive hill fort. We walked around the embankment and then followed a permissive path through woodland. We walked across fields to get to Somerby where we stopped for lunch at the 3 Crowns, (steak and ale pies, and 2 pints and 2 halves of Somerby Parish bitter for £14 -not bad). We continued the walk to Owston and then did a return circle, mainly across fields. The last field was very difficult to walk on as it had just been ploughed. My feet were suffering by now due to no footbeds but we eventually got back to the hill fort after 17km.

Northern tour 2007

July 28th to August 14th 2007
We had a three centre holiday this time, spending 8 days at Beadnell in Northumberland, 6 days in Edinburgh and 2 days at Clitheroe, Lancashire.

Beadnell Bay, Camping and Caravanning Club,Temporary Holiday Site

Beadnell was lovely, the beaches were clean and sandy with rockpools and early deserted. We will certainly return for another visit. The site was nice and flat and very well arranged. Not bad for £5 a night! We did two walks whilst we were here.

Tuesday 31st July 2007
A lovely day today so we drove to Banburgh and parked at the golf links. We then walked across a field with cows and calves to Banburgh which we looked round before continuing along the coastpath. The beaches were wonderful and empty. We then crossed the golf course and walked along lanes, woods and fields of peas, beans and wheat. We had views of Banburgh castle all the way round. While crossing one field we were chased by a herd of bullocks, who were determined to stop us getting to the stile, we made it - just. We got back to the car at 5.15 just in time to get an ice lolly and go across the dunes to sit by the sea. It was lovely.

Saturday 4th August 2007
We drove to Craster and were lucky enough to find a parking space. We set off along the coast path with wonderful views towards Dunstanburgh Castle. The shoreline was very different to the shore at Beadnell - lots of rocks but no sand. We sat and watched the Kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs for a while and then continued along the coast path until we arrived at a nice secluded bay so we diverted and sat and had a break for a while. The walk continued along the coast and then went through the arboretum of Howick Hall- the home of Earl Grey. We got a little lost as the route through the arboretum had changed but we finally got to the hall and had a cup of Earl Grey tea and a slice of cake. We then walked through fields and woods back to Craster. The walk was 12.7 km.

We also had visits to Alnwick Gardens and Lindisfarne whilst we were here.

We moved onto Edinburgh on 6th August, it was a good journey but we had some trouble finding the caravan site. This site was next to the airport runway but was surprisingly quiet. This was another temporary holiday site at £5 per night.

We didn't do much walking here as we mainly here to visit the Fringe and the Tattoo. Emily joined us on the Thursday.

We did climb up to Arthurs seat which gave lovely views over Edinburgh and over the Forth. The ants were flying on the summit so we didn't stay there for long.

Our final stage was to stop at the Camping and Caravanning club at Clitheroe partly to break the journey home and partly to drop Emily off in Preston. There was luxury at this site as we had electric hook up -it was £17.40 a night though!
We had a short walk along the Ribble which was very nice although John was very traumatised by the pub with no beer! We had passed a long crocodile of people at one stage and it turned out they had drunk the pub dry! We did very well having a 16 day holiday for just over £100 for the two of us.

Scar Side to Tarn Moor

Stage 17 of our c2c. It was raining so we were unsure about walking but eventually we set off for Orton. We parked and set off but within 1km we had stopped to take off the raincoats. We retraced our steps to Scar Side where the c2c joins. We followed the c2c along lanes and tracks for a while. We passed a stone circle and then started walking through meadows where we passed 2 c2c'ers having a teabreak. At Tarn Moor we were stopped by someone from Natural England who was doing a survey about the area and Open Access land.We walked to the road and then left the c2c and retraced our steps for a km. We followed the bridlepath up over the limestone scars. It was lovely surroundings. We passed on to the nature reserve at Great Ashby Scar. This was a lovely path through limestone pavements. We then followed the bridlepath back to ScarSide, although they must have very agile horses here to get through the sqeezer stiles. We got back at about 5.30pm (18.7km) and went to The George Inn at Orton for dinner - cumberland sausage. There were 2 tents and a pop-up caravan in the field. The campervan had gone.

