Karon and Johns walks

Rawdon Colliery trail

2011-07-06T19:38:00.002Z

Sunday 3rd July
I apologise for not having written in the blog for a long time. I will post about a few walks but they will be out of date order.
This weekend we had been quite busy installing wardrobes and so didn't have much time for walking but we did have just a short stroll to find a few geocaches.
We parked in Conkers and then walked across the road and joined the Rawdon Colliery trail. We had a pleasant walk around the fishing lake and then followed the trail through the new plantation. The colliery here had been closed in 1990 and is has since been turned into a nature reserve - there were loads of wildflowers growing beside the path. After finding a few caches we then crossed some fields, the first had ripe barley, the second had wheat and then after walking through a small woodland we reached the fields where the farmers were baling hay. We found another cache and walked through to Blackfordby, we then had to return the way we had come. It had been a pleasant Sunday afternoon stroll. We had found 5 caches and not found 1.

Rawdon Colliery Trail

EveryTrail - Find trail maps for California and beyond

A geocaching walk from Chartwell, Kent

2011-05-08T20:25:00.003Z

Saturday 23 April 2011
Another beautiful day and so we decided on a trip to Westerham with Dad to enjoy the bluebells. We parked at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's home and then set off up the steep hill towards French Street. Halfway up we headed off through the woods and then after getting a bit lost on the trails in the woods and finding a few geocaches we finally emerged on Hosey Hill lane and crossed the A25 into more woodland. We were very grateful of the shade today as it was so warm. We followed a forestry trail past a derelict tower which was so covered with ivy that at first we thought it was a large tree and then emerged onto a large grassy bank which we climbed to get good views across Westerham and the Downs.
Having walked through the very pretty town of Westerham, we stopped to have an ice-cream. We were surprised that among all the tea-shops and Antique shops there were no nice icecream parlours, so we had to make do with an ice-cream from the newsagents. We left westerham by walking up Mill lane, where we passed a lady who was cooling herself with the waters from the clear stream we were walking beside. There was a choice of footpaths here, a nice flat one beside the stream, or a steep uphill section. Our route followed the steep section! We climbed through the grounds of Squerryes Court but could not see the house as it was behind the trees.
As we walked through the woodland of Goodley Stock we were treated to carpets of bluebells with amazing scent.
We emerged onto the A25 but only had to walk a short distance before taking another footpath back into the woods. The woods were criss-crossed with footpaths and it was quite difficult to work out which path we needed but after a bit of back tracking we emerged at the top of the hill leading down towards Chartwell. We had been finding caches throughout and started to hunt for the last one when thunder started to rumble around. So as the cache was appearing elusive we decided to head back to the car before we got soaked.
We enjoyed a welcome cup of tea in the NT teashop ad then headed back home to dad's. As we left Westerham the rain started and was very heavy for a while, but as we got towards Maidstone the skies cleared and there was no sign of rain, so it had just been an isolated heavy shower.

Westerham and Chartwell circular walk

EveryTrail - Find trail maps for California and beyond

Sutton Cheyney to Market Bosworth

2011-04-24T06:50:00.005Z

Oh dear, I realise I have been very remiss in updating my blog. We have been out for walks but I never seemed to have the time to write anything or I had forgotten the camera so there were no pictures to post.
John now has a new GPS with camera o hopefully we will be able to record our walks as we go.
Sunday 17 April 2011
It was another lovely day and so we set off for a walk at Market Bosworth. We parked at Sutton Cheyney and walked down the road to the gated lane that led to Market Bosworth. We were following a caching trail that had been set out with several caches on a circular walk. It was very pleasant walking along the gated lane with views across the fields to the surrounding villages, and after about 2 miles we arrived in the town. A cache had been hidden near to a tea shop so as we sat on the bench wondering where it was hidden, we decided a cup of tea and ice-cream was in order. A couple were looking at us a bit strangely and then came over and said “We know what you are looking for but we won't spoil it”. We then had quite a chat about GPS as they were about to buy a new one and wanted to see what John thought about his new toy. We enjoyed our cup of tea and then after finding the cache under the eyes of all the other teashop patrons set off on our walk again. We arrived at Bosworth country park where we found some more caches in the butterfly garden, the bird feeding area and the arboretum – where some of the trees had eyes painted on which was quite unusual. We met the other cachers a few more times before heading off along the Leicestershire Round and back towards Sutton Cheyney. The walk was just over 6 miles and 12 caches were found, one not found and had been very pleasant in the sunshine.
To see our route and the photos taken along the way click on the following link.

The Wells Wander

EveryTrail - Find hiking trails in California and beyond

Click here to see John's Everytrail in Full Screen Mode

Repton, Derbyshire

2011-01-31T20:37:00.004Z

Tuesday 4 January 2011
It snowed again this morning and so we had a lazy morning before deciding to go out for a walk. We drove to Repton and parked near the centre and then walked through the village. Repton turned out to be a lovely place; the ancient capitol of Mercia and home of Repton public school, whose lovely buildings were scattered around the village. We headed off along the edge of the school playing field and then up onto Parsons Hills.
We had lovely views across the Trent and although the path was narrow and on a slope, it was frozen so was not as slippery as it could have been.

We crossed some fields towards Newton Solney, again, luckily the field was frozen as the cows had churned it up quite a bit. Having arrived in Newton Solney we walked through the village and then onto a footpath heading back through the fields back towards Repton. We had been finding caches along the way and having found the last of a series we had to do some complicated maths to find the bonus cache. We had not really left early enough and so by the time we were searching for the bonus it was dark. We could not find it so decided to return to the car and come back tomorrow for the bonus. When we got to the car we spotted a mistake in our sums and realised the cache was only 100m away so headed back with torches to get the last cache. It had been a lovely walk in an area we had not visited before.

Working trip to Greece

2010-11-25T19:38:00.008Z

7th to 14th November
I had to travel to Thessaloniki for an annual meeting for our research project and so we decided to extend the trip and take a few days holiday.
After collecting the hire car which had been delivered to the wrong house, we left for Gatwick at 3am. We arrived at the airport at 6:30 and there were no delays at the airport. We left England in the cold and wet and arrived in Greece in 21 degree sunshine.
We were staying in the centre of the city and so our exploring was mainly just walking around the streets and shops and walking around in the sunshine and along the harbour walls. We were amazed at the number of coffee bars in the city, for a country in economic strife everyone seemed very happy to sit around all day drinking coffee.
There was some very interesting archeology around the city and we enjoyed watching the archeologists on the dig beneath our hotel window.
Even though 3 days were spent working the rest of the time was very enjoyable.
Our overall opinion of the part of Greece that we visited was very noisy;cars hooting their horns at every opportunity and all times of the day and night, mopeds whizzing up and down the pavements. There was also an incredible number of churches - mostly byzantine, and alcoves for burning candles and prayer all over the city - unfortunately we didn't have opportunity to go inside the churches but I suspect they would have been impressive. Finally we had some difficulty finding places to eat. The city was filled with the Greek equivalent of Greggs - OK for lunch but an evening meal was more difficult to find. When we did find a restaurant we generally had it to ourselves as the Greeks do not tend to eat until about 9 or 10 o'clock, but the service was fantastic, with extra drinks and deserts being provided without being ordered.

Oh -they had some fantastic cake shops as well!

Brailsford, Derbyshire

2010-10-21T19:35:00.002Z

Sunday, October 17, 2010
Another beautiful day, although frosty when we got up. We thought we couldn't waste it and so rather tan sitting and getting stiff after yesterdays walk we set out for another walk – but a bit shorter this time.
We drove to Brailsford in Derbyshire and parked near Hazlehurst. There were several large dogs caged in the house opposite where we parked the car and so as we were getting ready and putting our boots on we had to put up with barking dogs disturbing the peace.
We headed down towards Kings Grove where we stopped to find a cache and then walked across the fields towards Commonside. We had to walk down a narrow lane and passed a small Market garden shop which had a lovely display of Autumn vegetables.

Then back up the field at Commonside but as the path was not marked we were at the wrong place to exit onto the A52. After a short diversion we found the way out and after a short walk down the main road and through a short bit of woodland we headed towards Brailsford Green. We left the footpath by going through a primary school playground and then headed across fields to a lane. We again had problems finding the footpath but got there in the end. More unmarked footpaths followed but we managed to stay on route and later passed through a field where sheep dog trials were being carried out.
We exited on a lane and again couldn't find the footpath but I finally noticed the footpath sign, covered by ivy on a post next to a tied up gate.
We went through the gate and struggled through a field of sugar beet, eventually reaching the other side of the field and our way onto the road where the car was parked. We had done a mere 8.75 km today but despite the difficulty finding footpaths was a pleasant walk.

Eastwood, Nottingham

2010-10-20T19:47:00.002Z

Saturday, October 16, 2010
It seemed like the first weekend we had had for ages when we hadn't had things to do, and as it was forecast to be fine we took advantage to go for a walk. We headed to Eastwood in Nottinghamshire and after a bit of a navigation problem around the town we manged to find a carpark next to an old coal mine.
We walked along the road and then headed along a footpath beside Moorgreen Reservoir. Eastwood was the home of D H Lawrence and there were notice boards along the way telling us about the area and his life.

When we reached the end of the reservoir we followed the edge of Morning Springs woods heading towards the M1. As we passed under the motorway we stopped to hunt for a cache called “Whistle for it”. We started whistling in the underpass and soon the cache replyed to us by beeping – a very clever cache. Having passed under the motorway we headed into a forest along some wide tracks. We diverted into the pine trees to find a cache and then continued along the track. As we sat on a concrete block having a cup of coffee the gamekeeper came along and told us we were on private property and politely pointed us to the footpath. As we left we noticed the sign saying “Forestry Commission land” - open to all! However, as they were apparently shooting today we decided to head back towards the footpath. This took us on quite a long detour and we ended up near to Hucknall. We finally found a bridleway pointing back towards our planned route, but were surprised to see notices proclaiming that there were guard dogs, security cameras and toxic herbicide and chemicals, right next to the bridleway sign! Very welcoming landowners in these parts.
We followed the footpath around Wythburn House farm where we stopped to find a cache. We were a bit wary about hunting around some farm equipment and when I saw we were being watched we decided to abandon the hunt. However, as we left the man said “You're very close”. It turned out to be the farmer and he knew about the cache so we were free to continue our hunt.
Our next part of the walk took us over Misk hills, across the motorway again and then back into Morning Springs woods. The walk was pleasant until the bridleway disappeared again and the path was blocked off. We managed to divert and head back to the path we had walked on at the beginning of the walk, but as we got to the path we realised it was fenced off. We managed to clamber through the fence and retrace our steps back beside the reservoir.
It had been a walk of many diversions and blocked paths but had been a very pleasant Autumn walk. Our planned walk had been 13km but we ended up having walked 19.5km!

Thank You Judith and Derek

2010-10-18T19:27:00.002Z

They are lovely.

Jervaulx Abbey - Yorkshire September 11th to 19th

2010-09-22T19:27:00.013Z

We have been promising dad a return visit to Jervaulx abbey but as he was ill last year we had to postpone it. We are staying in the caravan at Jervaulx and dad is staying up the road at the Coverbridge Inn.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
We left the caravan at about 10.30 and met dad outside the Coverbridge. We parked the car and set off along the River Cover. It was warm and sunny but threatened heavy showers. We had forgotten to pack raincoats so were hoping the rain held off.
It was nice walking along the river, there were lots of fallen trees so we had to keep climbing over them. We passed some stepping stones but did not cross the river at this point, but we did walk on to Hullo bridge. We went a little wrong here but soon corrected our mistake and headed up to the road to Middleham. We walked along the footpath beside the road passing Low Middleham Moor where race horses are trained. Apparently there are 850 inhabitants in Middleham and 500 racehorses.
We down beside Middleham castle, childhood home to Richard 111, and stopped in the town square for a drink and a bag of crisps and decided that we did not want to exhaust our selves on the first day so instead of doing the second half of the planned figure of 8 walk we would only do one bit. After a wander around the town, checking out the pubs and restaurants we walked back up beside the castle and headed over William's Hill, a mote and bailey, across the fields and back to the stepping stones.

We crossed them this time and walked along the other side of the river bank and back to the Cover Bridge Inn, where it would have been rude not to stop for a pint of Old Peculiar. We had walked 8.79km.
Monday,September 13, 2010
The weather was a bit grotty today so we decided on a trip to Ripon. We had a wander around the town and a look around the cathedral which had a very impressive choir stall and organ, including some carved miserichords in the choir stalls which were said to have inspired Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland.
After lunch in the cafe at Masham we decided the weather was not as bad as expected so we drove to the Druid's temple. John and I had visited this place two years ago when we first started geocaching and we wanted to show dad. It was still a bit drizzly but we had a short walk around the forest and found a new cache that had been placed. Dad was quite amazed at the temple which although looking as though it had been there for thousands of years was actually built by the Victorians.

We headed back to the car and I navigated us on a scenic route back to Jervaulx. As we drove down a steep hill we spotted a heron standing by the side of the road. He took off and flew down the road in front of us. We realised there was a cache to find and parked near a duck pond where we were mobbed by a few ducks as we got out of the car. The cache was found after a short hunt.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
We started off at the Coverbridge picking up dad.
As we drove through Middleham we followed a pack of race horses through the town and back to their stables. We drove to West Witton,parked and then followed the path across fields to an avenue of sycamore trees. We walked down the lane with wonderful views towards Bolton Hall. We crossed the road and walked past the gate house and down to Lord's Bridge where we turned left along a footpath and crossed fields until we came to a small beck where the path led down to the river Ure. After the rain that we had had last night the river was flowing very fast, and it was a very pleasant walk, although a little windy.

We continued beside the river for about a mile and a half and then after passing Batt Island we crossed a ladder stile and walked across a very lumpy area of field which was probably the spoil from the Keld head lead mines. We crossed another stile and followed down through some woods to reach Redmire Force. The falls were flowing very fast today and it was pleasant sitting beside the falls eating our lunch.
After a break we retraced our steps through the woods and then walked along a cart track, to the footpath. The field had a large new sign on it stating “Beware of the Bull”. I nervously looked in but there was no sign of any cattle so we walked beside New Wood to the gate in the corner and then followed a dry stone wall and lane back towards West Witton. It had been a very nice walk and although we had worn wet weather gear it had actually been dry and sunny, although very windy in places. We decided to reward ourselves so drove back to High Jervaulx where we stopped for an icecream. John and dad had ginger and I had praline pecan delight. We went back to the caravan for a cup of tea and then dad decided to walk back along the river to the Coverbridge while we got tea ready. He hadn't been gone long when it started to rain – and he hadn't got his wet gear on! Oh dear.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
It was very windy and rainy again. We were treated to a wonderful display of swallows swooping over the caravan and landing on the skylight this morning. Dad arrived at 10.30 and we decided to go towards Fountains Abbey. We parked in the NT car park and then walked to the road and down towards the Monk's wall. We followed the footpath, stopping to find a cache hidden in the wall, then headed towards Hill house farm. Last time we had walked here we had not been able to get through the farm because the cows were blocking the way, but today they were in the fields and although it was very mucky we were able to follow the path. We stopped at a ruined gatehouse where we could see several stags in the deer park. We then carried on through the woods startling pheasants as we went – they seemed to be everywhere today. As we emerged from the woods we followed a steep and muddy lane down to a ford across the river, although there was no water in the river at all. We entered Studley Royal park and followed the Seven bridges way. We kept crossing fords or bridges but the water seemed to have been diverted as there was no water in the river. We sat on a tree stump for a while to eat our lunch and then went on a hunt for a geocache. It involved climbing a steep bank up to the look out tower. Getting up was OK but down was a bit more tricky, but we made it safely. We had left dad at the bottom watching the deer while we went up the top. We finally got to the lakes at Studley Royal and then walked up to the church for a look round.

The church was Victorian gothic and very impressive to look around. The guide pointed out the parrots, birds, butterflies, mouse and snails that had been incorporated into the decoration. We returned to the car and back to the caravan before going out to dinner at the Coverbridge Inn.
Thursday 16 September 2010
We drove to Aysgarth and had a nice walk down to look at the middle and lower falls. Dad took lots of photos and then we walked through Freeholders woods towards Carperby.

The woods were dotted with lots of small nest boxes which had been placed there for the dormice that had been re-introduced. We crossed the meadows, enjoying the views of the hills and then entered Carperby. We hunted around for some clues for a geocache which had been placed by the National Park Authority. There was plenty of history in the village including the start of the Wensleyan church and the Quaker church. Having found the clues we headed up a track to a viewpoint where the cache was hidden. We retraced our steps through the meadows and the woods and then to the Upper Falls. Dad took lots more photos and then we went tot the Mill Race for a cup of tea.
Friday 17 September 2010
We drove to Leyburn, only to find it was market day so we couldn't park. We managed to find a spot on a side street and then set off through the back streets to the path leading to the Shawl. We walked up onto the top and walked along the ridge for a while. The views across Wenslydale were wonderful. We found a cache – John scrambled down to get it, and then walked a bit further before coming down off the Shawl and walking through Gilmoor wood. We found a nice clearing to sit and eat our lunch. The area is actually quite industrial and housed the engine house, chimney and smelt flues (where we were sitting) for the Keld Head smelt mine. They had mined for lead and silver in the past. We walked down the track and realised we had gone wrong. A farmer stopped and pointed us back to the correct path which led across freshly manured meadows (pooh) and then started to climb back up to the Shawl again. We followed the path back to Leyburn where we stopped for a pot of tea in the Post House tea rooms.
After returning to the car we went and filled up with diesel and then drove to Harmby. We parked by the road and followed the path to a waterfall which was much higher than the falls we had seen before but less powerful. This was another spot we would not have found if it had not been for geocaching.
Saturday 18 September 2010
We met everyone at the Coverbridge Inn today. Emily and Mike ahd come over to visit us so we set off along the banks of the river Cover following the same route that we walked on Sunday. We stopped for pictures at the stepping stones and then walked to the Hullo bridge.

We crossed the bridge and walked on the other side of the river for a short distance before heading up into the fields towards East Witton lodge. It was lovely just walking and chatting with Emily and Mike and dad. We finally arrived in East Witton where we sat for a while to eat a bun (Emily, Mike and dad had had enormous breakfasts at the Coverbridge) and then we walked beside the church into a field with two horses. They ignored us but a short distance further on we could see a farmer trying to round up his sheep. We realised the footpath went through the field he was working in so we stopped and waited for a while. He told us we could go through and pointed us to the stile. He said trying to round up lambs with no yows (ewes) was murder as they just went round in circles. We crossed a few more fields with sheep in and then found ourselves back at the pub. (7.66km) We all went in for a pint and then decided to head up to High Jervaulx for an icecream.

PirateMania 4th September

2010-09-07T19:18:00.004Z

Our first weekend at home for a while so we decided to go for a decent walk.
We headed to Ashbourne and to the UKGeocachers shop located in a caravan park, where we bought a few items and they kindly allowed us to leave the car in the shop car-park while we went for our walk. We had some problem finding the beginning of the walk as the footpath was not marked correctly on the map, but eventually we found our way out of the caravan park and across the field to a bridge. This walk had been set up during a Geocaching camping event, Piratemania, in the summer and so contained lots of geocaches.
We found the first one under a bridge and then followed the Bonnie Prince Charlie walk and the Centenary way towards Osmaston. One cache was found in a military type air-raid shelter, the woods that we walked in seemed to have several of these war-time buildings.

When we got to Osmaston we walked across the cricket field and continued along the footpath which passed though a field of 8ft tall maize. As we crossed into the next field I realised that it was full of young bullocks. As always happens they decided we were fun and decided to surround us, luckily the stile was close and I managed to hop over before we were cut off.

We passed through a short stretch of woodland and out onto the road before heading into another field. The cows in this field were happy to ignore us and then as we passed beside Osmaston lake a very large herd of cows decided to follow a couple going in the opposite direction to us. We waited by the side of the path as they all passed us by and then we walked on and through a natural wetland that had been provided with walkways to rise us above the boggy areas nd out to the road.
Shirley was a pretty village with several thatched cottages. The track through Shirley park led down to a water mill, and we realised that we had walked in this area some years ago, but from the opposite direction. (See April 4th 2007). Just past the mill we realised we had a cache to find. It was obviously hidden at a large tree but there was a family playing near it. We waited until they moved off and then went to find the cache, we realised that the cache was not hidden in a hole in the tree but was actually up in the branches. John nobly decided to climb up and found the cache after a short search – I don't think he had climbed a tree for donkeys years.

This was a figure of eight walk and so we passed back through Osmaston and then headed off through fields and woodland back towards Ashbourne and the end of the walk. We had walked 15.5 km and found 28 caches which I think was a record for us.

Apologies and an evening walk

2010-09-06T19:05:00.004Z

I have to apologise that I haven't written on the blog since March. A new job, harvest of experimental crops have meant that I have not had the time to blog.
We have had a few holidays and done some walks but I just didn't get round to writing them up.
I left work early on Friday and as it was a lovely evening we went to Hathern to do a geocaching walk. We parked in Pasture Lane and walked down the lane to a footpath across a field which had been harvested, ploughed and rolled ready for seeding - Autumn crops going in allready. We crossed a stile at a junction of footpaths and then headed across a field where the farmers were baling straw.
We crossed a lane and followed the direction at a footpath sign which was covered with wild hops.

With the hops and straw stubble it looked very autumnal. The footpath led down to the River Soar, where we diverted off to find a geocache. The view across the river was very good, the sun was dropping and causing everything to have a golden glow and brilliant reflections of Normanton church in the river.

