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).