Long Mire to Scar Side

5th July 2007

We drove to Orton for our next c2c stage. We followed a very wet path out of the village and across fields where we saw some young foals. We eventually reached the Roman road going across the moor and followed it to Long Mire where we joined the c2c. The sky was really threatening all round but we managed to stay dry all day. We followed a permissive path across Crosby Ravensworth Moor but missed seeing Robin hoods grave as mentioned on the map. It was quite a good walk. We left the c2c at Scar Side and walked along very wet paths back to Orton. We had a tea and cheese scone at the Tea rooms. The walk was only 13km but I was much more tired than I should have been.

Shap to Long Mire

4th July 2007

Stage 15 of our c2c. We left Shap and followed the c2c across the M6. The terrain has changed into limestone country and we walked across our first bit of limestone pavement although we did see lots of erratic boulders 0f Shap granite which had been left after the glaciers retreated. We walked around the quarry and then left the c2c at Long Mire and followed the footpath to Crosby Ravensworth. Unfortunately the pub in CR was closed so we sat in a bus shelter to eat our lunch. We followed other paths back to Shap passing stone circles on the way. The walk was 18.3km. When we got back there was another caravan and a tent in our field, cheek!

Burn banks to Shap

2nd July 2007

After a day attempting to dry our boots -a newspaper was purchased specially we decided to walk in our spare boots!

We then set off on stage 14 of our c2c. It looked a bit dull but we walked through Shap stopping to talk to a local who said we were doing the walk the best way and that he had never known so many people giving up as this year. We followed the quite clear footpaths through to Keld, looking at the Gollgleby stone and a pretty chapel on the way.

We then walked on to Tailbert where we had to ask the farmer the way through the farm. We got to a bank and the path had disappeared in bracken but John managed to get us down the path using his GPS. The rest of the path through Swindale was easy to follow. We sat on a limestone outcrop and ate some lunch and enjoyed the sun.


We packed away the waterproofs before we set off for Naddle farm where we went on Saturday and finally joined the c2c again. The path was fairly easy to follow and was quite pretty along the river. The geology has changed and is now becoming limestone country and is very similar to the white peaks. When we were approaching Rosgill, I managed to fall over in a very muddy/manury/boggy patch! I got muck all up my new fleece and my trousers. A little while later I nearly fell off a stone stile. We made it back to Shap after stopping at Shap Abbey with no further mishaps. Another 18 km walk.

Coast to Coast, Shap

29th June 2007

We set off to Cumbria for a bit of a holiday. We are staying in Shap as we are doing some of our Coast-to-Coast in circles! We stayed at Green Farm, a Caravan club certified location. It is a nice field looking over the hills and a small compound with a cow and 2 small calves and sheep. Very peaceful even though it is close to the A6.


30th June 2007

The next stage of our coast to coast walk starts from Haweswater. We had done a stage leading to Haweswater in November and were ready to get c2c'ing again.
It was raining a bit but we decided to walk anyway. We parked at Mardale head at the bottom of Haweswater and set off in the misty rain. We walked along the shore of Haweswater until we reached the path that went over the crag. We followed that until we rejoined the part of Wainwrights c2c that we reached in November. It was very pleasant walking and surprisingly high above the waters edge. We saw lots of birds including yellowhammers and chaffinches and a large bird of prey which may have been a golden eagle but was possibly a buzzard! Lots of wild flowers too. We only saw 1 other walker all day and he was an English American who was walking the c2c from RHB to St Bees. We got to Burnbanks a strange modern village which was not in character with the area. We left Burn banks through woodland and left the c2c behind. We followed the track to Naddle farm and then followed a track for a bit longer. It said it was North West water and there was no access but we assumed that was for cars as the path was marked on the map. We started to lose the path and we were walking along very boggy, sphagnumsheep trails. Johns gps helped but the path that should have been there was non-existant. We were both very wet by now. We found our way but it was blocked by a wall, fence and gill so we had to follow the wall upstream until we found somewhere where the wall had collapsed. The gill was also a bit narrower there. We then eventually found the path again and crossed another gill. Eventually the path became clearer and we followed it back to the road. When we got back to the car we emptied the water out of our boots and wrung our socks out. The walk was about 18km and quite fun really.