We followed the river for a while before heading inland again and along a lane back to the car. We walked just over 5 km which was perfect for an evening walk after work and we had found 7 geocaches.

Belper Hills Walk

2010-03-25T20:28:00.003Z

Sunday 21st March
We have done some walks recently but most have been short geocaching walks. This walk was a bit longer.
The day started badly as I discovered I had lost an earring. It was one of the nice diamond studs John bought me for Christmas a few years ago. We had a good hunt round but no luck.
The weather was going to be good so we decided to do the Belper Hills walk. This was a series of caches set up for the event we attended last week. We decided not to follow all the cachers last week but to come back and enjoy the walk on our own.
We arrived and parked at about 11.30 am and set off on the walk. Wes tarted off by walking out of Belper and past the church to find a cache hidden in an Alley. We were off to a bad start as we didn’t find this one. The next cache was attached to an information board about a philanthropist who provided a lot of facilities for Belper. We then headed out of the town, past the very impressive weir and along a path beside the river Derwent. We headed up the lane and as there were several people about we decided to sit by a small waterfall and have a cup of coffee whilst they passed. We then headed up the hill, finding a cache and then through a farmyard. As we approached the next cache we saw someone lurking – it turned out to be another cacher mJamezz, so we had a chat and hunted unsuccessfully for the cache. We walked on and up the hill towards the next cache, chatting away. After finding the cache MJamezz left us as he was out for a run; we continued at our more sedate pace. We walked along the Midshires way with very good views across the hills and over Belper. We found the next cache and then as we approached the next one we spotted MJamezz again – he was having trouble finding the cache so we all hunted together again. John clambered up a tree and the cache was soon found. MJamezz ran off again and we walked down the cobbley path a bit more slowly. Surprisingly we met up again at the bottom of the hill where I found the next cache then as we walked down the road, MJamezz came running back towards us as he had left his map back at one of our previous caches. He caught up with us one last time before heading off at a run. We crossed the road and headed up the track towards Farnah Green. We continued along the hills and emerged on a road where we spotted a pub - The Bluebell, so had a break for a pint and a bag of crisps. We then set off for the last stage of the walk. After finding a few more caches we found ourselves surprisingly close to Belper. We walked along the river and crossed back towards the town. We had walked 12.4 km and found 18 caches along the route. We had been lucky enough to have had a lovely warm day with no wind.

Mountsorrel

2010-03-24T20:15:00.003Z

Monday 22nd February
I had the day off so we went for a walk today. We drove to Mountsorrel and parked and walked towards the river. We had to take a long diversion to reach the underpass under the A6 but once across we joined the Leicestershire Round and headed towards the weir. We headed off beside the river and found the first of the LR caches - anew series that will take us some time to do. We then walked beside the river for some time, watching the swans and ducks until the path passed back under the A6 and then we continued beside the river startling a heron who flew off just in front of us. We walked under the conveyor belt that carries stone from the quarry and stopped to find a cache after which we crossed the river and headed into Mountsorrel walking up Bank lane towards what should have been a bridleway. The map showed the path going through Stonehurst Farm but we could not find it. We wandered around and found a farmer in the farm shop. He said the path had never gone through the farm and was surprised to see it on the map. We looked round the shop and after finding out about the farm practices decided to revisit at a later date to try some of their meat. He told us how to find the correct path and we followed it towards the quarry which we had to walk through dodging the mud and slurry to get onto the footpath. We left the footpath and onto the road. We found a cache near a railway bridge and then walked back along the road to the car having walked 10.6 km.

Markeaton Park to Kedleston

2010-03-18T20:37:00.003Z

Saturday 20th February
Having had lots of short caching walks recently I decided we needed a proper walk so programmed a decent walk into the GPS –along with some caches of course. We drove to Markeaton park near Derby and after having trouble finding the parking area we finally found it and paid for 4hours +. We left the park, walked up the road and then headed off on a footpath leading to Markeaton Stones – I thought there might be something interesting there, but I think it was just the name of the farm as we didn't see anything. At the top of the lane we stopped to do a cache which was inside a tree and involved standing on a stump and leaning in, I was not tall enough so John had to retrieve the cache. Unfortunately, as he put it back he slipped and the cache fell down a hole into the depths of the trunk – oops, we will have to apologise to the cache owner.
We walked on and diverted off the path to find two more caches. After finding the first we started walking down the path only to have a big dog start barking at us. We stopped and wondered how friendly he was and as he did not come out of the farm drive we continued down the lane. Him, and his slightly smaller friend barked but did not come out as we walked past. We walked down a very muddy fields, found the cache and then had to walk back up the lane. The dogs had gone inside by this time so were no problem.
We followed a very muddy path past the boundary of Kedleston hall and out on to road. We could just about see the hall from where we stopped to have a cup of coffee. We walked up the road a little bit and then down the side of a garden centre. The footpath is missing from our new map but our old map still shows the path, we spent about half an hour hunting for a small cache which we were assured was still near the hedge but we didn’t find it but we did see lots of snowdrops in the area. We followed the footpath across fields and over some of the most dangerous stiles we’ve come across to the A52. We crossed the road and followed a path
through fields which were badly signposted and eventually found our way to the edge of a recently ploughed field.
We stood and watched a heron on a fencepost for a while, until I looked through the binoculars and realized it was plastic and then John walked across the field (so that he could map the footpath correctly) and I walked round the edge as it is such hard work walking across ploughed fields. We eventually emerged at Langley Common and went in to the Bluebell pub. We were too late for lunch but settled for a drink, sit down and a bag of crisps. However, someone else came in looking for a bowl of chips, so they agreed to put the friers back on and we had a lovely bowl of freshly cooked chips.
We left the pub and continued along the road and off onto a footpath at Radbourne Common. It was very slippy and muddy but we eventually got to a bridge where we were supposed to look for a cache but found it out on display and soaking wet. As we knew the cache owner had just broken his hip we did our best to dry the cache and put it back where it should have been hidden. We then struggled over some more stiles to the road.
After a stretch on the road we got to another footpath which went past a farm. Two large Alsatians were very vocal as we went past but luckily they were behind a fence.
We emerged at Mackworth and struggled to find the footpath that we needed to divert off to find a cache. We walked along the street searching; I turned round and could see the finger post hidden in the hedge beside someone’s garden. We went along the path, found the cache and then walked back to the road and off towards the pretty church. We found a cache near the church and then set off on the last stretch of the walk. A last cache was found just before we got back to Markeaton park having walked 18 km and found 7 caches. We had seen lots of snowdrops, robins, bluetits and a plastic heron

A walk from Narborough

2010-03-18T20:32:00.001Z

Tuesday 16th February
We had missed out on our walk yesterday so today we went to Narborough. We parked by a medical centre and set off trying to find the start of the walk. We were aiming for a disused railway but there were lots of new houses which meant that the map we had did not make sense. We eventually found the start of the railway having retraced our steps to the main road.
We started out by looking for a cache called Tricky Trees. We were not hopeful of finding it having read previous logs. But we had a look. Suddenly I could see the cache, it was attached about 40 ft up a thin branch of a tree which was hanging over the river. There was no way we were scrambling up there. We retraced our steps to the disused railway and enjoyed a peaceful walk along the line. We stopped to find a very nice small cache called the Spider. It was a beautifully made metal insect that was hung on the railway bridge. We continued along the line until it ended at Enderby. The walk then went downhill as it passed a reclaimed refuse tip and industrial park. It was quite interesting seeing all the gas retrieval systems in place at the tip though.
We walked across Enderby Park where we found a cache and then crossed the road and across farmland and then skirted around Enderby College. We crossed a golf course and then mislaid the path as it went across the grounds of the old Carlton Park mental hospital – now owned by Santander. There was security stopping cars driving in, but no problem for us walking out. I wonder if it was so easy for the mental patients! We eventually got back to the car as it was starting to snow having walked 11.7 km and found 4 caches.

More Saints caches - Rutland

2010-02-22T20:45:00.003Z

Saturday 13th February
We hadn’t planned a walk today but decided at the last minute to go to Rutland to finish off last weeks caches. We drove to Preston and walked up to the co-ordinates we had solved last week after finding "Neat Stripe" cache. The co-ordinates were actually on a bit of private land that the farmer had put up a notice saying keep out. We will inform the cache owner when we get home. We were a bit worried but we hunted around and John spotted the cache. We thought we would just find the coin needed for the puzzle but it turned out to be a bracelet of buttons with more co-ordinates on. We had trouble reading one of the numbers but followed the direction and eventually found a footpath where we found the coin stuck to a tree. After getting back to the car we drove to Morcott and parked. This was to find "Ninja Host" - the next Saints cache. We crossed the road and walked down beside a wood along a wide footpath. We were near the cache but were on the wrong side of the stream, but we eventually found a bridge. The cache was near a disused railway. We hunted for a while and found a couple of red herrings, one saying "nope" and the other "a helping hand". We eventually found the cache in one of the first places I had looked! We took the blessing and walked to find the coin. We got to a bridge and hunted around and I got down and looked under, after several looks I suddenly saw the coin hanging in front of my face. That's 5 Saints caches found now. A few more trips to Rutland will be needed to finish this off. We returned to the car and drove to Braunston in Rutland to complete a puzzle that is part of another series of puzzle caches called Curse of the Black Cat. we had walked about 12km on our hunts today.

Prestwold

2010-02-22T20:27:00.002Z

Thursday 11th February
After a bit of shopping in Loughborough we drove to Prestwold and found a small cache that had been set during the Caravan club rally last year. It requested that cachers log whether they are caravanners -so we can tick that one off! We then drove on to Rempstone and parked in the layby opposite the church. We walked across a footpath and after about 1km we came across a graveyard. It was quite surreal to see a graveyard in the middle of nowhere in the snow. We walked back to the car and then down the A60 for a bit to a footpath which went across a very muddy field. We then walked alongside a stream to find Borderline and Rockers cache 1. Although there was still quite a bit of snow along the path it was very warm in the sun. We walked back to the car after a short 7 km.

Rutland -Saints caches

2010-02-21T12:35:00.003Z

Saturday 6th February
There are a series of caches on Geocaching.com which are very fiendish puzzles. We solved and found a couple of the caches a few weeks ago but having solved a few more we decided on another trip to Rutland. Finding the cache is usually easy (having found where to go) but it is following the instructions included in the cache which causes the problems. We had found "Hobnail Staith" -St Botolphs a few weeks ago but had struggled with finding the hidden coin that gives extra information. So today we started off by visiting Wardley and taking a walk down the muddy lane to find the coin that we missed two weeks ago. The cache owner had told us that it was still in place we went to the co-ordinates and I spotted it straight away this time. We noted the details and returned to the car. We then drove to Ridlington to do the next cache – “Neat Stripe and Apian Lust”. For this we had to find some information in the church and then add it to the co-ordinates we had worked out at home. These led us to Preston, which we had visited a few weeks ago. We followed the footpath and found the cache. We took a copy of the Saints Blessing and tried to work out where to go to complete the puzzle. It had us foxed, so we drove to Lyddington to find some lunch and see if we could solve the puzzle. We had no luck with the puzzle but did have a nice lunch at the Old White Hart. We then walked to the hiding place of the third Saints puzzle "CatsFire". I had solved the location for this yesterday, but we did not have co-ordinates,just a rough location. We chose what we hoped was the correct direction, and walked down the lane towards Thorpe on the Water, we knew we were looking for a footpath and a stile, 1.15 miles from Bedes house! We found a footpath and a stile and hunted for the cache but no luck. We nearly gave up but decided to follow the footpath a bit further. We crossed the river Welland which was very full; the foot bridge vibrating with the force of the water as we waked over it, and then spotted another stile a bit further on. Bingo – we found the cache. This time we knew what we were doing with the additional clues – 2 vials of herbs, that we had to identify and then use to gain the co-ordinates for the last bit of the puzzle. We headed back to Lyddington and off on another footpath, which we slipped and slid along as it was very thick with mud. After a bit of a hunt we found the last bit of the puzzle. We have now solved 4 out of 8 of the Saints puzzles and have collected information from 3 of them. It was getting late so we headed home, leaving the 5th puzzle for our next visit. As soon as we got home we managed to solve the clues from Neat stripe, so that will be found on our next visit too. We had walked 9km on our various trips today.

Dunstall circular

2010-02-21T12:28:00.005Z

Monday 1st February
No work today so we decided to do the Dunstall circular cache walk. We drove to Barton under Needwood, parked and set off for the first stage of the walk. We spent a bit of time looking for the first cache unsuccessfully (we found out it was archived when we got home), and then set off across the field towards the next cache,which was very small, but hidden in plain sight,but well disguised. We then headed towards the woods where we found another cache. It was very slippery here as the ground was icy so we walked carefully down the slope and out into a meadow. We followed the path across the field with views of a lovely house and church on the opposite side and emerged at the Old Hall farm which was having a lot of work carried out; scaffolders and builders everywhere. We left the farm track and emerged onto the road which we followed to Dunstall, where we found a cache near a well; it was a stone lion but the water in the trough was frozen solid today.

From here we followed the path along field edges to Highlands Park, another large house covered in scaffolding and then headed back along a path towards Sprinks Bank farm. We struggled with finding a cache here but John braved the hawthorn and found it. We found the next cache under a bridge, to the sound of barking dogs, and then headed away from the farm to emerge at the other end of Dunstall, where we went to have a look at the church which had very impressive stonework inside the church. We followed a bridleway through the woods, past the lake (which was frozen) and eventually arrived back at Barton under Needwood. We found two police officers by our car, because they said it was causing an obstruction. It wasn’t our car causing the problem but all the mummy’s picking up their darlings from school who were parked opposite!

Belper, Derbyshire

2010-02-07T16:34:00.003Z

Saturday 30th January
It was a nice day so we decided on a Peak district walk. We drove to Belper and parked in the market place. It was lovely and warm as we left the car so we wondered if we needed coats, but took them just in case. We walked up the Butts and then onto a rough lane leading out of Belper. We stopped to find a cache in a field containing a nice horse called Partridge (or that’s what it said on his stable, any way). He munched on his hay whilst we hunted. We then continued up the hill and found another cache. It was the first of a series where we had to collect the numbers from the cache to find a final cache at the end of the walk. We got to the end of the lane, crossed the road and walked onto a track that went past a reservoir and then past a farm, across a field and through farm stables. There were several horses in the field but they ignored us. We ended up in the corner of a field where we had a cup of coffee and then went for a short diversion along a footpath that was along a disused railway and under a tunnel under the A38. It was an interesting path, the sleepers and tracks were still in place. John will map it on OSM when we get home. We walked back onto our route and followed the path through a lovely bit of woodland and over a stream. We emerged into Holbrook. There was a nice pub here – the Dead Poets which served very good beer but no food. We had a bag of crisps and ate our sandwiches in an alcove near a roaring fire. It was very cosy and we had to drag ourselves away to carry on with our walk. We walked along the road and then joined a farm track that led back towards Belper. It was bitterly cold now but we found a few more caches and completed the sums needed to get the co-ordinates for the final cache. Unfortunately my PDA decided it was too cold so stopped working and we were unable to get the co-ordinates to put in the GPS. We will have to come back to find that cache another time. We had found 12 geocaches and walked 10 km.

Egglington, Derbyshire

2010-01-23T22:12:00.002Z

Monday January 18th
As it was still dry we decided to go for another walk before the snow comes back in. We drove to Eggington (Derbyshire) and parked. We walked out of Eggington finding a few caches as we went, and then walked along the busy road, beside Eggington common. Everywhere was very wet and flooded. We walked along the Etwall road and then took the footpath that followed a lane past a farm. We were heading towards a cache called Shall we play a Game, which had been quite a fiendish puzzle. John had solved the tricky bit this time. We crossed a field with a stream running though it, although it was difficult to see where the stream really was as it had escaped it’s banks a bit and then we crossed a bridge and found the cache – being surprised to find we were only the second people to find it. We continued across the field and emerged onto the new Sustrans cycle path. We diverted along the path to look for a cache –we were unsuccessful this time, and decided not to continue along the path as it was so smelly – there is a nearby composting unit which may have been creating the pong, or it might just have been farming smells. We walked past Derby airfield and were treated to a light plane coming into land and then taking off just before it set down. We decided someone was having a flying lesson.
We had a bit of a problem finding the next footpath but eventually found the path and headed off across more very muddy fields before arriving back in Eggington. We walked through the village and visited the church, which has a working gaslamp outside. The church was locked but we did get to look around Wilfs retreat, a peaceful area which had been created from the BBC Breathing spaces scheme. We followed the road from the church towards the A38 but took a footpath just before we reached it. We had a bit of a problem deciding where the path went, but eventually found a stile which led into a field of sheep with new-born lambs. I bet they were pleased they hadn’t arrived last week. We had more trouble with the footpaths – they don’t mark them well around here, but eventually found one which led through the garden of a rather posh house. John decided the footpaths needed mapping correctly so we took a further lap round following all the paths. The paths were either not marked or had stiles which were very high and with no cross pieces. Not easy for people with short legs! They are obviously trying to dissuade walkers but John will now have all the footpaths on Open Street Maps. We had walked 9.3km.

2010-01-18T21:05:00.004Z

Sunday January 17th
It was dry and all the snow had gone so after ages without a walk we had the opportunity to stretch our legs. We drove to Etwall, Derbyshire and parked near the church. We started off by getting lost, we followed a path which led through school grounds. We didn't think it was right but it was leading where we wanted to go and there were other people walking there. We got onto what appeared to be a path but we soon realised it was a path running above the path we wanted, and there was a fence separating us. We followed along the ridge and eventually found a way to get down onto the cycle path. We followed the lane and emerged into a different part of Etwall and then headed along a footpath across a very wet field leading to the busy A516. We took our lives in our hands as we crossed the road and headed into a field full of sheep. We were amused by the sheep as they all lined up to cross over a bridge, stand at the top to admire the view and then walk down again. We found a cache and then left the field and climbed up onto the disused railway. We diverted a little from the track to find some caches – one of which was hidden in the pocket of a scarecrows dungarees! We returned to follow the disused railway for a few miles, finding several caches as we went. There were several stretches of the path which were still very icy and slippery. The railway path eventually finished at Mickleover, where we walked around the roundabout and then followed very muddy fields to Burnaston. We eventually left the fields, with heavy boots clumped with mud, and walked along the lane back to Etwall. We had walked 12.7 km and found 14 caches.

First walk of the Year -Frisby on the Wreake

2010-01-06T13:56:00.003Z

Sunday January 3rd
It was a cold but bright day and as heavy snow is forecast over the next few days we decided to go for the first walk of the year while we can. We drove to Frisby on the Wreake, which is on the Leicestershire / Rutland border, and parked opposite the pub. The pavements were very icy and we had to be careful as we got out of the car. We slipped and slid up Bell Lane and then found a footpath between two houses. We passed through the gate, and were intrigued by the way the gate was hung; it was too close to a tree, and so a large chunk had been cut out of the tree enabling the handle to pass through, and the gate to open. We crossed the field which was frozen and covered with a light dusting of snow. A couple of horses were huddled under their coats looking very cold. As we approached the first cache site there were suddenly walkers appearing from all directions, so we had to admire the view until we could hunt for the cache. It was quickly found and we continued our walk. Several large fields were crossed until we emerged into Kirby Bellars. We diverted to find a cache and then walked down a small lane to a bridge where there was a lovely view of the church. We walked along an embankment, though a field containing lots of black sheep with curly horns, and then over a bridge which had crossed an old canal and then onto an icy lane, which led to Ashfordby Valley. We had planned this to be just a diversion to get some caches but studying the map we discovered we could use a different footpath to make a small circular walk. John is putting all the footpaths from our walks onto Open Street Maps so using new footpaths helps build up the database. We walked along the road at Ashfordby and eventually found the footpath, leading back over the fields towards Kirby Bellars.
At the church we turned right and followed the paths in the snow towards the lake. The lake was frozen but was covered with birds, lots of swans, ducks and geese. We were treated to the sight of a flock of swans taking off. The noise of their wings was incredible as they took off from the frozen lake. We were surprised to see that the footpath went straight through the middle of the lake, it was built up on a small embankment, and we then walked beside the River Wreake and the railway until we got back to Frisby. As we were signing the log book of a cache by the church, two people came towards us, they were also cachers and had been doing a similar walk but in the opposite direction. We had walked 10.5 km and found 11 caches.

Last walk of the Year - Breaston

2010-01-01T16:43:00.004Z

Thursday 31st December
It was a lovely day today –cold crisp and bright and after the excesses of Christmas we needed a walk. We drove to Breaston which is close to Long Eaton. On the way we drove past a spot where we should have emerged on a path during the latter part of our walk, only to discover that the path was within a Severn Trent water works and meant that we would not be able to do that stage. We parked opposite the church and set off across the fields. Our path was quite dry but the rest of the field was under water and the next field which was also flooded had a horse standing in the water. Our field contained a couple of rams, with very impressive horns, who decided to take an interest in us, luckily we were quickly over the stile, as I think they could have done quite a bit of damage! We crossed the railway and walked along a pleasant lane to a new plantation known as Orchid wood. There was a cache in the nature reserve so we diverted off the path and did a lap around the reserve, finding the cache on the way. A lady passed us with two dogs one of which was very bouncy but after a stern “Sit” from John he promptly obeyed. We continued along the footpath and arrived at Church Wilne. There was a lake here called St Chad’s Water and after finding a cache we decided on a complete lap of the lake, to make up for having the latter stage of our walk cut short. There were lots of birds on the lake, which was frozen at the edges, including swans, moorhens and cormorants. We continued our walk along the road and then crossed a bridge into a field and followed the footpath to Great Wilne. We checked the map to see how the walk should continue and found that we could do a little more and then use the MidShires way to head back towards Breaston. It was a lovely walk even though it was a series of small circles. We found 5 caches and walked 10.5km.
We managed to walk 1276 km this year, a slight improvement on last years 1208 km.
The camera was found (left in the caravan) so Ican now start adding pictures again!

Ticknall to Foremark reservoir

2009-12-31T19:48:00.000Z

Saturday 19th December
We hadn’t had the forecast snow at home but it was cold, frosty and bright sunshine so we drove to Ticknall and parked in the community centre. We followed the footpath beside the cricket pitch and into the new woodland where there was a smattering of snow on the floor. We found Bolt on By cache and then continued our walk towards Foremark. The views were good as it was so crisp and clear. We followed the footpath towards Bendalls farm and then walked along the road and into Foremark reservoir. We stopped at the visitor centre for a cup of chocolate, sitting on the snow covered benches - good job our trousers are waterproof! We then walked on to find a Cup of Tea beside the Sea cache. This was a bit strange as it was a sandy bay which looked like the seaside instead of beside a reservoir, although today the sand was covered in snow and white rocks in the water looked like ice-bergs! We continued through the reservoir park following a couple with a dog. At one stage the man climbed over the fence as the dog’s ball had gone over. As soon as the man got over the fence the dog jumped over and collected his ball himself!
We left Foremark and crossed the road to a footpath. We followed the path to The Scaddows and alongside strawberry fields (must remember this walk next summer!) where we lost the footpath for a while. A lady came out of her house and pointed us in the right direction. The last path was followed back to Ticknall. We walked through the churchyard which had several ruined arches standing in the grounds, the remains of a previous church. We had had a lovely walk of about 9.4km kicking through the snow and jumping in the icy puddles! Unfortunately I have mislaid my camera somewhere and so could not take any pictures.

Lincoln Christmas Fair

2009-12-30T16:36:00.001Z

Thursday 3rd December
We were up and hitched up by about 10.15 and arrived at Whisby at about 12. We are staying with South Lincs DA again for the Christmas Fair rally.
It was very cold and wet, the field is a bit boggy but ok. We decided against putting up the awning as it was so muddy. We caught the rally bus at 4.30 and got to Lincoln at about 5. We walked round the fair looking at things and eating lots of nice food. We had mulled wine and mince pie, some roasted nuts, then stopped for a hog roast roll with apple sauce. We bought some xmas tree decorations,ostrich steaks, kangaroo burgers and danish pastries. We had had enough by 7 so caught the bus back to the caravan.
Friday 4th December
We had a panic this morning as when I cooked the toast, smoke was coming from the back of the oven. We realised that the t-bag that John had dropped in the vent during the summer was now dry and smoldering on top of the grill. The smoke carried on for some time but then stopped. Hopefully it is now burnt out.
It was lovely and sunny, so we thought we would take advantage and go for a walk. We drove to Skellingthorpe, only 10 minutes away and parked in the community centre. We then walked along the disused railway finding a series of caches. They were all micros, but were hidden quite cleverly. We managed to find all 10 and then did the sums to find the final. It was a nice walk with good views and was surprisingly warm. The final cache was halfway back towards the car. We had walked about 10km by the time we got back to the car.
Saturday 5th December
We were ready early so decided to catch the 11 am bus which we only just got on. We were planning on doing a few caches, so set off to the conservatory to get some information. The fair was packed and it was almost impossible to move; you couldn't see any of the stalls as you were swept along in the crush. We finally got in to the conservatory and sat and had a coffee. We got out of the crush and walked to do the Seldom Seen series, they were all in nice little gardens around the city which are often overlooked . We eventually found our way down to the river and called into the Horse and Groom for some lunch. It took them over an hour to produce the sandwiches, by which time we had gone past hunger. While sitting there we discovered we were 40m from a cache, so went out and found a few along the waterfront before slowly making our way up Steep Hill, which was still packed. We went for hot chocolate at the referectory in the cathedral and then went into the cathedral for the carol's by candlelight service. We had planned on staying in Lincoln to eat, but it was pouring with rain and still crowded so we headed back to catch the 7pm bus.
Sunday 6th December
It poured with rain in the morning. We packed most stuff away and then went over to the Pride of Lincoln where there was a geocaching event. We went in to meet some new gcers and a few we hadmet before. We had lunch and a chat and then went back to hitch up the caravan. Everything was very wet but we got off the field ok and were home by 3.30.

All Tooled Up

2009-12-29T16:08:00.003Z

Monday 30th November
We decided to do a different sort of cache today. We sorted out a tool kit and drove to Croft to do a cache called "All Tooled Up". We were quite impressed when we walked into the playground beside the car park as there was an outdoor adult playground included. There were exercise bikes, rowing machines, ski simulators etc for a bit of a work-out. We walked across a playing field and the first task was to extract a film cannister from a hole, using the bit of cane we had brought. We collected the co-ords, and then onto the next stage where we had to find some numbers stamped on a gatepost. They were very small and required a magnifying glass. The next stage was missing but it didn't matter as there was only one footpath to follow. On the bridge over the river some more numbers were stamped. The next two stages involved using a magnet to remove a bolt, and a spanner to extract a bolt.The co-ordinates were stamped on the shaft of the bolts. We followed round the church to a tree where we had to use a bit of steel to pull out a bolt. Then into a new woodland where the co-ords were attatched to a chain inside a long tube. We had to make a hook to pull the chain up. We were then stumped, as the footpath was closed and the diversion was under a foot of water. We walked via the road to find the last clue but could not get to the cache as the bridge was also under water. It had been good fun solving all the clues even if we hadn't got the final cache. We will have to come back in the Summer when the water level has gone down a bit. We walked on to do "Neither on the hill or the hole" cache which was found easily and then we walked to the top of the hill where we had good views of the quarry and Leicestershire.

Caching and the search for a new GPS

2009-12-21T14:52:00.002Z

Tuesday 17th November
We decided on a trip to Nottingham to have a look at new GPS’s. We caught the park and ride (£4 per car) and got to the town at about 11. We first found a micro cache at Fletchers gate and then followed the GPS past the station and towards "Nutts in Nott’s" cache. This had been a puzzle cache which had had interesting logs posted on the web site so we felt we had to give it a go. We ended up near Anchor Supplies in an industrial estate. We spotted the "Geocachers Welcome" sign so wandered in. It was an Army surplus store and was filled with ammo boxes, old bits of artillery and various other equipment. We knew we were looking for an ammo box but didn’t fancy searching through all the boxes on display. We wandered up and down for a while and then someone gave us a knowing grin. He pointed out the Geocaching sign on a shop door. We hadn’t thought that it would be inside the shop -being against geocaching rules. We went in and the assistants grinned and we soon spotted a small museum, where we found the correct ammo box. The shop owner came over and had quite a chat with us. He has become very interested in Geocaching recently and was pleased to meet so many people in the shop. We eventually got away and walked towards the Trent where we found another micro cache before heading back towards the city. Our last cache was by the station – there had been youths lurking when we had walked past earlier but they had now gone. However, just as we had retrieved the cache a transit van full of police turned up and parked opposite. We felt a bit suspicious relacing the cache under their gaze. We had some lunch in the Salutation (very uninspiring) and then went to Blacks where we found both the Dakota and Oregon GPS on display. John tried the Dakota but found that the compass was dificult to calibrate.The Oregon was nice, with a big screen and extra functions. Looks like his birthday present might be ordered on-line when we get home!

Afternoon at Zouch

2009-12-19T16:07:00.001Z

Monday 16th November
We had planned a walk but just as I was loading up the GPS a new cache came in at Zouch. We changed our plans and decided to walk there instead. We parked in the little car park in Zouch and walked along the road towards the river. We were first to find the cache which was by the wier. The river was flowing fast so was quite impressive over the wier. We crossed the road and walked along the canal and river towards Sutton Bonington. We were aiming for the Soar Navigation cache but realized after a while that we were on the wrong lane. We continued to Sutton Bonington and then headed across the fields towards Kegworth. It turned out that we were doing the walk backwards as I had planned the field walk for the return route. However, it was quite pleasant and not as muddy as we had expected. We eventually got to the river and the new Kegworth lock. The cache was hidden near the old Kegworth lock which we didn’t realize was there. It was on the other side of the canal and involved walking carefully across the lock gates. The old lock has been filled in but the top of the rotting wooden gates could still be seen. We found the cache and then walked beside the river for the rest of the walk back to Zouch. There were plenty of ducks on the water so it was quite atmospheric walking along the towpath in the dusk. We found the Soar Navigation cache which we had missed on the way out, by which time it was getting dark. We got back to the car at a bout 4.30 after having walked about 9km - a nice short afternoon walk.

A walk fro Ruddington Country Park

2009-12-12T11:45:00.001Z

Monday 9th November
As it was another lovely day we thought we should take advantage so drove to Ruddington, (Nottinghamshire) for a walk.
We parked in the Country Park and after making use of the compost toilets - very clean and much nicer than normal public loos, we walked through the park and onto the public footpath running around the outskirts. The path passed a dog kennels - The Premier Hotel for Pets! The noise of barking dogs was awful and we could hear them for quite a distance. We walked beside the track of the Great Central Railway; There were no trains running today but the path was flat and dry and we had good views across to Gotham hills. We followed the path over Fairham brook, which was in a surprisingly steep gully, and then passed around a bridge. We found a cache here and sat on some concrete blocks to enjoy our lunch in the sun.
We continued beside the railway for a bit further and then walked under the railway and started to walk across Bunny Moor where we crossed a bridge over a ditch and found another cache. We followed the footpath to Bunny and then footpaths towards Bradmore and finally back to the Country Park. It had been a lovely days walk, the sunshine and autumn leaves giving everything a golden glow. We had walked about 10km and found 3 caches.

Watermead country park

2009-11-11T14:05:00.003Z

Saturday 7th November
We had to do some chores before we went out this morning. John bottled his homebrew beer which went well until the last couple of bottles when one broke and spilt all over the floor. A bit of cleaning up was needed before we could head out.
We drove to Watermead park near Birstall for a caching walk after the mornings bottling. After having a bit of trouble actually finding our way into the park we parked in the North car-park, and walked along the canal for about a km to find a cache. We stopped and had a light lunch at the Hope and Anchor and then carried on walking through the park.
There were lots of lakes and they were all full of birds and we were also impressed with this statue in the water.
We followed the footpath towards Birstall, still staying beside the water until we got to the south end of the park. Unfortunately the bridge to the other side of the park was closed for repairs and there was no alternative route round so we had to retrace our steps, and were not able to find 2 of the caches that we had planned or see the Watermead Mammoth! We did mange to find three other caches on the way round the rest of the park, one of which was very sneakily hidden. We got back to the car at about 4 after 10 km.

Calke Walk Caches, Derbyshire

2009-11-09T20:07:00.002Z

Friday 6th November
As rain was forecast this afternoon we left home early to do a caching walk at Ticknall. We parked behind the village hall in Ticknall and walked towards Calke Abbey, before we got to the drive we turned left and walked towards the new plantation and headed towards Vees wood. We had a diversion to find the first cache and then followed the path through the new woods. It was quite muddy and we were surprised to see deer slots in the mud. We walked through a lovely mature wood, named Robin wood, which was lovely as we could kick through all the fallen leaves. The path left the wood and we continued walking along the outside of the wood, until we emerged onto the track running towards the Melbourne to Ticknall road. We started to walk down the road but then found that there was a gap in the hedge which meant we could walk in the new plantation. We followed this for a while and then found that the path came to an abrupt end at a ditch. We had to clamber back onto the road and then re-enter the plantation a few yards further down (via the gate this time). This woodland is known as Poppy wood and after finding a cache and then been growled at by a dog - the owners just smiled sweetly, I had to return to the cache as I had left my walking pole there. We found a bench and sat and had a biscuit and then walked through the wood. There were lots of information boards telling us what had been planted in each section and how the woodland would be managed. We left the wood and walked down the bridleway leading to St Brides - a close of posh houses, and then found the footpath to the other Melbourne road. We walked down Robinsons Hill and took the footpath which led to Staunton Harold reservoir. We used the facilities and found a cache - which we were surprised to find we were the first to find. We then headed across the fields with good views of the reservoir. We crossed into the Calke estate and walked along the limeyards arriving back in Ticknall. We had walked 11 km. found 7 caches and got home just before the rain started.

Harlaston, Staffordshire

2009-11-08T14:18:00.003Z

Monday 19th October 2009
Time for a decent walk as John's dodgy knee is feeling a bit better. We drove to Harlaston which is just into Staffordshire. The small village was quite pretty, although there had been a lot of new building in the area. The church was unusual (although I forgot to take a picture). It had a black and white tower, and dated from Saxon times, with medieval and Victorian additions.
We walked along the street and found a footpath which wound alongside several pretty gardens and emerged by a farm. The footpath sign pointed to a pile of rubble and farm equipment blocked off with barriers. Hmmm, no way through there then. The cow barn was open (and empty) so we walked through and reached a field edge. We were walking parallel with the path we should have been on, so followed it until we reached the area where the footpath proper joined the field.
The next part of the walk was over fields with new crops but no signs to show the path, and when we did reach the stile it was broken with no cross step, so we had to carefully climb over the barbed wire. It was lucky I had put the route on the GPS, so we knew where the paths went; when the crops are grown it will be impossible to see the path .
It was warm and sunny and we had good views across the fields and we followed the path over Hogs hill (which was really very flat) and emerged onto Syerscote lane, a gated road which we followed for a while and then sat on a verge to eat our sandwiches and have a cup of coffee.
After lunch we followed a permissive path (rather than the lane) to Twizzle lane. We were surprised to walk around large fields full of elephant grass. I assume it was for biofuel.
After reaching Haunton we used the footpath to walk parallel with the road back to Harlaston. We had found 6 caches on the way round and wanted to do another before we left. We took a footpath near the church and crossed a field which had heifers in. All was well as we crossed the stile but as we found the cache we could hear snorting and puffing. As we went to go back over the stile all the cows had come to see what we were up to. John bravely persuaded them to move away from the stile and we crossed the field with them showing no further interest. Our walk had been 10km.

Rough Park walk

2009-11-07T09:36:00.002Z

Wednesday 14th October
We only had time for a short walk today so headed off to find some caches around Rough park. We parked at the Lount nature reserve and then walked along the road to enter the park via the bridleway. This was another local nature reserve that we hadn't realised existed and only found because someone had placed geocaches there. We walked along the track and stopped to find "Curse of the First to Find no 8". It took ages to find and then we finally found it in the first place we had looked!
This nature reserve is a mixture of ancient woodland and new National Forest plantations so there was lots of birdsong as we walked.
We continued around the trail and found "Rough Speaking" geocache, hidden in a tree trunk. As we followed the trail we passed a small orchard with 3 large pigs in it. They were having a bit of a tussle and charging at the fence. We walked on and found "Rough Rising" on the outskirts of Rising wood. It was starting to get very noisy here as the park was running close to the A42. Our last cache was found at Rough Water, a small lake. We finished the walk by following the path back to the road and then back to Lount reserve. It had been a short 5 km but had at least stretched the legs.

Clifton Campville

2009-11-03T16:36:00.002Z

Monday 5th October
We decided on an afternoon walk so drove to Clifton Campville near Tamworth, Staffordshire.
We parked on the main street and then walked towards the church which had an interesting millenium tower of tiles, with villagers names on. We had a stroll through the new plantations on Coneyberry Green and then crossed the road and headed across ploughed fields.
We had problems at one footpath junction as the footpath had been ploughed up whilst harvesting potatoes and there was no footpath direction sign. We ended up on the wrong side of the field but eventually got back to the right path.
We walked beside a fishing lake and a stream for a while with the path surprisingly going through hedges and over bridges, and not around the field edge as it looked like it should do.
We chatted to a dog walker for a while as he complained about the lack of signage on the paths and asked whether you could walk to Clifton across the fields. We assured him you could.
We headed towards Haunton but found that the footpath across the field was blocked so we followed the road. Haunton was a small village with a convent, a nursing home and lots of catholic statues.
Having solved the clues of a multicache, which we found in Twizzle lane we walked back to Clifton Campville. We diverted off to find a cache, which involved walking through a new housing estate and what appeared to be someones garden, but the path went around the back to a field. As we hunted for the cache a lady appeared and asked if we had found it. She was very chatty and said she enjoyed meeting the people who came to hunt for the cache. The walk was 11km.

EBE caching series

2009-11-02T16:19:00.002Z

Thursday 1st October
We decided on a walk today so drove to Etwall , in Derbyshire to do the WebRats EBE series (Etwall - Burnaston - Etwall).
The first problem arose when I overtook some lorries so did not see the signpost. We were at Utoxeter before we realised so had to turn round at the roundabout and go back about 10 miles. We parked in Etwall and set off along the road. This series had 16 caches in it so they were placed at fairly regular distances along the route. We soon left the road and set off along the border of the Toyota factory and into some very nice woodland. We found the Dave reincarnation cache, a bit off the beaten track, and also a cache which was disabled -not quite sure why, as it was clearly visible from the track and was well stocked.
We walked beside a stream for a while and then stopped by a bridge to enjoy a sandwich and a cup of coffee before walking onto the road which led to Burnaston. Here we diverted to find one of JustAlans puzzle caches. I had solved all these caches a while ago and this was the first time we had been in the vicinity to find one. Unfortunately this cache was not in a good condition so we have emailed the cache owner to do some maintainance.
We sat on a bench in front of the village hall in Burnaston for a coffee and then continued the walk. The next cache was near a barn, in a field of cows. I found the cache and hastily signed it before the cows became too nosey. We passed into some woodland and the cache listing here stated that it was the site of a secret nuclear bunker from the 60's. There is nothing there now as the site has been filled with farm rubbish but it was quite interesting to know the history of the area. Another Justalan puzzle cache was found, which involved me climbing through a hedge ad rummaging around an old tree stump before we were soon heading back towards Etwall having found about 20 caches, which has taken us into the top 1000 UK cachers. WooHoo!
We had walked about 9km so stopped at the Seven Wells in Etwall for our tea and to give the traffic time to ease off. We had two fish and chips for £9!

Curse of the Black Panther

2009-11-01T10:14:00.002Z

Wednesday 23rd September
We did a bit of gardening and then decided to attempt a local night cache, called Curse of the Black Panther.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=bb1246ed-9efa-433b-89c6-16f7a0bddac0
After dinner we drove to Albert village and parked by the road. It was not quite dark so we walked down the road to try another cache which was further down than I expected and by the time we got there it was too dark to see properly, so we abandoned it and walked back to Pick wood. Several bats flew over as walked up the road and past the lake. We put on the torches and followed the path to a large spoil heap which we climbed and after a bit of a search found the first cache - Pick Triangle. This area used to be the site of Wraggs pipe works but has now been planted up as part of the national forest. We then went to the correct place as mentioned in the directions and shone the torches around. John eventually spotted a reflection in the trees and we headed down the hill towards the reflector. We then stood and shone the torches again, and spotted another reflector on an information board. It was now quite dark and we stumbled through the grass and onto the next reflector. We could hear owls around us. It was a bit of a job spotting the next reflectors, but we did and then eventually spotted the one that the instructions said were only 30 ft from the cache. The cache was soon spotted but it was difficult getting it out of the hole, we had to did around it to remove it, we signed the log and put it back in as far as we could. We then had great fun trying to find the way back to the path and back to the car. The main paths certainly didn't show up well in the dark. It had felt like quite an adventure, even though we had only walked a few hundred metres. We did not see any night animals but did hear some owls. We got home at about 9 o'clock.

Kegworth canal walk

2009-10-20T15:06:00.002Z

Friday 18th September
We spent an hour in the garden clearing the bottom corner and then went to the organic farm to get some meat for Sunday and some lunch for today.
We drove to Kegworth where we parked by the canal. We started by walking across a ploughed field towards the railway where we had to go under a very low tunnel. I could just about walk upright but John had to duck. We carried on across fields emerging onto the road at Kingston. After finding a cache we sat by the memorial and ate our lunch - bacon puffs and a scone. We found the next footpath which went between some lovely cottages with pretty gardens. We crossed a little bridge and watched some fish and then headed towards the power station. We crossed another bridge where another cache was found and John spotted a yellow frog. We continued along the footpath towards the power station and then followed a zig zag path through lovely woodland and then across rough ground to the road.
The map was very unclear at this point and we headed towards the A453 but decided it was wrong so headed back but still could not find a path. We went into Ratcliffe village and found the path which was very overgrown but which went past a garden with llamas. The footpath signs disappeared and we suddenly came face to face with some very big and loud dogs. We hastily retraced our steps but could still not find the correct path through. Consulting the map we found a different way through but when we found ourselves at the river there was no way across so we walked back up onto the A453, crossed the bridge over the river and eventually found our way down onto the other side of the river. We enjoyed the stroll down the river watching the ducks and swans. We reached the canal and crossed back to the car after 8.1km.

Llandudno 3rd to 11th September

2009-10-17T19:36:00.003Z

Thursday 3rd September
We had a slow morning but were eventually packed and ready to go by about 11.30. When going to the car, I heard a dreadful commotion, it was a sparrowhawk with a blackbird. As I moved the hawk dropped the blackbird who hid in the hedge. I then could not find my house keys so we spent ages looking for them,they were eventually found tucked in a map on the floor of the car. We left home at 12.20 and arrived at Llandudno at about 3 having stopped for a sandwich and taken a wrong turn which luckily we could turn round in a petrol station. We are staying on Bodolfan fields which is right on the promenade. It is a THS run by the BCC-ribblesdale section. It was very windy, the tail end of hurrican Bob, so we did not put up the awning this time.
Saturday 5th September
I popped out to get some rolls and Emily and Mike arrived whilst I was out. They were staying at Penmaenwahr in Sylvia and Jeffs caravan. We had a cup of tea and then walked along the prom and took the tram up to the top of Great Orme. It is a cable tram ride in two parts. You have to get off halfway up to get onto another tram which takes you to the top. We had lunch in the café and then strolled around the top which was very windy. We found a couple of caches and then headed back down on the tram. Emily and Mike went back to change and shower and then we went out to find a restaurant for dinner. We went into a Mediteranean restaurant with a good selection of meals. Emily and I had tovuk rule, which was chicken with spinach and walnuts in a cream sauce. John had swordfish and Mike had sea bass.
Monday 7th September
It was a very windy night, but surprisingly warm and dry when we got up. We decided on a walk around Great Orme. I packed a picnic - Mike had bought us pork pies yesterday, and we set off along the prom. We walked towards Happy Valley and headed up through the gardens. After finding a cache we sat and ate our pork pies, enjoying the views. It was very warm, and we had worn coats thinking it would be windy so overheated a bit.
We climbed past the ski slope and followed the path towards St Tudno church. We diverted through the heather to find a cache, and then went down to the church. It was very small and pretty but had a very large cemetary, considering there is only a small population on the Orme. We were pointed towards an unusual grave of a lady, Buzzin Bee, Ms Hot Rod of the 20's who buzzed round Wales on her Beezer bike. Her gravestone was a motorbike wheel with wings.
We headed from the churchyard up towards the summit stopping under the cablecars, which were running, to eat a muffin, and then headed to the summit café for a cup of tea. We walked off the top and explored a small disused quarry where the rocks were full of fossils of big shells.
We had collected all the information for a multicache, so set off on a pleasant walk around the headland. The views were stunning and the heather and gorse beautiful. As we approached the cache area we walked through sheep tracks in the heather and finally found the right place, an ammo box hidden in the gorse. We had a lovely view of the lighthouse which was castellated! After this we headed back towards the church and then followed the tram lines back down to Llandudno. It was very steep walking down the hill. We had walked 16km.
Tuesday 8th September
It was a lovely day so we decided to finish our walk at Conwy that we had started on Sunday. The entrance into Conwy is stunning as you drive over the river and beside the castle. We parked near the castle and walked into the town to buy some huntsmans pies from the butchers. We then found a path heading along the shore. We diverted into Bodlonbed woods to find a cache, where we had very good views across the sea.
We followed the path to the marina where we stopped to eat our pie whilst watching a shag. As we walked off to find a cache we disturbed a flock of lapwings -2 adults and several young. We walked round to the marina again to pick up a clue about the wartime Mulberry harbours. This clue led us back into the town and then out the other side, up a very steep hill to a trig point. We found the cache and enjoyed an alternative view of the castle. We finished with a walk around the town walls and then went for a drink at the Liverpool Arms near the harbour. We had fish and chips sitting on the harbour walls whilst watching the birds.
Wednesday 9th September
We had a quiet morning, it was sunny but very windy. In the afternoon we decided on a walk to Little Orme.
We walked across the road from the site and found Bay View cache, and then walked along the road to enter a nature reserve. We walked to the trig point on Little Orme and then across the top to find a cache. We then followed the North Wales footpath to find another cache and walked around the cliff top looking for another. Unfortunately it was 50m away at sea level and we could not see a way down. We back tracked and followed a path down an inclined plane to the sea. We found the cache and then tried to work out how to get back. We decided to go back up the inclined plane and follow the NW path. It started to rain near the top and then the path disappeared. The rain got heavier, we were soaked and unsure of the way. I spotted the trig point and we followed my instincts which were right. We eventually regained the right path and got back to the van, soaked through having walked just 7.84km.
Thursday 10th September
It was a beautifully day so we decided to stay a bit longer rather than go home. We decided on a day on Anglesey starting by driving to Beaumaris, where we strolled along the water and round the castle. After lunch we drove to Din Lligwy where we stopped to do the neolithic village and butial chamber earth caches. They were very atmospheric. We drove down to the beach and walked along the coast path for a while and then decided to drive home.

South West Holiday: Powderham Castle, Devon - edited highlights

2009-10-15T13:31:00.005Z

Sunday 16th August
It was the last day of the Temporary Holiday Site so after going to the DA coffee morning we hitched up and set off. We decided not to go to Cornwall as it would be too long a drive along busy, narrow roads but headed instead to Powderham castle, near Exeter. The journey was very good until the end when I missed the turning. We ended up driving to Dawlish before we found a place to turn round. We set up in the middle of the field with a view of the river,the deer park and the castle.
Tuesday 18th August
After breakfast we set off for a walk along the river. We crossed the camping field and left at the footpath onto the road. We followed the quiet lane to Powderham church which we could not look round as it was locked but did have a chat with a couple with a batty boxer dog. We then went to look for a cache but found another couple in the place we were looking. It turned out they were cachers called HikerCAI. We were wondering how to get the cache which was called Go Commando, and decided we had to "crawl" under the bridge. We made it under, it was very low, pebbly and seaweedy, and found the cache on the other side. Hiker returned under the bridge but we walked North along the shore line and were able to get up onto the cyclepath a bit further on. We found the next cache "Lonesome pine" which John went to get as there were cows nearby. We then walked on to the Turf Hotel where we met HikerCaI again and sat with them while we all had lovely crab sandwiches. We left after Hiker CaI and followed the canal towpath to the next two caches. The path was very uneven and we could tell that it had been very muddy as there were very deep cracks in the path. We followed the towpath up to the Olde Topsham lock, where I discovered we were only 100m from another cache. We found that and then crossed the bridge and headed across fields to the Exminster marshes reserve. We found the Exminster RAF cache and then walked down the lane which took us back to the canal. We walked back past the Turf and back to the caravan talking to some birdwatchers on the way who said there was an osprey in the area. We saw lots of egrets and a heron but no osprey. We walked about 12km.
Friday 21st August
Today we went for a walk in the Haldon forest. We followed the directions to the start of a cache where we found a car park. As we got there it started to rain so we sat in the car and ate our rolls. When it stopped raining we followed the clues for a multicache around the sensory trail. The views from the obelisk were wonderful - across to Dawlish, Exmouth and beyond. We finished off the sensory trail,dodging the showers and getting bounced by a dog with muddy paws. The final cache turned out to be near the carpark. We left the forest and drove toward Teignmouth. We parked in Little Haldon (NT), as it looked an interesting area on the map, and discovered there was a cache 60m away. It was a small offset so we walked off to do it. My gps said it was 100m E, Johns said 30m N, we checked Johns first and it was definitely wrong. We eventually found the cache and found there was another 500m away. We walked along the path and found Lidwell chapel ruins in a small wooded area in the middle of a field. It was very muddy and overgrown but we found the cache.
Saturday 22nd August
We pottered around in the morning and then decided on a walk around Exminster. We parked at Exminster marshes and walked across the marshes for a while, across a field of cows - very brave, and then emerged into Exminster, which was quite a pretty small town with lots of thatched houses. We took a footpath between houses and found a small cache and then walked beside the church but didn't find the way in. We walked across a road bridge, finding another cache. We walked beside the railway and headed towards the motorway bridge. We were in search of a cache called Kerplunk. John found the cache which was a long tube with cocktail sticks, in the bottom was a film cannister. We had to feed a magnet down and pull the cannister back up, feeding it through the sticks. It was more difficult than it sounds and took about 1o minutes to extract the canister and 15 minutes to feed it back in. After playing for a bit we walked on only to find that the footpath under the motorway had been blocked by workmen. We managed to get to the footpath by climbing over the fence but the path had obviously been blocked for a while as it was very overgrown. We worked our way through and then managed to find the way under the M5 and onto the canal path. We walked down the towpath to Topsham lock and then across the fields back to Exminster marshes.
We left for home on the 25th having had 3 weeks holiday for total site fees of £150 - not bad!

South West holiday - West Quantoxhead

2009-09-19T09:38:00.009Z

Monday 10th August
The Bristol rally finished today so we packed up the caravan and after managing to get off the field, which had dried out, we drove to West Quantoxhead, Somerset which only took about 90 minutes. This site is a THS run by Somerset DA at just£6 per night. The weather was clear when when we arrived and we were parked with a panoramic view over Bridgewater bay. Tuesday 11th August

A decent walk was called for this morning and so we left the site, walked along the lane and then headed uphill into the woods. It was lovely and sunny and dappled in the woods.

We searched for and found a cache next to an enclosure full of young pheasants and then walked on and emerged onto the hill. We sat near the top and ate a sandwich, with the sheep looking on, and a wonderful smell of heather and gorse. We walked over Beacon hill and then onto Stowbarrow hill. There were views across to Wales and Bridgewater and Minehead. We walked through the woods, found another cache and then descended to the pub (without stopping!) and back to the caravan.

Wednesday 12th August
We left at 12.30 and drove to Blue Anchor where we parked the car and bought a ticket to Minehead on the West Somerset railway -£4.60 each. The train arrived at 1.30 and we enjoyed the 15 minute journey. We watched the steam train turned round on the turntable and then walked into Minehead and along the front to the start of the South west coast path. We weren't walking that way today, but as we have done some of the other end of the SW coast path we thought it would be nice to visit the end! We were going to walk the other direction along the North Somerset coast path. We walked along the sand and towards Dunster beside a golf course most of the way and with views of the castle in the distance. We had an ice cream at Dunster and then found a"defence of the realm" cache. This was a series of caches near to pill boxes along the coast. At Dunster bay we were treated to a flypast by the red arrows, which was strange having seen a display by them at the balloon fiesta on Saturday. We carried on walking along the beach until we were back at Blue Anchor.

Thursday 13th August
It was a lovely day so we decided on a drive to Watersmeet. We drove to Porlock and parked, meaning to do some caches but we were in the village and not at the weir, so we just looked round the village and then had fresh crab sandwiches for lunch at a nice restaurant. We then drove onto Lynmouth where we had spent our honeymoon 31 years ago! Porlock hill was fun and we were glad we didn't have the caravan attached; we stopped at the top to admire the view. We enjoyed the drive over the moor with bright gorse and heather and lots of sheep and Exmoor ponies. We had trouble parking in Lynmouth but luckily I spotted a car coming out so we grabbed the space. We set off for a walk up to Watersmeet. There were lots of people but we managed to lose them so enjoyed the peace and the views. We stopped at Watersmeet House and had a slice of pie and clotted cream, yum and then walked on to Hillford bridge where we found 2 caches -1 good and 1 rubbish. We walked back beside the river and stood and watched a heron fishing for a while. When we got back to Lynmouth we had dinner at the Village Inn, rissoto for John, and salad with chicken, mango and goats cheese for me. We drove home across the moor with the sun setting behind us.

Friday 14th August
We had a quiet morning and then after lunch drove to Kilve and parked in the village hall. We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the walk but located the bridleway and headed steeply uphill through a covered path. At the top was a small field of cows. I was a bit nervous after our experiences in Bristol, but we walked straight across with no problems. We walked along the lane to Kilton and stopped to look at St Nicholas church, a wayfarers church. It had a very interesting chandelier made of wire mesh. We then continued along the lane to St Andrews church at Lilstock which had been abandoned but still holds one service a year.

When we reached the coast path we diverted East to find an interesting cache in an abandoned house. We couldn't find it, but it looked as though someone had moved in. We walked West along the path towards Kilve beach, finding 2 caches on the way. The beach consisted of layers of sandstone and shale and you could see the folds clearly. When we got to Kilve there was an oil retort where oil had been extracted from the shale before being abandoned as it was not profitable. We had walked 10.5km.

South West Holiday - Bristol

2009-09-18T19:07:00.003Z

Wednesday 5th August
We had a bit of a tour of the South West this year.

The weather was awful when we left home but we had a good journey,and arrived on site at about 2. It was dreadfully muddy and we had to be towed onto the site. Not a good start! We are staying with the Avon and Bristol DA for the Balloon rally. It was not a brilliant site being on a slope and sandwiched between the railway and the Bristol flyover but was a good base for seeing the hot air balloons and visiting the Banksy exhibition which was showing in the city.
Thursday 6th August
We were up earlyish, and after breakfast set off for a walk to the park and ride into Bristol which was good value at £2.50 return for both of us. We got off near the city and after getting a bit lost we found our way to the city museum to see the Banksy exhibition. There was a 3hr queue but it was quite fascinating watching the people in the queue. It turned out to only be a 2 hr wait, but it started to rain so we were soaked by the time we got in. It was very good but some exhibits were quite moving whilst others were clever. His art was placed among the real art as though to mock it. We also saw some of his work on walls of buildings and suspect a tour round the city spotting art would be interesting.

After tea we went up to the Balloon fiesta. Where we took part in the Geocachers Flash Mob event. At 8 pm a cacher blew a whistle and all the cachers converged on the spot. The idea was to blow up a balloon, sign the log, take some photos and then disperse within 15 minutes. There must have been about 200 cachers there and it was a very surreal experience.
We then walked to the arena and watched the night glow. It was very good, about 30 hot air balloons in the centre and burners round the outside, switching on and off to music followed by a firework display. We fought our way through the crowds and got home at about 11.
Friday 7th August
At 7am there was a mass balloon launch with about 100 balloons taking off. After watching the balloons we set off on a walk. We followed a footpath along lanes and through woodland. It was very overgrown in places and we were followed by a herd of cows in one field although they lost interest. We had lunch at the Welford arms, very good value, and then continued our walk. This is where it went wrong, it was not well signposted and there was a locked gate beside the sign.
We climbed over and found the next stile, which we crossed into a field of cows. They followed us across the field and we only just got across the stile. We walked across the next field where the cows also followed us. We got across the busy A38 with difficulty and had trouble finding the path, which had been diverted. We found a path, crossed the field where a herd of young cows chased us. And at the next field larger cows surrounded us snorting. I was terrified by the time we got through the gate. We followed the diversion but still found we were off course. We climbed a gate and walked back to the road and walked further down the road to the lane. This turned into the lane our campsite was on. We got back feeling very stressed and found the gas had run out!
Sunday 9th August
We woke to another mass launch, this time with the wind in a different direction so the balloons were coming much closer, 1 right over the field. The RAF balloon did not get enough height and came down next to the railway. We managed to move the car out of the field which had dried up quite a bit and drove to Weston super mare for the UK 2nd geocaching mega-event held at the Winter Gardens. We met the Web Rat and the Rascal Gaskels, geocachers from our local area and then went to find some lunch - fish and chips eaten on the prom, and then found some caches which had been placed specially for the event. We found about 8 during a very hot walk around the town and then went back for the closing ceremony.We got home in time to see the last mass balloon launch.

Ross-on-Wye, 21st to 28th July

2009-09-02T14:16:00.006Z

A few highlights from our trip to Ross on Wye.

Tuesday 21st July
We had a leisurely start and left home at about 12. We got to Carthage farm, Foy, Ross on Wye at about 2 having driven for about 3 miles down a single track road -very scary when towing the caravan! We are on the top of the bank overlooking the river, we were advised not to go too close to the river as they were unsure how high it would rise after the recent rain.

Thursday 23rd July
We were up reasonably early (mainly because we had a wagtail tap-dancing on the roof and peering through the skylight) and decided on one of the walks in the Walk this Wye booklet.

We drove to Goodrich where we parked in the castle car park and found the clues for a cache to be found on the walk. We walked down to the village and turned towards the school and followed the footpath behind the school and through a field to St Giles church. We passed through the churchyard and along a grassy path to a road and then into a Herefordshire Nature Reserve which was a small orchard with cider apple and perry pear trees. We realised our path did not go through the orchard so retraced our steps to the road and turned right passing the home of Joshua Cristall a watercolour artist.

We walked along the lane and into a field of alpaca, one of which was particularly interested in us. They had recently been shorn and only sported nice little curly tops on their heads. We crossed two fields and then across a busy road, and then up a steep track and a path into Rocklands wood. This was a lovely ancient woodland with lots of beech mast and hazel nuts on the floor. We looked for deer but did not see any.

We emerged into a field beside the river Wye. We spoke to some other walkers, who had seen deer and then we saw a bird of prey come out of the woods which was possibly a goshawk.

We passed under Yat Rock, and saw a heron fly over, and then walked through a field of Hereford cows. At the end of a field I saw 2 deer disappearing down a track. We realised we had missed our path so walked back through the cows to the path. We walked up the long steep path through the woodland onto the top of the hill, seeing several deer, one with a fawn as we went. We walked along to Coppett hill and found "Welli's wander cache", and then on a bit further with lovely views of the Brecon beacons and Goodrich castle. We arrived at the Folly, a ruin of a rabbit warriner, where we sat for a while and then found our 2nd cache, Coppets folly. We passed a trig point and then zig zagged our way off the hill and back to the castle where we had coffee and cake! 11km

Friday 24th July
We were up early, breakfasted and out by 9 so that we could drive to the Severn Bore Inn as a bore was due today. We got there by 9.40 and walked to the river where several people were already waiting. It started to rain and thunder but we were wearing waterproofs so were ok. The bore was due at 10.21 but did not arrive till 10.45. There were about 40 people waiting to see it and 3 surfers. The bore was not as impressive as when we saw it in 2006 as this was a 2* and last time was a 3. But it was still worth seeing. The water level rose by about a metre.

We left after the wave and drove to the Forest of Dean where we parked in the visitor centre. After a light lunch in the café we headed off to follow the Sculpture trail. The trail consists of 17 sculptures of which I can't say I was impressed by any. Especially not the pile of coal dust with wood stuck in it. The Place and Cathedral of the Forest were quite good though. We collected answers to clues on the way round so that we could find 2 geocaches. Unfortunately I did the sums wrong, twice, so we were looking in the wrong place for a while. We found them in the end though. We were lucky to spot a small lizard scampering across the path on the way round.

Sunday 26th July
Heavy rain was forecast for today but it was dry all morning. We went out at 12 and took a very narrow road to Sellack, where we went into the Lough Pool Inn. It was a lovely black and white pub with 2AA stars where we had a sunday roast. It was a bit light on vegetables, but the beef was local hereford and was lovely, beautiful light yorkshire puddings and nice roast potatoes. We had a nice desert too, I had goosberry and white chocolate mousse with tuille biscuit, John had lavender crème brulle with short bread. After coffee we continued our drive and went through Hoarwithy, where we stopped to look at St Catherines church which had been Italianised in 1870. It was beautiful. Lots of columns, mosaic floors, the apse columns were made of cornish and French marble on green marble, and the altar was made of lapiz lazuli and tiger eye.
We then drove on to Dinedor to the hill fort. We drove along a very narrow lane, John was cursing me, the gps pointed up an even narrower hill but we were worried that we might not be able to turn round so I walked up on my own to check. It was very steep and I was puffed by the time I got to the top. There was a small car park at the top so I walked back down to tell John. We parked at the top and found the cache we wanted wasn't the closest! We walked onto the hill fort and solved the clues for Dinedor camp cache and then hunted for High above Hereford. We couldn't find it so walked down to the car to get my stick, for rummaging. We came back, hunted again and was about to give up when I spotted it. It had now started pouring down. We went back to the car and sat for a while, then put on waterproof trousers and headed off through the woods to find the cache. We got back to the car and drove home. It was raining hard but was nice to be able to leave the wet things in the new awning.

Monday 27th July
We had torrential rain all night but it had stopped by the time we got up. After breakfast we drove to Symond Yatt East and after driving across a single track bridge and a very narrow lane, we parked at Symond Yatt. After wandering around trying to make sense of the map we realised we were parked in the wrong place and should have been at Yatt rock. We followed the footpath up to the top of the rock, very steep and wet, got caught in a rain shower and eventually found our way to the start of the walk. We treated ourselves to an icecream and went to see the view from the rock.

We looked down on where we walked the other day. The RSPB were at the top showing the peregrine falcons. After seeing them we walked down the road we had just walked up and headed off along a lane to Welsh Bicknor. It was steep and slippery and down wooden steps and stone steps to the river Wye. We were caught in another shower here but soon continued walking up the hill again, round huge boulders and ruined houses to a road. We walked across a field to the river on the other side of the Yatt. We stopped at the Saracens head for lunch, hot smoked salmon sandwiches and then walking along the river and through the woods to a rope bridge at The Biblings. There was a troop of scouts waiting to cross and they had to go across in groups of 6. We had to have a go once they had all gone, it was very bouncy.

We realised we had gone wrong so walked back and headed up the correct path. We were going to see the Suck stone but decided it was too much of a diversion so followed the path round and eventually got back to the top of Symond's Yat. We were very tired and had to walk down a very steep path to get back to the river and the car park. We had walked 14.4 km.

Catching up

2009-09-02T13:45:00.003Z

We have been very busy lately, away on several holidays, trips to Kent and also trying to make some headway in the garden - a hopeless task, which means I haven't blogged for a while.
I will now make some attempt to catch up with details of some of our walks.
Wednesday 15th July
A local geocacher had laid out a series of 18 geocaches on a walk around South Ashby so when the rain had eased we set off for a walk.We parked at Packington and set off along the road and across a stile into a field. We found the Brookside cache quickly and moved across the field. After finding a sneakily hidden cache near a footpath sign we continued across fields and along the path to Normanton le Heath. We walked past the pretty church, finding another cache, and then took the path through some very overgrown fields. One of the advantages of caching is that it encourages people to use the footpaths, and when these have become overgrown, they do tend to have ways pushed through them. This was the case with the next cache. The path was very overgrown but a few cachers had been through recently and so there was the beginning of a path through. We battled our way through and found the next cache, the path now emerging onto a lane. We followed the lane and this was where our luck ran out with the next 2 caches unfound. The skies were now beginning to look very heavy so we followed the road back into Packington having walked 9km and finding 8 of the 18 caches.
Saturday 18th July
We set out today to do the second half of the South Ashby walk. We parked in the same place at Packington and waited for a shower to stop and then walked back down the lane to try to find the cache that we had missed on Wednesday. John found it tucked in a hole almost immediately this time. We walked back up the lane to do "Stylish" cache, but although we hunted for ages we still could not find it. We eventually abandoned it and walked across a field and over a stile, to cross a field of corn. We diverted here to go into Sunnyside, a National forest wood to find another cache. We had to walk through very long reeds and although we could see where cachers had been before we could not find it.
We walked back to the footpath and crossed onto the road where we searched for "North Pole South Pole". This again took ages and just as we were about to give up I found it, tucked inside a gate post. From here we folowed the footpath across fields and walked parellel with the A42. Here we found "Hitch hiking", though I don't know why it was called that. We crossed the A42 and walked towards Ashby but diverted along Packington Lane and along the back of the school and quickly found "No way out". After this we walked down the road towards Packington finding "Foot high", on top of a footpath finger post. We walked through Mill Farm where they are converting barns and followed the footpath signs, unfortunately the path is not walked much and it was deep with thistles, brambles and nettles. We battled through and emerged onto a bridge where we sat to eat a biscuit. Two rams came over to see what we were doing although when it was clear they were not going to get any treats they waked away. We walked across the field and stopped to find "Stoned", a clever hide in a tree and then left the field and the rams. We crossed the A42, again, which was very brambly, and did the last cache. We then walked down the bridleway and back to the car. We had walked 9.5km and another 7 caches.

Ivanhoe Way - Nailstone to Shackerstone

2009-07-09T13:57:00.003Z

Saturday 4th July
It was still warm with showers threatened but we decided to do the last stage of our Ivanhoe Way walk. We drove to Nailstone and parked outside the Black Bull. We walked along the very narrow lane out of the village and crossed the A447 into fields with very clear footpaths through oilseed rape, broad beans and barley. We emerged onto the road leading to Odstone and followed the road round to Odstone Hall where we came across a sign saying “road closed due to flooding”. We debated a bit but decided the footpath was still open so continued through. As it was, the path was a bit wet in places but we have walked in much worse and you wouldn't have got a vehicle through even without the flooding!
As we were walking along here a group of horse riders passed us, then another, and then another. We decided we were in the middle of an organised trek. We stopped and watched the riders for a while and then battled our way along the footpath which went through oil seed rape which had collapsed over the path, it was a struggle to get through and when we got to the end we met the riders again who had diverted round the farm.
We emerged into Shackerstone and thus ended the Ivanhoe Way which we had started in November last year. We had a celebratory lunch in the Rising Sun and then set off for the return journey.
We followed the path beside the canal for a little while, and then headed across meadows towards Tivey's farm. This was where things began to get difficult. We had trouble finding the footpath and then when we did the stile was obstructed by a large pile of building rubble which we had to climb over, we then could not find where the path went but when we found the sign the farmer had conveniently dumped a very large, fresh pile of cow slurry just I front of the stile (or it was a very large cow)! We managed to negotiate this safely and then again found there was no indication of where the path went, so we walked around the side of the field - the wrong side I suspect and eventually found a way out onto the lane.
We managed to follow the path clearly for a while, still meeting horse trekkers, their route left ours a bit further along this path.
We crossed the road at Odstone and followed the path, but here we had problems as the farmer had divided his fields up with electric fencing and wire barriers, completely obstructing the access to the footpath. We managed to get over one fence and walked up the track to the farm where we were able to rejoin the footpath, but at various intervals he had placed electric fences across the path. We met two walkers coming from the other direction that were lost and said they had been unable to find the path as the signs were hidden and the path blocked with fences. We managed to eventually get through to the A447 at Ibstock, but not without having to climb over two more wire fences and cross a field with cows and a very large bull.
We crossed the road and walked behind the church yard to emerge on a lane at Belchers bar. We were unsure of our way here, but a man in his garden pointed out the path. We crossed into the fields and were a bit nervous to see cows at the bottom of the field near the stile. After all the reports of stampeding cows over the last few weeks we were a bit worried, especially when we saw that one cow had some very young calves. We walked around the cows and although they seemed interested they did not move. We crossed into an area of National Forest plantation which also did not seem to have a clear path through but eventually emerged near to the church in Nailstone. It was very warm when we got back to the car and we had walked 13.8km - although it had seemed like more.

Flamborough Head, 23rd June to 30th June 2009

2009-07-07T14:18:00.004Z

After a hectic few weeks we decided a break was called for. We hitched up the caravan and left home at about 11 and had a steady journey to Flamborough. Just before we arrived a stone was thrown at the car window which caused a big chip - a good start to the holiday. We finally arrived at about 2.30. The temporary holiday site is a nice flat field beside a farm and is run by South Lincs da (£7 per night). It was lovely and sunny and we sat out and read before having an early tea. After washing up we went for a walk and headed towards the cliffs. There was a footpath beside the farm and we walked beside fields of broad beans to the cliffs and turned left towards South landing. We walked along the top and then down the steep steps towards the beach and then followed the path inland finding the clues for a multi-cache. We found the cache spot but could not find the cache after an extensive search, it had been a nice walk though. We walked back along the cliff top and got back at about 9.
The weather was mixed over the next few days so we relaxed and did a few small walks exploring the local area.
Thursday 25th June
We drove to Bempton, only a few miles away and parked near the church. We walked to the duck pond where there were lots of ducks- one mallard had 16 ducklings. We found Bempton ducks cache and then walked across a field to Bempton sheep cache. It was a bit thistley and John had shorts and sandals on so after finding the cache we walked back round the road. We then drove to Bempton cliffs RSPB nature reserve and parked. We had a very nice organic roll for lunch and then walked along the cliffs towards the gannet colony where it was fascinating to see the birds, with thier chicks clinging to the cliffs. We also saw a few puffins here, which I had always wanted to see. We walked back and along the cliffs in the other direction where we saw lots more puffins, kittiwakes with young, razorbills and guillimots. It was a lovely day. We then found the clues for Bempton seabird colony cache and found the cache just before we left for home.
Sunday 28th June
After our chores we set off for a walk. It was warm and not too cloudy but we carried fleeces and waterproofs, just in case. We walked towards Flamborough, passing through the churchyard, where we had to wait for members of the congregation to clear the path. The vicar waved at us in a friendly way as we went past. We followed the road all the way to North landing, enjoying all the pretty gardens. At North landing we had good views of the caves which had been used by smugglers to store their contraband. We collected a clue for a cache we were going to do later and then started to walk round the cliffs. We stopped several times to watch the birds on the cliffs. We saw more puffins and guillimots, and further round kittiwakes with their fluffy chicks. We continued heading toward the Head and passed a heathland area with lots of pyramidal orchids in flower. When we got to Flamborough Head we stopped to look for a cache but the area was very overgrown so we did not find it, but we continued to find the clues for another cache. I did spot a frog though. We had lunch at the uninspiring pub near the lighthouse, a sausage baguette and very greasy chips and then went to find the cache that we had collected the clues for. There were some people sitting on the bench that we needed to search so we admired the view for a while. We saw a kestrel dive and catch a small mammal, and then chased by a kittiwake which caused the kestrel to drop his lunch. After the men moved from the bench we went and searched for the cache but were unsuccessful, again. We continued our walk round the head, passing the lighthouse and the radio transmitter station. The tramsmitter station sounds a fog horn every 90 seconds, which we can hear from our caravan site, but which is quite deafening when standing under it. The South side of the head was not as interesting as the north. The cliffs were not so visible so we could not see the birds, but there were lots of butterflies along the route. There were also several inlets which meant descending steep flights of steps only to climb back up again on the other side. We got back to the caravan at about 5.30, having walked 12km
Monday 29th June
We got up early and as it was our last day we didn't want to have a long walk so decided on a a geocachey day.
We drove along Woldgate parked along the road, and walked along the bridleway to Carnaby temple which was a folly built in the 18th century. We hunted for a cache for a while but were unsuccessful as everywhere was so overgrown. We then drove on to see Rodston monolith. This was an impressive stone in the churchyard, at 8 metres tall it is the tallest standing stone in the country. We followed the clues and had a walk around the area finding 2 caches and then after lunch in the pub we drove onto Burton Agnes. This cache had us fighting our way across a field of oil-seed rape. The flowers had gone but the seed pods were developing and the plants had collapsed across the footpath so it was quite a struggle, we searched for a while and eventually found the cache. We realized that this was part of a series of caches so we took the co-ordinates and went back to the car. When we got there a 1954 Ferguson tractor was parked in front. It had been beautifully renovated and the owner chatted to us for a while. Our next nearest cache was at Harpham about 2 km away so we drove and parked in the village and after finding the footpath walked across the field and quickly found the cache. It was another part of the series so after taking the co-ordinates we decided we had to do the next two. We drove a short distance to Bracey bridge, a picnic area off the main road and set off to find the next cache, this took quite a while as the satellite reception was very poor in the woods but we eventually found the cache and the last set of clues, which led us to the village of Kilham. We parked near the school and set off across another footpath over a field of oil seed rape. It was really hard work across this field and as we approached the cache area we noticed men on a crane working in sight of the cache. Luckily we were on the other side of the hedge and after quite a hunt in all the nettles and thistles, and scrambling under the hedge, I found the cache. We found a much nicer path back to the car, which went past the village pond, complete with ducks. We drove through to Bridlington after this and had a nice walk along the prom and had fish and chips sitting watching the waves. Considering most of our day had been spent in the car, we were surprised to find that we had walked over 12 km.

Japanese lady

2009-06-22T19:48:00.002Z

This is a slight change from the usual walking related blogs, but I had to display my recently completed embroidery.

The Japanese lady cross-stitch was started by my mum shortly before she died in 2005.

I have been working on it since then and finally completed it in March 2009 - mum would have been a lot quicker than me!

I hope you enjoy the picture.

Ivanhoe Way; Bagworth to Nailstone

2009-06-22T19:23:00.003Z

Saturday May 23rd
We had had several attempts at doing this section of the walk but for vaious reasons we had not succeeded getting beyuond the parking spot. There are no photos today as I couldn't find the camera.
It was a nice day so we decided on another attempt. We drove to Bagworth and parked opposite the very uninspiring church - it is just a concrete box with a concrete tower!
We left Bagworth along the bridal way and followed a field hedge with a view of Nailstone church spire in the distance. We descended a shallow valley and crossed a stream at the bottom and then approached Nailstone village. We walked round to see if the Nut and Squirrel pub was open. When we did this section when doing the Leicestershire Round the pub was closed but we were pleased to see that it was open today. We spoke to the landlady and she said that she had taken over and opened the pub on Bank Holiday Monday -just two weeks ago. She didn't do meals but did do cobs, so we had these for lunch. It was very hot by now.
after lunch we left Nailstone by walking through the churchyard and heading across fields towards Barlestone. We had to divert round the village as the footpath took a strange route and whilst crossing the fields we were surrounded by about 6 horses - We have since found that the collective noun for a horses is a harrass and we were certainly harrassed by them. We persuaded them to let us pass and headed around the fishing lake in the next field.
We walked beside the stream for a while and then walked across Bagworth Heath, through all the new forest plantations back to the car in Bagworth.
When I got home the camera was on the breakfast table!

Gotham, Nottinghamshire

2009-05-11T14:40:00.002Z

Saturday 9th May
In the afternoon we drove to Gotham for a geocaching walk.
We started off walking along the main road and then diverted off along a footpath beside the British Legion club and then taking a stiff climb onto Gotham hill through a field full of cows. It was here that we had to stop to read the information board giving us the answer to the clue for the geocache. Unfortunately a cow was feeding her calf next to the board. John managed to get the information while I kept a safe distance. We calculated the co-ordinates and the cache was some way off our route so we decided to just collect the information needed and come back for the caches another time.
We walked across the top of Cottagers hill where we did find Rockers 2 cache and then descended the hill, stopping to look at the information board about wartime Gotham, and viewing the pill box. A hare ran across in front of us here. We crossed the road and headed towards Cuckoo bush farm, where we diverted off towards Crowden wood where we found the West Leake Hills cache. It was lovely and sunny as we descended off another hill and walked towards West Leake. We took a footpath beside fields and found a cache beside an old Dew pond and then had a pleasant walk up another hill in forestry land. We then walked along a pleasant wooded lane to get to the Cuckoo Bush tumulus where the Wise Fools of Gotham tried to fence in a cuckoo so that it would sing all year. We finally emerged onto the road at Gotham having walked 11km.

Shap to Wet Sleddale

2009-05-06T10:22:00.004Z

Wednesday 29th April
After two days of heavy rain it was sunny so we decided on a local walk. We walked down the lane near the farm and past Brackenber lodge the interesting house that we can see from the caravan. We followed the path until we got to a stream which we had to cross with stepping stones, and then on to Steps Hall where we went off to find a cache in a shake hole.
We retraced our steps to the hall and then followed on the path beside a wall. It was very boggy and we had trouble navigating, but got through in the end without getting too wet. We then walked beside the River Lowther to reach the bridge leading to the road to the reservoir. We stopped and found a cache in a small disused quarry, and then crossed the bridge and followed the road to the reservoir dam.
We walked beside the reservoir, Wet Sleddale, (that is what it is really called) for a while and then stopped to find a cache in a tree. After a brief pause for a biscuit we crossed a new bridge and then followed a wet and boggy path to a large outcrop of rocks where another cache was found under a large table of rock. We crossed another bridge and then proceeded to zig-zag our way up the steep hill past abandoned Sleddale Hall. As we crossed a stile we saw lots of tadpoles in a puddle in the path. We found another cache near the top, but then headed the wrong way. We climbed a very steep bank only to discover we needed to be on the other side of the wall, so had to descend the bank again and follow the path in the opposite direction. It was a lovely grassy path and we had very good views across the reservoir and towards Ralfland forest (it has no trees). We walked around some large outcrops of rock looking for a cache. The gps was erratic and had us going round, over and back, but eventually, just as we were about to give up we found it.
We continued along a wide path for a while and then turned off the path onto what should have been a footpath but was just a slight track through the grass, which needed a lot of imagination to follow. It was very boggy in places and we eventually arrived at a river and outflow to the reservoir. Luckily there was a small concrete slab for us to cross by. We folowed the path onto a lane and eventually arrived at Keld. We were lucky to find the chapel open so went in for a look. We then took a divertion off the path to find a cache at The Contemplation tree. We followed the road through Keld and then paths past the Goggleby stone and back to Shap. It had been 16.6 km.

Coast to Coast- Smardale Bridge to Kirkby Stephen

2009-05-03T16:26:00.003Z

Sunday 26th April
It was another good morning and we thought we shouldn't waste it, so after doing our chores we set off for Kirkby Stephen. We managed to park along the road and went to the TIC to discuss the disused railways. It turned out we could join the railway at Waitby. We had planned to walk along the road to Crosby Garret, but thought the railway walk would be nicer. We followed the road out of Kirkby Stephen and after about a mile turned off along a byway towards Waitby. We got to the railway and found there was a steep path onto the top. Once there, there was a good path and we followed it, with good views around until it came back down to the road at Smardale. We passed the site of the Kirkby Stephen rail crash which had occured in 1955 and there was a sign saying that the wreckage had finally been removed in 2002!
The wildflowers were wonderful along this section of the route, there were lots of cowslips and bloody cranesbill along the route. At Smardale we walked along the road for a short distance and then entered Smardale gill nature reserve which continued along the railway. This was full of primroses and bluebells. The railway was high above a valley and we could see lime kilns on the other side. We walked across Smardale Gill viaduct and then continued along the railway until we reached the bridge that we had crossed yesterday.
We left the railway line here and returned to the C2C, walking down the bank to Smardale bridge. We sat and had our lunch here again, the sun came out and we saw several walkers. After lunch we followed the path up onto Smardale fell. We stopped to see the Giants Graves, (pillow mounds), but could only see one. We did see a heron flying over the beck though.
We continued to climb onto the fell, and then walked across the grassy tracks for about a km until we came to a road, we walked along the road for about 100m and then turned left down a road towards Waitby. We left the road by a stile and headed across the field towards the Settle to Carlisle railway which we walked under and into a field full of cows. They were quite interested in us but not for long. We crossed more hay meadows until we came to Greengriggs farm. The path went through the farm yard but they had posted an alternative route and so we took that. We emerged onto a lane which we followed back to Kirkby Stephen. We had walked 14.8 km. Our original route was 16.7km so the railway route had saved us 2km and was nicer than walking on the road. We have now done 82 miles of the c2c.

Coast to Coast - Tarn Moor to Smardale bridge.

2009-05-03T16:01:00.004Z

Due to my cancer treatment last year we have not done any more sections of the Coast to Coast walk so decided it was time to remedy this.
On Friday 25th April we set off with the caravan for Green Farm in Shap. We had to wait for the bin men before we could leave bu tonce they had been and the bins brought in, we set off, only for John to not remember whether he had locked the front door, so I had to run back down the road to check it - he had. We had a very good journey with no hold ups and even managed to get into a caravan bay at Charnock Richard for a spot of lunch. Most of the caravan only bays were taken by cars and vans!
We arrived at Shap at about 3 and set up camp. We are staying at Green farm, opposite the Greyhound Inn. We stayed here last time, and although it is close to the road it has good views of the hills and a field of sheep and their lambs to watch. After a cup of tea we went for a walk over the fields to the Gogglby stone, where we found a cache and then walked through the village checking out the shops and pubs.
Saturday 25th April
We were up quite early and after breakfast John went to the butcher to get us some dinner (prize winning cumberland sausage) and I made sandwiches for our walk. We drove to Orton and then along a very narrow lane (a cycle trail really) to Sunbiggin tarn, we went the wrong way first and had to turn round and go back along another very narrow lane - good job we didn't have the caravan behind us! We parked at Sunbiggin tarn and walked back to the point on Tarn moor that we had left on our last Coast to Coast section on July 2007.
We walked down the road following the c2c and turned off onto Ravonstonedale moor. We had a bit of additional exercise here as the wind grabbed the map from my hand and we had to chase it for 50m or so. We walked across the moor and through lots of heather until we came to a bridge over a very wet area. The heather gave way to grass and we enjoyed an easy stroll along a very soft surface -it felt just like carpet. After about a mile we crossed a narrow track and carried on past a reservoir and beside a stone wall until we got to Bents farm. We had good views of the Pennines ahead of us and through the binoculars got our first view of Nine Standards Rigg. As we stopped for a biscuit a walker came towards us. She was from Maine and doing bits of the c2c. We crossed the wall at the stile and contined along past Severals village settlement - an ancient monument where now only lumps in the ground can be seen.
Once past here we walked down a steep bank, round railway cottages and over the disused railway line to work our way down to Smardale bridge. We sat on some stones here to eat our lunch. Two herons flew past as we sat and a wagtail bobbed on the wall.
We enjoyed our break and then set off along the valley bottom towards Friars Bottom farm, playing chicken with the lambs. They always gave in first! We crossed the disused railway and continued to Brownber where we crossed some fields to a lane. We followed the lane to Rig End and then followed a path across Ravonstondale moor. This was not signposted and we went through a rickety gate tied up with string. The path was shown on the map but was not visible on the ground so we followed the gps to keep us on the right path. It started raining here so we stopped to put our coats on. We finally made our way back to the bridge that we crossed on the moor earlier and then retraced our steps back to the car, soaking wet after 14.8km and having done another 4 miles of the c2c.

Another caching day.

2009-05-02T19:21:00.002Z

Monday 20th April
I had a check-up at the hospital today so as we were halfway to Market Harborough we drove there to do some puzzle caches that we had solved a while ago. We parked in the centre of the town and bought a sandwich which we ate whilst sitting by the corn market. The weather was lovely for a change.We then drove to Great Oxenden for a walk. We started off by finding a cache in the village and then walked along the Jurassic Way for a while. We had problems finding the footpath but a local man told us it went up the side of a house. We had quite a chat with him about walking, farming and sheep dogs. We went on our way following the Jurassic way. We had to cross a field of young cows which were all huddled round the stile we wanted, but we bravely walked through and they ran off. We were looking for a puzzle cache in the next field, I thought I had solved the puzzle and the location looked promising on the map but when we got there the gps was pointing into the middle of a field so was obviously wrong, so we abandoned it and continued our walk. We walked through a farm and came across 2 ladies with prams who had just gone through a field of cows. We decided that if they were happy pushing babies through, the cows must be ok. We shooshed them away from the cattle grid and walked over. They started to follow us but soon lost interest. We got to Clipstone and hoped for a drink but everywhere was closed so we continued back towards Gt Oxendon and the Brampton Valley Way, a disused railway that has been converted into a cycle path. Here we looked for another puzzle cache. We found the right place but had to cross a broken fence so thought we might be trespassing, but after quite a hunt John spotted the cache. We contined along the BVW and back to the car. We had walked 14km.

Easter Break in Kent

2009-05-01T19:03:00.005Z

It's time to catch up with some of the walking that we have been doing. We had a break in Kent staying with dad and a few walks were taken.

Friday 10th April, Good Friday
We decided on a walk today so drove to Westerham and parked at the NT car-park at Chartwell. We left the car-park and turned onto the footpath following the northern edge of the estate and then walked up quite a steep hill to Hosey Common lane, where we crossed the road and continued on a bridleway, through woodland to French Street hamlet. We were surprised that there was still evidence of the hurricane in 1987, with many fallen trees which were now regenerating and filing in the hedgerows. We turned right onto a footpath and descended steep steps to a stile which we crossed and continued across a field and then climbed another woodland path to a wooden bench where we sat and had a coffee and a hot cross bun.

More woodland was walked through until we got to Emmets gardens. The azaleas and daffodils were lovely but the bluebells were not out yet. We retraced our steps to the woods and followed the path. Unfortunately we took the wrong path here so after about 0.5 mile we had to turn round and retrace our steps. We got onto the right path and followed the path to Chart lane, diverting off for a short walk to find a cache. We then walked to the lane and down to the Fox and Hounds for a drink and bag of crisps.
After our break we crossed the road and followed a wide path to the remains of Weardale Manor. This 145 room manor was left to deteriorate in the 1920's and then the site was bombed in the war. There are lovely views of Kent, Sussex and Srrey from what had been the patio. We continued along the track and back to French Street hamlet. We retraced our outward route and then entered the Chartwell estate. It was raining by the time we got back to the car so we had been very lucky to have such a good day. 9.8km.
Monday 13th April
After just short walks on Saturday and Sunday - (Riverside park and a trip to Savacentre)we were ready for a longer walk. We drove to Shorne country park which had changed a lot since we had last walked here, about 20 years ago. There was now a large visitor centre and it was packed with families setting off for cycle rides.
We walked out of the park, crossed the A2 bridge and entered Ashenbank Wood. This was a lovely ancient woodland but we were surprised that there were no bluebells out yet. We walked through the woodland and followed the path beside orchards and oast houses into Cobham where we stopped to admire the water -pump (and found a very small geocache) and then went into the church to see the brasses. We walked through the churchyard and followed a wide green path beside orchards full of white blossom (cherry I think) towards Henley Street. We stopped for a break and then walked along the bridleway towards Luddesdown. We walked up a short but steep hill and had a brief look around the churchyard and at Luddesdown Court. We admired a field of pigs wallowing in the valley and then followed the path around to arrive at the Golden Lion, where we stopped for a drink and a bag of crisps.
After our break we walked up another steep hill and across a field, where the soil was very white and flinty compared with what we are now used to in Leicestershire. We walked through Cobhambury wood and followed the trail through Cobham park and past the mausoleum. It had been extensively refurbished since we had last seen it, when it had been highly vandalized, graffitied and surrounded by burnt out cars. It was now surrounded by high fencing so it was not easy to see the renovations.
After passing the mausoleum we walked through woodland until we reached Knights Place farm. We passed the farm and continued through the wood to reach the new London to Paris railway line. As we walked beside the line a Eurostar train passed at high speed.
We walked to the road and crossed the A2 bridge to head back through Brewers wood and back to Shorne Country park. It had been a good walk with plenty of wild flowers - anenome's, primroses, violets, blossom but only a few bluebells. We were also surprised to see a yellow frittilary on the bank as we walked back into the park. 15 km

Watlington, Oxfordshire 26th to 31st March

2009-04-16T09:52:00.006Z

We set off for our first caravan holiday of the year which was to be at Watlington in Oxfordshire with the Mountain Activity Section of the Camping and Caravanning club. We had a good drive to Watlington in sun, showers and blustery wind. As we drove towards the town a red kite flew in front of the car. We found the rally field without trouble and were greeted by the stewards who were very friendly. The holiday cost us £26.50 for 5 nights! As we pitched the caravan we were amazed at the numbers of kites flying overhead. Dad, who was staying at a B&B in Aston Rowant turnd up as we finished setting up and we set off for a walk into the vilage. Watlington was a pretty village and apparently is used for the filming of Midsomer Murders!
Saturday 28th March
Yesterday was spent visiting friends and so today was our first walking day. We found a parking place near Park Corner and then set off along the Chiltern Way to do the Chiltern Ramble geotrail. Lots of geocaches were found on the figure of eight walk. We first walked past Westwood Manor farm, and then up the hill to a nature reserve which will be lovely in a couple of weeks when the bluebells are out. We continued the walk across fields and through woods to Maidensgrove where we were treated to more views of kites. We continued round to Priors wood where we met another geocacher just as we were putting a cache back. We got back to Park Corner and crossed the road heading down the drive to Park Corner farm and then through more woodland returning to the car after walking 12km and finding 16 geocaches.
Sunday 29th March

We went for a walk with the MAS today. Dad arrived at 9.30 and we all set off at 10am. There were about 35 people in the group. We walked out of the site and started with a walk beside the Mark on Watlington Hill. This was apparently created so that when looking at the hill from the correct angle the local church would appear to have a spire on the top. There was a lot of stopping to admire the view on the way up the hill! Once at the top we walked along the ridge to emerge at Christmas Common. After a short walk on the road we entered Shotridge wood and then passed into Blackmoor wood. We stopped here, with a view of Paul Getty's estate, for a cup of coffee. We then headed into Bowleys wood and past Wellground farm, where there was a cage in the garden containing several boxer puppies. We continued in the woods with the roar of the M40 to our right and then continued onto Bald hill where we stopped for lunch. We were treated to wonderful aerial displays by red kites and also a plane dropping 4 parachuters which we were able to watch floating towards the ground. It was quite cold so after lunch we were pleased to drop down off the top.

We walked through the carpark into Cowleaze woods, where we saw lots of people with radios and Heath Robinson type devices. John asked what they were doing and was told they were radio direction finders. Somebody takes a beacon into the woods and hides and the other members take a bearing and the first team to find the hider wins. A bit like human geocaching!We walked along the sculpture trail and beside Shirburn wood and then walked down a very steep hill onto the Oxfordshire way, the Icknield way and then finally back to the caravan after walking 16 km.

We sat and had tea and cakes and watched about 30 kites exploring our field and taking food thrown out for them.
Monday 30th March
Dad left today and John and I set off for a walk up Watlington hill and then along the ridge towards Christmas Common. We walked along the road and entered a wood via a bridalway. We found a cache - one of the dawn to dusk series and then walked through the wood where we found a nice log to sit on for our lunch. After finding a couple more caches we walked up a hill and decided we had done enough walking so we cut our planned walk short and took a short cut home. We had still walked about 12 km by the time we got back.

2009-03-17T16:35:00.003Z

Saturday 14th March 2009
We drove to Billa Bara, a local hill, and parked. It was a nice day but there was a cold wind. We found the Ivanhoe Way and followed the path that we had missed on our last walk. The path went over waste land, then over a disused tramway and finally ran parallel to the road running through Stanton under Bardon. We walked alongside some allotments where every one was starting to get ready for the new season; there were some interesting bird scaring devices on the plots. We crossed a couple of pasture fields which had several rather friendly horses who wanted to investigate the contents of our rucksacks. We had to persuade them to move away from the stile so that we could climb over. We crossed the lane and entered a new section of National Forest called Partings wood, so called because it is midway between Stanton under Bardon and Thornton and was where lovers from the villages parted before returning home.
We walked through more plantations and then along a wide grass path by the side of a large field.
We emerged at the disused railway bridge near to Bagworth. We walked under the bridge and then diagonally across a field and round the bottom of a mound (complete with the first cows we had seen on a walk this year) to emerge at the road in Bagworth. Here we joined the Leicestershire Round. We stopped to search for a geocache in a new plantation and then crossed the railway line. We continued over the bridge at Thornton Mill, which had a lovely display of snowdrops and then walked into Thornton where we stopped for lunch at the Bricklayers Arms.
After lunch we walked along to the reservoir where we searched for another geocache. It was bitterly cold in the wind here. We did a complete lap of the reservoir, stopping to have a cup of coffee in a warm sheltered area. The water appeared to be boiling with the movement of loads of frogs in the water, the ducks were feasting on the spawn. We rejoined the Leicestershire Round for a short distance but left it at Manor plantation and walked through more woodland until we got to Markfield lane. We crossed the lane and crossed more fields until we emerged at the school in Stanton under Bardon. We walked through the village and walked back to the car, passing a big area of gorse giving off a lovely smell of coconut. We had walked 15.5km.

A short walk along the canal

2009-03-15T16:37:00.002Z

Thursday 12th March 2009
We had planned to do a section of the Ivanhoe way today but as John had chopped down a lot of the hedge yesterday we decided we had better shred it so that it could go into the green bins for tomorrows collection. By the time this was done it was a bit late for doing a long walk.
Instead we drove across Swarkestone bridge and parked by the canal. we normally turn left along the canal when walking here but today we turned right and followed along the Trent and Mersey canal towards Weston on Trent.
It was a quiet afternoon and there were only a few cyclists about but we had a nice stroll watching the ducks, swans and barges.
We walked as far as Shenton lock finding two geocaches on the way and then turned back and headed towards Swarkestone lock.
By the time we got back we found we had walked 10 km, not much short of the walk that we had originally planned.

A day of caching

2009-03-04T14:45:00.005Z

Friday 27th February 2009
Instead of a planned structured walk today we decided to do some caches. Some of these were very fiendish puzzle caches that we had solved some time ago and then not had the opportunity to find. We drove to Great Borden near Market Harborough and parked near the village green. We first set off to do a short multi-cache called Kiddies Delight, where we had to answer a few questions in the playground and then walk over the railway bridge into pasture where there were about a dozen horses; but they ignored us. We soon found the cache location which was very muddy and thorny, but I managed to get through, find the cache, signed the log book and then continued along the footpath towards Market Harborough. We next found “Where the sun don’t shine” one of the puzzles we had solved last August. We soon found Nasty the Gnome with the logbook placed Where the sun don’t shine! and then continued along the road where we found ourselves at Union Wharf, the location for "Confederate Hideout". The instructions for this one were a bit strange. We sat with our backs to Mr and Mrs Bushby, a bench near the canal basin, the instructions said that “if we pulled the chain it would not empty the canal”. We looked around and noticed a chain hanging from a barge mooring rope. Feeling a bit self conscious, I got up and pulled the chain. It was very long and I kept pulling, eventually a film fixative can emerged, which when opened revealed the log book. We signed the log and returned the cache to the water. We continued into Market Harborough and bought a roll from Subway for our lunch and walked back to the car, unsuccessfully searching for another cache on the way.
After lunch we drove along the A6 and parked in a layby to search for another puzzle cache. This had involved answering questions about 60’s tv detectives. I had managed to do most of them, some with the help of the internet. We found the cache which this time included a cd with clips of 60’s tv theme tunes, which we have to listen to and then answer the questions to find the next cache. We also found the "Hermitage" cache whilst we were here.
We then drove on and parked in Foxton where we found 2 more caches before walking along the canal to do another puzzle cache. Here we found ourselves at a Swing bridge on the canal. As we were trying to work out where the cache was, a barge came along and moored whilst the lady opened the bridge, which involved closing the gates to the road traffic and then swinging a section of the road across. The lady could not manage on her own so John helped. Quite fascinating as we had not seen a feature like this before. After finding the cache we walked along the canal and found another 3 caches. We then walked back to Foxton and the car. We had walked about 14 km and had had quite a fun day finding 11 out of 12 caches.

Ivanhoe Way - Agar Nook to Stanton under Bardon

2009-02-24T13:14:00.005Z

Saturday 21st February 2009
Today we set off on the next stage of the Ivanhoe Way. We parked in Agar Nook and followed the footpath between houses to emerge at the bottom of Bardon Hill. We crossed the field and instead of walking to the top of the hill, we walked through the woods, and round the bottom of the hill. It seems strange that a trail going around NW Leicestershire should avoid going to the highest point in Leicestershire, but we stuck to the trail this time as we had been to the top before. We crossed the very muddy quarry road, and entered a field. It was lovely and warm by now, so we stopped for a coffee and admired the view. It was strange that last week we were walking in the snow and this week we were overheating in our fleeces. The next path was very wet and we had to wade through several inches of water towards Rise Rocks farm, passing Old Rise Rocks on the way; quite impressive outcrops. We continued to the A50 which was being resurfaced, so was easier to cross than it would normally have been. We crossed the next stile into a paddock and passed some large stables, and then skirted Cliffe Hill quarry, with views of Billa Barra Hill on the right until we reached the road.
We crossed the road and walked down into Stanton under Bardon where we stopped at the Old Thatched Inn for lunch. After a ham roll we walked back up the road and took the path that skirted Stanton quarry. The area has been planted with trees so the quarry was not visible.
As we walked beside the railway a light aircraft went overhead and started to come down very low and disappeared below the hill. We walked beside the industrial park, through newly planted trees, crossed the railway and walked along the track beside Little Battleflats farm. Here we saw the aircraft that had gone over earlier, it seemed an odd place for a runway! We crossed the road and continued on the footpath across fields and past two barns towards upper Grange farm. Here the light aircraft took off and soared over us again.
As we walked across the field we saw a flock of fieldfares and redwings. We crossed several paddocks and passed Louella Stud before recrossing the railway and heading along the path between houses. We finally emerged on the road through Greenhill and then back to Agar Nook and the car.

Ivanhoe Way - Thringstone to Agar Nook

2009-02-17T16:29:00.003Z

Saturday 14th February 2009
Although it was cold, it was quite bright so we set off on the next stage of the Ivanhoe Way; another section done from home. We left Thringstone and walked along Grace Dieu Road to the point we finished at last time. We set off up the hill, passing the allotments and Grace Dieu vineyard and then through Cademan woods where there was still some snow around. Although we often walk through these woods we followed the Ivanhoe way this time rather than the permissive path we normally take. This area overlies some of the oldest rocks in the country, and many tor like outcroppings are visible on the walk through the woods. After passing High Cademan we followed a path beside a dry stone wall. The footpath was under several inches of water, so we sloshed our way through eventually emerging onto Swanymote road. We had a good view of Mount St Bernard abbey as we walked along the road to the junction, which we crossed and went along the footpath which skirted Ratchet hill. This area had been recently planted with trees as part of the National Forest.
We emerged onto Leicester road in Whitwick and followed the road opposite until we came to another Ivanhoe Way signpost. This led into Holly Hayes Wood, which is an area of ancient woodland which has been purchased by the community and is managed by the Grace Dieu valley project. We had a pleasant walk through the woods and then along field edges leading to Agar Nook. We were intrigued by a melted line in the snow in a field. The line was about 1.5 metre wide and crossed the field at a diagonal. There was no footpath in the field and we could only assume that there was a pipeline running under the field which had caused the snow to melt. The melted area continued on the other side of the ditch. Very strange!
We crossed Meadow lane and followed a narrow path alongside Castle Rock school and emerged onto the road at the bottom of Bardon Hill. We were leaving the Ivanhoe way here and turned down the road and followed a footpath beside a brook at the bottom end of Holly Hayes wood. We found two caches as we walked along this stretch. We then came to a large pond; in the past, the pond area in Holly Hayes wood was an area of great beauty. Unfortunately, the dam was breached and the pond filled with debris in the July floods a number of years ago. After over 300 volunteer man hours, the 'Friends of Holly Hayes Woods' have restored the dam and spillway to allow the pond to be retained again. We sat and enjoyed a cup of coffee, until some lads came along with their dogs, which proceeded to jump all over us.
We continued our walk and emerged in Whitwick, near the colliery winding wheel. From here we followed the cycle path –no 52, as we were intrigued to see where it went. It wound through several streets, doubling back on itself to finally get back on the path running through Grace Dieu woods.
As we walked along Grace Dieu Road a flock of geese in formation flew overhead. There must have been about 100, honking and flapping as they went; it was quite an impressive sight. We returned home from here having walked 11.7 km. It was a shame I had forgotten the camera as there were some good snowy pictures around.

Walking is suspended due to the snow!

2009-02-05T15:30:00.006Z

We have been hit with rather a large amount of snow here in the East Midlands. It started on Monday, when we had several inches of snow, froze on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we had several more inches of snow on Thursday morning.

Luckily we did not have to go anywhere so we enjoyed a short walk from home and even a walk into the nearest town to do just a little shopping.

Although the roads were clear on Monday, the local council was obviously caught out by the additional snow, as the roads were not salted on Wednesday and so were treacherous today.

The children have not been in school so there has been an explosion of snowmen around the village, and all slopes have been utilised as sledge runs.

Bluebell Hill

2009-02-03T13:10:00.004Z

Saturday 31st January 2009
It was a lovely bright day so we went for a walk with dad, Jenny and Brian. We picked them up and drove to Bluebell Hill and parked at the picnic site on Common Road. We set off along the North Downs way through some pretty woodland emerging onto a path running parallel with the busy A229. We followed the path until it emerged onto the old Bluebell Hill. Here we were a bit confused by the guidebook but eventually found the path that dropped down to the fields below. In the corner of the field was Kits Coty, a neolithic burial chamber.

We walked along the edge of the field and then through some woodland onto the road. We crossed the road and walked along the Pilgrims way for a short distance and then turned off along a track, with a view of Little Kits Coty (the Countless Stones), and some oast houses in the distance.
A short distance along the track we crossed into a field containing some horses, and then across a very muddy field. The farmer had reinstated the footpath by driving a tractor across to mark the position, so we could see where we were going but the tracks were very muddy, we all struggled with heavy boots and were glad to get to the end of the field. We used a wire fence to scrape some of the mud off our boots and then crossed a wet, but not muddy field. We should have crossed a stile halfway down the field, but it was broken and on the other side of the fence was a very large puddle. We decided to continue down the field rather than cross the fence, and found a way out at the bottom, a bit further along the road than we should have been. Unfortunately Jenny had a fall here, but apart from muddy gloves was ok. We followed the road into Aylesford. We had a drink and bag of crisps at the Little Gem, the smallest pub in Kent. This had been John's and my favourite pub, 25+ years ago and we were pleased to see it hadn't changed much, although it didn't do as many real ales as it used to.
After our break we had a walk along the street and a view through the houses to the river Medway. We then climbed some steps, leading up to the church and walked beside the churchyard to emerge onto the Centenary Way. The path went around a large chalk quarry and then across a field, and beside woodland, until we entered fields, newly planted with (possibly)grape vines. From here we could see where the cars were parked, on top of a steep chalk cliff. The Centenary way emerged into Eccles and then we took another footpath which passed through woodland and then a very steep climb to emerge onto the North Down's way again on top of the chalk cliff. John and I had a quick look for the Found View cache. We hadn't been able to find it when we looked at christmas, but this time it was quickly found, log signed, and then we drove home. We had walked 11 km.

Ivanhoe Way - Worthington to Thringstone

2009-02-03T12:56:00.003Z

Saturday 24th January 2009
It was forecast frosty but sunny so we decided on a stage of the Ivanhoe way. We left Thringstone at 10.15 and walked along the footpath behind Thringstone primary school. When we have walked this route before the path has been very difficult to walk with brambles and nettles, but it had been cleared and was a pleasant walk. We crossed the road and into a field where the large puddles had ice on, we continued across several fields and behind the sewage works and a large garden before emerging onto Sparrows road heading towards Osgathorpe. I discovered here that my camera would not work, possibly because of the cold weather, so no photos in this blog. We walked through the village, the steep hill was treacherous with ice, and then crossed a bridge over a brook to join a footpath across more fields and through a little bit of woodland where we stopped for a cup of coffee. We crossed a few more fields and then out to the road. We crossed the road and walked down Bull hill and into Worthington where we found an Ivanhoe way signpost, stating Gelsmoor 1mile. This is where we left the trail on our last stage. We crossed the stile and followed a line of pylons across the field. We walked along a hedge to the end of the field, only to discover that there was no way into the next field and that the path was on the other side of the hedge. Luckily there was a gap in the hedge about 20m back, thus saving us a long walk back. We crossed a field of sheep with a very inquisitive ram, and stopped for a cup of coffee on the other side of the stile.
The fields here are very varying in colour. The one we just crossed was very red in colour and the field ahead of us is black, with small pieces of coal visible.
There were 3 horses in the next field, one of which rolled over onto his back and had a really good shake before getting up and continuing eating.
We arrived at the road towards Griffydam which we crossed and after a short diversion, continued on the Ivanhoe way. We crossed a bridge over a stream and stopped to finish our coffee. There was a small pool full of bullrushes and bluetits singing in the trees. We climbed a short hill into Griffydam. The footpath sign on our side of the road pointed straight ahead, but there was no sign of a path on the other side of the road. We went to investigate further and a sign on a gate suggested that the position of the path had been changed. However, it still went through the garden of the house. The gate had netting across it suggesting that there are normally dogs in the garden, so we gingerly opened the gate and walked between the shrubs along a gravel path and past the swimming pool! We left the garden and crossed into more fields leading to a road and a sign stating that the footpath was closed. We read the notice and decided that the time period for the closure had expired and so we crossed into the field. The field was very boggy but we managed to get across and emerged onto Talbot lane. We crossed the lane and followed the path, through a field and onto Jeffcoats lane. The signpost here in placed at eye level, so that as you cross the stile,you are in danger of impaling yourself, very dangerous. (I reported it to Leicestershire footpaths, who are investigating).
From here we walked around a paddock and climbed the path, past the remains of Whitwick colliery, and onto Redhill lane. We followed the footpath towards Whitwick and emerged near the Oaks pub. We descended Dumps road and through City of Three waters to the signpost to Swannymote road, where we will pick up the Ivanhoe way next time. A short walk bought us back to Thringstone. We had walked 14 km.

Geocaching at Ticknall

2009-01-23T15:31:00.003Z

Tuesday 20th January 2009
We took advantage of the good but cold and frosty weather today to do some of the geocaches that had been put out for the emCachers mmeting tonight at Ticknall. We parked at the village hall and set off to find the first cache at Ticknall lock-up. the lock-up (known as the jug) was tocked into a small gap on the main street. It was a round building, about 8ft tall with a heavy wooden, studded door, no windows and a conical roof. It had been used to lock up drunks until early in the 20th century. The cache was found and signed and we set off along the main road towards Stanton's wood, a new area of woodland where the cache was located hidden in the roots of a beautiful old oak tree. We retraced our steps across the muddy waterlogged fields to the road to the footpath leading to the rear of the Calke estate where we were going to do the Calke-limeyards multicache.
We set off along the footpath looking for a tramway tunnel that used to transport lime from Ticknall to the Ashby canal. The tramway passed in a tunnel under the Calke estate. We couldn't find the tunnel but did find the Limeyards SSSI, which was a lovely area with a small waterfall and lots of ponds covered in ice. We walked further along the footpath but still no tunnel so we decided that the start co-ordinates for the cache wer wrong and decided to explore more of the estate along a footpath we had not found before.
We soon discovered we were close to Popping the Calke cache so diverted to find that. This put us on the right footpath and we came across the tunnel that we had looked for earlier - on the other side of the estate! We walked through the tunnel with just a penlight torch for light. It was about 150m long and quite creepy.

We found the rest of the clues in the SSSI and were able to calculate the co-ordinates for the cache which was found across a muddy field, hidden under a bridge. We retraced our steps through Ticknall and back to the car.
We returned to Ticknall in the evening for a meal at the Wheel and the emCachers meeting where there was lots of chat with some very dedicated cachers.

Ivanhoe Way: Heath End to Worthington

2009-01-19T17:09:00.002Z

Saturday 17th January 2009
It was forecast dry but gales later so we took advantage of the blue skies and set off to walk some Ivanhoe way. For ease of parking we parked at the Severn Trent carpark near Staunton Harold reservoir which is further along the Ivanhoe way than where we finished last-time, so will walk the IW in two sections today. There was only 1 car there as it was early (for us!). As we set off walking up the road, two buzzards were soaring over us. We looked for the signpost for the Ivanhoe way but either we missed it or it has been removed so instead of walking through Spring woods we stayed on the road to the junction and then crossed the road to the footpath to Scotland! We followed the Ivanhoe way towards Worthington and Lodge farm where we managed to find our way through the farmyard, even though the farmer had conveniently obscured the footpath sign, and down onto the road where we turned right to find the way under the A42. On the map the route wasn’t clear so we were pleased to find a tunnel which meant that we didn’t have to walk 500m there and back just to use the bridge. We continued through Worthington Field stopping on a small bridge just beyond a farm for a nice cup of hot chocolate from the flask. John was a bit shocked as I poured it as he had been expecting coffee so was surprised at the colour. There was an escarpment of rock in front of us showing evidence of land movement and stratification. There was red sandstone on the left and grey limestone (possibly granite) on the right. There was also a good view of Breedon on the Hill.

We finished crossing the field and emerged onto the road at Worthington. We meandered through the housing estate and into a field which we crossed to emerge onto a lane where we left the Ivanhoe way for a while and walked across very muddy fields. The footpath was not marked but there was a faint line of footprints that we followed up the hill into a wooded area. We descended the valley, where a squirrel crossed our path, and then crossed over a small stream. As we got to the top and were about to cross into the next field, something ran across in front of us. It was too large to have been a hare, but it may have been a fox or even a muntjak. We emerged onto the road under the A42 again and walked down the road to the Ferrers Arms where we had a very nice lunch.
After lunch we walked through some very pretty cottages in Lount and followed a green lane towards the Ferrers centre at Staunton Harold Hall. We had a look round the craft centre, especially the Victorian moving model shop, and listened to the tale of the 4th Earl Shirley of Staunton Harold, who was the last peer to be executed – 1760 for murdering his estate manager. After a bit of a problem finding our footpath we eventually found it and walked across some very wet fields to emerge at Heath End where we left the Ivanhoe way last time. We walked down the road and crossed to the bottom end of the lane to Staunton Harold. We walked up the lane for a short distance and then crossed into Dimminsdale Nature reserve. This was originally the site of lime kilns, now flooded in the Laundry Pool which is where the laundry cottages for the Hall were.
We emerged from the nature reserve onto the road by the reservoir and returned to the car having walked 12km.

Canal walk at Willington

2009-01-19T15:59:00.003Z

Wednesday 14th January 2009
It was cold, frosty and foggy today so we drove to Willington and did a walk along the canal. We had done this walk a few months ago but not written it up because it had been pouring with rain and an uneventful walk. We had found a few geocaches last time but more had been added along the route since we walked it. We parked near the canal and started off searching for a cache that we couldn't find last time we did this walk. We still couldn't find it so set off over the canal bridge and found the “Topsy and Tim” cache. We hadn't found this one last time either but it was quickly found today, log signed and rehidden. We walked along the road towards Findern, crossed the railway, and walked past the new marina, it was too foggy to admire the view. We found the “Cats eyes” cache that had been missing last time and then walked through Findern and over the canal bridge onto the tow path. Just before the bridge we passed an Indian restaurant with a motorised rickshaw in the garden and a thatch covered outdoor snooker table, I suspect it might have been a bit chilly for a game. It was still very foggy and all the trees and hedges along the towpath were covered in hoar frost. We continued along the canal passing several barges and finding a few more caches along the way.
We walked beside the bridge which had collapsed the day before we walked it last time. A tractor with a trailer of slurry had tried to cross it and collapsed into the canal. The bridge had been partially repaired and was now wrapped in green netting.
We stopped for a nice carvery lunch at the Bubble Inn at Stenson marina. The canal at Stenson was frozen but clear further down the canal. We then walked on and searched for the nano shasbot cache (a very clever container) and the Icebreaker; both were quickly found. We left the canal and walked along the road and round the perimeter of a field to rejoin the canal at Stenson, walking back along the canal again searching for more geocaches. The fog had cleared by now so we had good views of the power station. We found a few more caches, (one named Shadow of Giants Wive's Dresses - a reference to the shape of the power station cooling towers), but some were hidden too well. We arrived back at Willington at about 3.30pm and walked to the church to find the last cache. We had found 8 out of 11 today and walked 12.5 km. There were no photos taken today because of the fog.

Ightham Mote - Kent

2009-01-04T12:57:00.006Z

Tuesday 30th December 2008.
We decided on a post christmas walk to shift some of the extra calories, so drove to Ightam mote and parked in the NT carpark. It was -2 degrees when we set off but was a lovely bright day with lots of hoar frost. We walked round the mote and dad stopped to take some photos.

We turned left along a bridleway and quickly discovered we had gone wrong. We had made the same mistake last time we did this walk so returned to the lane and walked further along before turning left at the next bridleway and passing some Hoppers cottages. The path was beautiful as it was so cold, frosty but sunny, the path was frozen solid so was good to walk on. We were followed by a guided tour from Ightham mote but we turned off the path and climbed a steep path onto Birchet green where we walked through an orchard where the trees had lots of dropped apples on the ground. The blackbirds and jays taking advantage of them. We continued on the bridleway, through apple trees until we reached Stone Street.

We walked along the road for a short distance and then took the footpath between the vicarage and Stone house and climbed a steep hill into a Beech woods. We emerged at Seal Chart and took some time looking around the pretty church and churchyard. We then followed a narrow bridleway down to the A25 where we stopped for lunch at the Crownpoint Inn.

After lunch we bravely crossed the A25 and followed a permissive path through woods and behind the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Oldbury Hill. We crossed the lane and climbed the path around the hill fort at Oldbury Hill. We went round the top and then down to the lane recrossing the A25 and into Fishpond woods. Here we passed a man who was sweeping leaves up. It seemed a thankless task in the woods but it seemed he was collecting the leaves to put on his borders. We had a chat with him and then climbed the steep sandy track up the valley onto the ridge and then down a steep path back to the road and back to Ightham mote. We had walked about 12km.

This was our last walk of 2008 andwe had managed 1208 km, slightly better than last year and not bad considering the disrupted year we have had.

Ivanhoe Way - Ashby to Heath End

2009-01-03T14:07:00.004Z

Friday 19th December 2008
We had planned to park in Tescos carpark to walk a section of the Ivanhoe way today but on the last Friday before christmas was not a good idea. We drove a little closer to Ashby and found a side street to park in instead.
We walked towards the town passing a bunch of young Santa Clauses - it must have been the last day of school at Ashby Grammar! When we reached the town we turned along North Street and found an Ivanhoe Way signpost pointing into a busy haulage yard which wasn't a good sign. We eventually found the footpath behind a lorry and set off behind some houses. The path was muddy and continued across rough ground and then alongside the McVities biscuit factory and under a road bridge for the busy A511. The path opened out a bit here as we crossed Old Park Pale woods and then a cross road of tracks and continued through new plantations of trees. This area was one of three medieval parks once surrounding Ashby. The plantations had been fenced off to keep the rabbits and deer out.
We saw a man looking at his map here and he warned us there was a very boggy bit coming up. His wife then appeared and told us it had taken her 15 minutes to negotiate about 20 yards. John was not wearing his boots today so we thought this was going to be interesting! We walked through the small wood and crossed a bridge over a stream and then found the boggy bit. We managed to cross it without too much trouble, I suspect it was easier because we were walking it uphill whereas they had been doing it downhill.
We stopped for coffee and christmas cake at the next stile and then continued past a farm where we were chased by a flock of geese. They gave up when they were reminded how close to christmas it was!
The path continued to a lane which we followed to Heath End, a small hamlet where we left the Ivanhoe way. There should have been a pub here, which was marked on the map, but we could not see it (when I checked when we got home, there are mentions of the Saracens head, but it closed several years ago - presumably it is now one of the houses we passed). We walked along the road and then discovered we were off course, so we retraced our steps to find the footpath.
We crossed a bridge and then walked towards some woodland. The ground looked reasonably firm here but just before we got to the stile John found a wet bit and his foot went through the mud to the calf filling his walking shoes with muddy water -yuck. He shook his foot and we managed to get to the stile without further misshap.
We walked through a very nice stretch of woodland and approached a very slippery stile. As we crossed we saw some people approaching. They were the same couple that we had seen earlier. They commented on the muddy state of our trousers but said that the rest of the path was ok. We continued and crossed a large area of grassland which had a very strong smell of curry. We could only assume it was coming from the distant farmhouse but it was very strong. It started raining here so we stopped to put up hoods.
We followed the path round the farm and ended up on the busy A511. We had obviously missed a path somewhere. We walked beside the road for about 200m and then saw a footpath sign up the embankment. We climbed the embankment and a fence to put us back on the footpath and off the road.
The path passeed parallel to the road and then towards a farm. A man parked his car at the junction and let his dogs out to walk but they proceded to chase us down the road despite him calling them. John roared at the horrid yappy thing which turned and went back to its owner. We walked round the farm and emerged at the crossing of tracks that we had reached earlier in the walk. We had planned to do a circular extension to the walk here, but bearing in mind the mud and that we had parked closer to Ashby than originally planned we decided to retrace our steps along the Ivanhoe way. We had walked 14km.

Ivanhoe Way - Moira to Ashby de la Zouch

2008-11-27T09:38:00.003Z

Saturday 22nd November 2008
It was cold but bright so we set off to do an Ivanhoe Way walk. We drove to Moira and looked for the carpark marked on the map. We found it but it had been closed for some time - looking at the pile of rubble behind the barriers so we parked in the layby. We walked along the road and found the Ivanhoe way signpost pointing across some grassland on a path which had been very churned up by heavy machinery. It was very wet and boggy and I had forgotten to put on my gaiters - wet trousers then! The path crossed new woodland and beside a lake and then crossed several small fields with horses and then newly planted fields which were very muddy. Our boots were very heavy when we left the field. The Ivanhoe Way now passed along the road and into Ashby de la Zouch. This was a pleasant market town where we stopped for a light lunch. We then walked up to look at Ashby castle. Despite having lived within 5 miles of Ashby for 16 years, we had never seen the castle before. We were surprised at how much of the ruins were still there. The castle is not visible as you drive through the town.

Our route then became a bit boring as it was mainly road walking. We headed out of town on the Measham road admiring all the large houses along the way. We crossed the M42 roundabout and turned along the road towards Willesley where we crossed a bridge over the M42 and then walked beside Willesley golf course. We diverted off the lane and walked towards Willesley church and the scout camp. The church was abandoned and had been bought by the scouts for £10. Whilst we were looking for a geocache two men came over and asked if we had found what we were looking for. We explained geocaching to them and then asked about the church. One offered to show us round, so we had a good look at the windows, memorials and the tombstones to members of the Abney Hastings family dating from the 12th century.
It was very interesting and was the high point of a mostly road based walk. It was getting late when we left the church so we followed the footpath to find another cache and then walked back to the car just as the sun was setting. We had walked 13.2km.

Ivanhoe Way - Oakthorpe to Moira

2008-11-21T16:28:00.004Z

Tuesday 18th November 2008
It was forecast to be dry so we went off for a walk. We parked in Oakthorpe and set off along the Ashby wolds trail which is part of the Ivanhoe way. It was very Autumny - lots of leaves but bright and sunny. We last walked this trail on 8th June when it was full of wild flowers. Now it is a bit bleak but still interesting.
We followed the trail to Donisthorpe where we stopped to look for the "Church View" geocache. We tried to look round the church but it was locked. We diverted off the Ivanhoe way to go and look for the "Sword of Merlin" geocache. We walked through Donisthorpe and then across a field full of sheep and across a stream with no bridge but a piece of wobbly corrugated iron to walk on. We didn't get too wet! We continued along another field edge and then through a patch of nice woodland along an embankment. We searched for the cache for a while and eventually found it. Unfortunately, while replacing the cache, my flask fell out of my rucksack and rolled down the embankment. John nobley found a way down and reclaimed it. We retraced our steps to Donisthorpe and continued on the Ivanhoe way through Donisthorpe coliery nature reserve and on to Moira. We emerged on a path above the lime kilns and then onto the canal towpath by Moira furnace. We stopped at the café for some lunch and then crossed the canal and walked through woodland and out onto the road near Norris Hill. We turned off this road and walked down the road towards Willesley. This was a bit of tedious road walking but it did have lots of new plantations on either side.
At the bottom of the road we crossed into woodland. The tracks were very boggy and wet but the trees were nice. We sat by a lake and had a cup of coffee and then continued deeper into the woods where we found the "Heart of the National Forest" geocache.
The path continued alongside a lake, actually it was in the lake in places so we had to divert inland a bit. This path eventually emerged onto the road at Oakthorpe where we followed back to the car. 13.5 km.

Ivanhoe Way, Snarestone to Oakthorpe

2008-11-20T16:15:00.004Z

Wednesday 12th November 2008
As this was the only forecast dry day this week we had to take advantage. We drove to Snarestone and parked opposite the school so that we could do the next stage of the Ivanhoe way.
We headed across the playing fields and out onto the road towards Measham. This was a bit of a boring trudge along the busy road for about 1 mile. We then left the road and joined the Ivanhoe way around the perimeter of the Hanson brickworks, the path was very slippery but well marked. Behind the brick works we diverted onto a path through a nature reserve which turned into a disused railway line which came out near the old Measham station. This is supposedly being converted into a museum but was still currently deserted. We walked through Measham millenium garden, past a large mosaic sundial, where an alsatian that wasn't on a lead seemed to take a dislike to me. His elderly owner shouted at him but he ignored him. I think it might have been my walking pole that he disliked!

We emerged onto Measham High street and crossed to the Ashby wolds trail. We had walked some of this before. It is a disused railway which has been converted into a cycle path between Measham and Moira.
We left the trail at Oakthorpe by a large mining wheel and followed the road into the village. We saw a flock of bullfinches in a tree by the road.
We left the village and diverted across fields and into Saltersford Valley Park to find a geocache (Kermite Revenge). John saw a kingfisher on the flash pond but I missed it, but we did see coots, grebes, seagull and ducks. After finding the cache we retraced our steps to Oakthorpe to find somewhere for lunch. The Holly Bush was closed at lunchtimes but the Shoulder of Mutton was open, so we had a baguette and a pint. It was ok but not very inspiring. When we continued the walk we passed the Gate Inn which was also closed, so a village with 3 pubs had only 1 open. This is something we are finding very often when we walk. Pubs are either closed at lunchtime or converted into Indian or Chinese restaurants. We walked across a field and then through a farm which was basically a junk-yard, it was full of piles of refrigerators, radiators and other scrap. We had to be very careful walking across as stuff was hidden in the slurry. We eventually found our way out of the yard and onto a footpath which was only about 20m from the path going behind the brick works that we had taken on the way into Measham. We stopped for coffee overlooking a field of cows and then crossed over the field and out onto the Measham Road. We then crossed more fields and then entered what looked like another junk tip as there were several scrapped cars abondoned, they were all sporty expensive cars that looked like they had been involved in accidents. Walking on we came across two military tanks and realised that the area must have been a driving assault course with the cars as obstacles. We walked along a green lane which emerged onto the road leading to Snarestone. We left the road on a footpath through the woods and then behind some very nice large houses and onto a railway embankment. The path deteriorated into a very muddy path which took us back to Snarestone. We had walked 14.7 km.

Ivanhoe Way -Shackerstone to Snarestone

2008-11-10T12:35:00.002Z

Friday 8th November 2008
After what seemed like weeks of dull, dingy, drizzly weather, it promised to be fine today and so we decided on a proper walk. Having finished the Leicestershire Round a few weeks ago, we now embark on our next project, the Ivanhoe Way - a 35 mile walk around NW Leicestershire.

We drove to Shackerstone and parked. This is home to the Battlefield line which runs from Shackerstone to Shenton and is also where the Leicestershire Round joins the Ivanhoe Way.

We set off towards the Ashby canal and headed along the towpath.
Ashby canal carried coal from the pits in Moira and Measham. It closed in 1846 but there are plans to re-open it along the stretch to Ashby.
We saw a heron take off in front of us and several ducks splashing about in the water. We also heard the whump-whump of swans taking off. The canal was very autumnal with leaves falling from the trees into the water. We left the canal at bridge 54 and took the footpath towards Newton Burgoland, but soon left the path and joined the narrow road towards Snarestone. We passed a large house with crowns on the gate and later discovered this was part of Gopsal park which is owned by the Crown. We left the lane just past Shackerstone Fields farm and then crossed several fields to arrive in Snarestone. One of the fields contained a maize crop which had not been harvested. It looked a bit sorry but had lots of cobs, so we wondered why it had been left. At Snarestone we walked to The Globe which although it was 12.15 appeared to be closed. As it was early we decided to continue the walk and try the pub in a later village.

We left the Ivanhoe Way and walked down a footpath between houses and into a field of sheep. The ram was particularly interested and was starting to come closer as we got to the stile (all his ladies had run in the opposite direction). We continued through large areas of National Forest. These plantations of small sapplings, did not seem to be very diverse as the majority of the trees were oak. As the latest fungal disease to hit oak trees has been sighted in Leicestershire it seems a bit short-sighted to have an almost mono-culture. We climbed the hill towards the church at Swepstone and then headed down the road towards Newton Burgoland. The fields here were particularly wet and boggy and we had to cross a large field full of charolais? bullocks. They had a look at us but then continued grazing. We arrived at Newton Burgoland and diverted off to the Belper Arms for lunch- a baguette and very good glass of Hobgoblin. We didn't want to leave as it was so warm and cosy but it was getting late so reluctantly we set off to walk the last 2 km. We followed a footpath past a large pond with lots of geese - possibly being prepared for christmas, and then through a field of dairy cows, through the very boggy area beside the stile and out onto the very muddy lane towards Shackerstone. We got back to the car at about 3.30pm having walked about 13.5 km.

Leicestershire Round: Ashby Folville to Burrough Hill

2008-10-19T14:47:00.002Z

Saturday 18th October 2008
Today was bright and sunny so we set off to do the final section of the Leicestershire Round. We parked in Ashby Folville and set off up the road to join the LR. We climbed the stile into the first field to be encountered by a huge bull standing beside the path. He was much more interested in his lunch than us. As we climbed the slope we saw his family, a few cows with very young calves. We continued across the fields and under a bridge over the disused railway line and continued into Thorpe Satchville. There was a lovely church here but it was locked so we couldn't look around. From Thorpe Satchville we followed along Baker Lane towards Burrough on the Hill. We crossed onto a ploughed field and followed the track up the hill to Burrough Hillfort. This was where we had started this walk on 22nd August 2007. We walked along the ramparts to do a complete lap of the fort and then retraced our steps down and back to the Leicestershire Round. We walked across the fields and up to the road leading to Burrough on the Hill. We had a nice lunch in the Stag and Hounds and then left to walk towards Twyford. As we walked along the road a man came out of his house and asked us if we wanted some apples. He picked 4 lovely apples from his tree and gave them to us to munch on the way. They were lovely and sweet and juicy with pink flesh. The field towards Twyford was very difficult as it had been ploughed and was very uneven under foot. From Twyford we walked along the river through lots of fields full of sheep and headed back to Ashby Folville. It felt like quite an achievement to have finished the LR. We walked 15.7 km today and the whole walk had been 392km walked in 28 stages.

Linton, Derbyshire, From Beer to Eternity cache walk

2008-10-19T13:52:00.002Z

Thursday 16th October 2008
We drove to Linton, just inside Derbyshire to do a walk and hunt for a series of geocaches based on Breweries. We parked near Bee Hive fishing lakes and set off for our walk. The first cache was found as we reached the first stile for our walk. We climbed the stile into a field which had only just been planted with rape plants. The footpath had not been reinstated but there was the beginning of a trail of footprints so we followed that across several fields to the edge of a patch of woodland. The stile here was in a dangerous condition and collapsed as we tried to climb over. Luckily there was a very stiff and heavy gate next to it so we were able to continue. We walked beside some farm buildings with lots of large containers outside. We saw that each one had a run attached and contained a young calf. We continued walking through several new areas of National Forest. Top wood and Potters wood were quite advanced, with the trees being about 10 years old. We sat for a while beside a trig point on the top of the hill where we had a snack and then diverted off from the walk to find a cache. The diversion was very wet and the fields were squelchy but we found the cache and retraced our steps back to our route. We continued walking through the woodland which was lovely –it was a bright sunny day, with just a bit of a chill wind, and the colours of the trees were wonderful, especially the spindle trees with their bright pink berries. We finished the walk alongside the fishing lakes as we approached the car park. We had found 13 caches along the way and had walked 13 km.

Leicestershire Round: Gaddesby to Ashby Folville

2008-10-15T15:10:00.004Z

Monday 29th September 2008
It was a nice day so we decided to do some LR. We had been hoping that this would have been the last section to finish the LR but John has not been feeling too good (he has been having problems with his back and neck again) so we cut the route down to a short one. We parked in Gaddesby and walked down the lane to join the footpath going past the church. The door was open so we went in for a look. It was a lovely light airy church with lots of clover shaped windows. It contained a very large equestrian monument which is supposedly the only one in a church in England.

We then continued along the footpath until we joined the LR, where we had last left it. We crossed several fields, one containing some bullocks, but they ignored us. Lots of the fields had been ploughed but they were not too bad to walk over as it was fairly dry. We finally emerged in Ashby Folville. We decided to return here as we didn't want to overdo it. The pub here was closed for renovation and would be opening on Saturday. We thought that was a bit long to wait so decided to walk on to the pub in the next village. We walked alongside the church and then over the fields and along a path through a narrow stretch of woodland and over a stream. We crossed the driveway of a country house and then passed into a field full of cows which were all huddled close to the stile. We bravely walked through the field and managed to get over the stile where we walked into Blaseby. Here we sat on a wall to look at the map and the local postman stopped and told us the way. He was very friendly and looked a little like Billy Bunter! The pub here was now a building site. We carried on walking over fields full of sheep back towards Gaddesby. We finished the walk by passing under a long avenue of oak trees where we found that the pub did not open on Mondays, so it was back to the car for an apple before going home. We only walked 6 km but it was enough.

Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance

2008-09-14T12:04:00.006Z

Thursday 4th September to Tuesday 8th September

Several years ago we did a walk around the area of Abbots Bromley and on visiting the church and pub we discovered the Horn Dance. We promised ourselves that we would return one year to see this annual event.
http://www.abbotsbromley.com/horn_dance

Having noticed that the Folk Dance and Song group of the Camping and Caravanning Club were holding a rally to coincide with this event we hitched up the caravan and set off to join them at Little Dunstall farm.

It was pouring with rain when we arrived but after a warm welcome from the other caravanners who had already arrived we set up the caravan and then when the sun came out we set off for a walk around Blithfield reservoir.

That was almost the last of the sun for the next few days as it poured with rain on Friday, Saturday and sunday morning. We did attempt a walk along the canals at Great heyward but after a few miles the heavens opened again and we abandoned the walk.

On sunday afternoon it dried up a little and we went for a short walk on Cannock Chase. It was very pleasant but from the top of the hills we could see how flooded the surrounding area was following the rain on the previous days. The Trent had burst its banks and several roads were closed.

On the morning of the Horn Dance (the first Monday following the First Sunday after the 4th September) my alarm did not go off but we woke at 6.20 and quickly got dressed and left to walk to Abbot's Bromley. We arrived just in time for Holy Communion and at 7.30 the villagers arrived to collect the horns which were blessed. These are 6 pairs of 1000 year old reindeer horns. The horns are worn by 6 villagers and are accompanied by Robin Hood (about 8 years old), Maid Marion -rather masculine looking, a Fool complete with pigs bladder, a young lad beating time on a triangle, a hobby horse and some musicians. We watched the start of the horn dance outside the church and followed them through the town for a while. Bacon sarnies in the church house then called so we popped in for breakfast. We walked back to the caravan while the rest of the Horn dancers walked around the village boundaries. At 12.15 we walked up to Little Dunstall farm where we were entertained by the Folk group while waiting for the Horn dancers to arrive. The farmer had provided hot pork rolls with apple sauce and hot punch which was very nice. The Horn dancers arrived at about 1.30pm and performed their dances on the farm lawn. They left after about 30 minutes to continue their walk round the area. We returned to the caravan for a cup of tea and then at 5.30 we walked back to Abbots Bromley where we watched clog dancers and Morris men until the horns arrived back after a 10 mile walk. We went to see the horns replaced in the church and then walked back to the caravan in the dark.
Luckily it had stayed dry all day unlike Tuesday morning when it was pouring with rain again as we packed up to go home.

Leicestershire Round: Rotherby to Gaddesby.

2008-09-14T11:42:00.005Z

Saturday 23rd August 2008
It was a lovely day so we set off for possibly our penultimate LR walk.

We parked in Rotherby and set off along the footpath. I was a little nervous of this walk after the man we met last time having told us about the boisterous cows at Frisby. The first field we came to contained a herd of bullock. I was quite nervous but after an initial look they ignored us. We then walked through a field of dairy cows who also ignored us.

We then continued on a pleasant walk through rough pasture until we emerged at Frisby. Walking through the village we saw a thatched cottage with unusual roofing material - its roof was covered in tarpaulin and tyres! After Frisby we walked through another large field with more bullocks - also uninterested in us.

Having got beyond Frisby I thought we were safe. In the next field we met a bunch of walkers having lunch and it turned out they were doing the same walk as us but the other way round. They told us of a bull in a field beyond Gaddesby, so not safe after all.

We walked through Gaddesby and stopped at the Cheyney Arms for lunch. We set off again having left the LR and now walking on the Midshires way. We had been walking for about 30 minutes when I realised that I had left my walking pole behind in the pub. We decided to finish the walk and go back by car rather than retracing our steps. We followed a good path through cereal crops to Brooksby college. To my horror we were back at the same field as the other day - the one with the stroppy bullocks in. They came very close to look and snort as I stood on the other side of the cattle grid. Eventually I plucked up courage and walked across the grid. We walked along the path and they started to come closer but as we walked through they lost interest -phew. We got back to the car and then set off for Gaddesby where luckily my pole was still where I left it.

Leicestershire Round: Cossington to Rearsby to Rotherby

2008-09-03T15:53:00.005Z

I realise after posting this draft that a section of the Leicestershire Round was missing.

So I will slip it in here.

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

Leicestershire Round Cossington to Rearsby
The forecast was good so we drove to Cossington to do section of the LR. As we drove through Oaks in Charnwood we only just missed hitting a buzzard that flew in front of the car.

We walked along Bennets Lane in Cossington and over the railway bridge where a trainspotter was standing taking photos of all the trains passing underneath. We then walked along an uninspiring lane which became a track for about a mile.

We walked past Ratcliffe college, a private catholic school and left the lane at a signpost pointing into the school grounds. It seemed a bit strange wandering over their football pitches and wondered what it would have been like during termtime. The exit path was through a small gap in the hedge but the signpost had been knocked down, so we missed it at first; you would have thought that good school security would have wanted strangers sticking to a well signed footpath and not wandering around looking for the way out.

The path led through a field to the busy A46 which we carefully crossed and then walked through a well marked wheatfield and some sheep pasture onto a lane which we followed to Rearsby mill. Past the mill we headed along a green lane through a housing estate and past a nice packhorse bridge where we left the LR. We had lunch at "The Wheel" and then followed the road to a footpath across a meadow with horses on it. We were surprised to notice that the house numbers on the road through Rearsby were nearly up to 2000, which seemed odd for a small village.

The footpath emerged onto the road at East Goscote where we crossed over a bridge over the river Wreake where we watched shoals of fish. Further up the road we passed into some woodland beside a golfcourse. The path was very overgrown and although by the river was not pleasant. The path became very narrow and sloping and encroached by nettles and brambles and there was no wildlife on the river. We eventually emerged on the edge of a large wheatfield. Although there were footpath signs there was no way through the field. A lady with a dog told us if we followed the field boundary we would come to a underpass under the A46. We followed round the edge and under the pass into another wheatfield with a path signpost but a very overgrown field boundary. The proper footpath across the field was missing but a wide track had been put in at a different position. This was full of wild wheat which made the track difficult to walk on. We eventually emerged onto a lane which we crossed and into a field of nearly ripe maize with a good path through the middle. We emerged from this field back at Cossington. 14.8km.

Wednesday 20th August 2008

Rearsby to Rotherby
Back from holiday and off for a real walk! We drove to Rearsby, parked and set off over the pack horse bridge. We headed past the church and then across an area of parkland where two men were repointing an ancient wall. As we crossed the next field we came across a sign saying a footbridge beyond was closed. We decided we should have used the footbridge and needed to look for a diversion. We walked on and met a man, walking his dog, who said work had been carried out on the bridge 6 weeks ago and that it should be ok now. The next man we met told us he didn't know if the bridge was open and then proceeded to direct us on walks all around the area but not appreciating we wanted to stay on the LR. He also warned us about the cows in Frisby who like to chase you - not a good sign for our next walk. We decided to walk on and check the bridge for ourselves and retrace our steps if necessary. We came to the bridge and it looked open so we crossed it. Then over the next bridge and round the corner to find the path taped and warning people from that side that the bridge we had just crossed was unsafe! There was no point turning back now and recrossing the "unsafe" bridge so we ducked under the tape and continued our walk.

We walked across fields and eventually arrived at Hoby where we looked around the church. It had a highly decorated and carved rood screen and beautifully painted ceiling arches.
View from Rotherby to Hoby

We went into the Blue Bell for lunch and then walked across more fields to Rotherby. Many of the fields have now been harvested but a few still have standing crops of wheat and barley. From Rotherby we walked along the road and across a cattle grid. Whilst walking across this field John startled a hare who raced away from us, and then we attracted the attention of a large herd of bullocks. We spotted the stile and hastened towards it with the bullocks getting more boisterous and snorting. We quickly got over the stile and relaxed while the bullocksgalred at us from the the side of the fence! We walked through Brooksby agricultural college and followed the track through more fields until we arrived back in Rearsby. 12 km.

Mini Northern tour -Last Stage

2008-08-31T13:55:00.004Z

Halsall, Southport Friday 15th August to Monday 18th August.

We had a long drive to Halsall, the idea being that it would break our journey home from Edinburgh. The Temporary Holiday site was in a school playground and was run by North West folk group.

Saturday 16th August 2008
As we hadn't done much proper walking over this holiday we decided it was time for a walk. We drove to Formby to do a walk along the coast and parked at a NT car park adjacent to a nature reserve. We walked into the forest and saw several red squirrels. We ended up sitting on a log for about an hour watching them with one coming to within about 3 ft of us. They have had an outbreak of squirrel pox virus in the reserve and the population of squirrels has fallen by about 2/3rds, from 250 but it was lovely watching a few scampering about. We abandoned our walk after that and sat on the beach instead.

Sunday 17th August 2008

It was a bit rainy but we decided to go to Crosby to see the Antony Gormley installation called "Another Place". We parked on the sea front at high tide and could just see a few iron heads sticking out of the water. We walked along the esplanade as the tide was going out and the iron men slowly became more visible. There are about 85 of them along a 3km stretch of coast. We walked to the end of the beach and then back again, stopping at a leisure centre for a cup of coffee.

Mini Northern Tour -Part 3

2008-08-31T13:28:00.002Z

Edinburgh.
Leaving Beadnell Bay was a bit tricky as several caravans had to be towed off as it had been so wet but John managed to keep going and got to the dry section. We had a steady journey to Edinburgh and arrived after about 2 hours. The site was not so pretty this time being on the Royal Showground next to the airport but did have the advantage of being close to the Park and Ride into Edinburgh and thus another city based break.

Several days were spent walking up and down the Royal Mile, watching street performers and solving clues for geocaches which again led us to some interesting places including a secluded garden and the grave of GreyFriars Bobby.

We had a nice afternoon walking up to Arthurs seat which gave wonderful views across the Firth of Forth.

We were also lucky enough to get tickets for the tattoo which was a good experience.

Mini Northern Tour : Part 2

2008-08-30T10:31:00.007Z

Part 2: Beadnell Bay, Northumbria

We set off from York and headed towards Beadnell Bay in Northumbria. It was sunny when we arrived but had been very wet so the field was a bit boggy in places. The Temporary Holiday site was about 100 m from the sea, so after some tea we went for a walk on the beach as the sun went down.

Tuesday 5th August 2008
We decided on a walk today as even after all our walks around York city we felt as though we hadn't done a proper walk for ages. We drove to Newton by the Sea and then walked towards the sea and set off along the coast path. We walked beside a golf links and despite getting a little lost we soon found the path towards Embleton and then towards Dunstan Staith where I had a spectacular tumble. I somersaulted down the road ending up sitting in a puddle and having grazed my knee and elbow but luckily had not broken anything. We continued along a farm track passing a war-time pill box which was still in good condition. When we got to Dunstan Staith we turned off the track and headed up the Heughs which was a gorse covered escarpment with good views of Dunstanburgh castle from the top. We followed the top of the Heughs past the war-time radar station towards Craster where we followed the coast path towards Dunstanburgh castle which we looked round using our NT cards. As we were looking round the castle the mist came down and visibility shrunk to about 100m. We could not see the tower on one side of the castle. As we left the castle we found a geocache and then continued along the coast path towards Embleton bay. We walked on the beach back to Newton by Sea.

Friday 8th August 2008

After several days of wet weather where we didn't do much except sit and read in the caravan it finally dried up overnight, so we set off for a walk. We drove to Belford and then walked along the road,down a lane and over a bridge above a very full and fast flowing brook. A field edge footpath was followed past West Hall farm which was like a small castellated castle and towards Swinhoe farm where a lady was giving riding lessons. After the farm we followed the track past Dicks Old Walls (2 stone buildings) and then towards a plantation where we saw a buzzard flying overhead. We followed the perimeter of the plantation with good views to the Cheviots, and we came across some wonderful rock formations called the Singing Hinnies. Whilst looking for a geocache in the Hinnies a RAF fighter flew low and directly overhead. We then continued through the plantation until we came to St Cuthberts cave which was quite impressive.

We walked round and over the cave and through the field beyond to the mound with a cairn on the top. We then followed St Cuthberts Way, through a field with lots of cows, which behaved very well despite making a lot of noise. Our return route was through woodland, seeing lots of chaffinches and yellowhammers. We arrived back at Swinhoe farm and then followed a different route through woods and grassland back to Belford. On the way back to Banburgh we stopped to find a geocache. We walked through a gate, round some rough meadow, climbed a rock outcrop and headed towards some engineering equipment. It turned out to be a wartime bunker and it was possible to go down about 8 m via a ladder to a room below but we chickened out as the hatch lid was a bit rickety and we didn't want to get stuck! We found the cache though.

We finally headed to Seahouses for fish and chips which were eaten sitting on the harbour wall, whilst we watched the tide come in.

Sunday 10th August 2008
It rained all night but was quite bright when we got up so decided on a walk along the coast. We walked towards Beadnell and followed the coast path through a large static caravan park and then onto the dunes. We crossed a narrow bridge over a river and then followed the coast path all the way to Newton by Sea. It was a nice walk across the heath with lots of wild flowers and caterpillars but no sea view. We diverted to walk round the headland and pick up a geocache - and then walked to the pub at Newton, The Ship where we had the best crab sandwiches We've ever had and a couple of pints Dolly Daydream for John and Sandcastles at dawn for me (the pub had its own micro-brewery). There were a couple of bands playing so we sat and listened for an hour and then set off back. We walked back along the coast path but this time after crossing the river we headed down onto the beach and walked along the sand back to Beadnell.

Our mini Northern tour! Part 1

2008-08-30T10:02:00.003Z

York

Wednesday 30th July - Monday 4th August 2008

We set off on an extend multi-site holiday which started with a Camping and Caravanning Club temporary holiday site at York. The site was on a rugby field which was a 15 minute riverside walk from the city. As we were so close we spent most our stay walking into the city and exploring by doing multi -geocaches which led us to many areas and points of interest that we would not normally have found. One directed us to look for the pig bricks in Swingate, which were quite difficult to spot but once we had our eyes in we found six.

Friday 1st August 2008
We decided on a walk round the city walls which were well preserved and were quite high above the rest of the city giving good views. We had lunch at a coffee house at Walmgate which was an Elizabethan building above the city gate. It was quite nice, full of leather armchairs and a religious library. We finished the wall walk (2miles) and then finished a geocache that we had started yesterday. It was a good walk round and quite fun following in the footsteps of Walter de Gray. Again this walk led us to many places that we would not have spotted - including the area where the Minster stonemasons and lead window manufacturers work.

Leicestershire Round Mountsorrel to Cossington

2008-07-21T13:46:00.006Z

Saturday 19th July 2008
It was sunshine and showers today so we were off to do a bit more of the Leicestershire Round. We drove to Mountsorrel, parked near the butter cross and headed off towards the LR. We crossed a playground and sports field to a stile which according to our 30 year old guide book led beside a farm but now goes through a housing estate. We followed the LR signs through the estate and then followed a path beside a stream. The official LR path was overgrown and impassable but another path ran on the other side of the stream. Signs suggested an alternative route, but an alternative route to what as there was only 1 route under the A6 and in the opposite direction to the LR. After the underpass we retraced our steps on the other side of the stream and eventually regained the LR - quite a diversion. The path now travelled over fields until we crossed the river Soar at Sileby. The heavens opened here, but luckily we had waterproofs.

We followed the path beside the river spotting lots of butterflies (red admirals) and dragonflies; two herons also past overhead. We eventually arrived at Cossington meadows, an old gravel pit which has been left to return to nature. It was lovely, with large ponds, wild flowers and a wide path mown through the middle. There was lots of wildlife including lapwings, swans and coots. We walked through the meadow and emerged in Cossington. Along the village street were several large oak trees which had been planted to commemorate all the coronations since Edward VII. We had lunch in the Royal Oak and then left the LR to return back to Mountsorrel. As we walked along a lane towards an alternative entrance into the meadows we saw two weasels playing in the road.

We followed a different path back through the meadows to Sileby lock, getting another soaking along the way. Here we continued along the river, which was very busy with motor boats and barges.

The river passed under the A6 and returned to Mountsorrel by another lock. It was a very pleasant walk - good job we had our waterproofs.

Yorkshire 9th -15th July 2008

2008-07-17T15:48:00.006Z

All treatments are finished and so we decided on a well earned break with a week in Yorkshire accompanied by dad! A few walks were planned for this trip but it was also supposed to be a rest and a chance to collect our new walking boots from Altberg in Richmond. We were staying at the Jervaulx Abbey caravan site and dad stayed at the Cover Bridge Inn just a couple of miles up the road.

Thursday 10th July 2008.
We picked up dad from the Cover Bridge Inn at 9:30 am and drove to Richmond to pick up our boots. Dad enjoyed reminiscing about boot making and even the owner of Altberg came out to chat to him. After a few slight alterations to the boots we were on our way.

After a wander around Richmond we drove to Aysgarth to see the falls, they were very impressive after all the rain we have had.

We walked up to the church and saw the rood screen that had been moved there from Jervaulx abbey during the reformation. We then went for a walk on the opposite bank to the one all the tourists use and had nice views of the falls and rapids as we headed along the river to West Burton. As we crossed some fields towards Burton we noticed two follies, one shaped like a cone and the other like a diabolo. They had been built in the 1800's and served no purpose apart from some slight shelter.

We then followed field paths back to Aysgarth. The guidebook said it was a 4 miles walk but we all thought it was more like 6 (actually 5.5).

Saturday 12th July 2008
Dad arrived at about 9.45 and we set off to Studley to see Fountains abbey. We decided on a walk first as it was a bit cloudy and waited for a brief shower of rain to pass and then set off. We walked to the lower car-park and then onto a bridleway beside the old abbey walls. It was very muddy but quite nice with slight views of the abbey. The first problem came around the farm where the footpath went through the yard which was full of cows. They would not move and we couldn't open the gate without letting them out or without getting showered with poo or wee! We eventually found a way round the back of the barn which led into the correct field but which meant wading across a boggy field to get back to the footpath. We then headed through woodland past a ruined arch and onto the Ripon Rowell way. We then followed the path through fields of oilseed rape and wheat and round Markenthwaite Hall. Here we had to cross a field with cows, young calves and a huge bull. He was quite content to ignore us and we quickly moved to the next field where we disturbed several curlews and lapwings. We emerged onto Straint lane, a green lane not wide enough for wheeled traffic and followed the path past barley fields, through to Whitcliffe lane. Here we found we had gone off the path and emerged further up the lane than we should but this cut the road walking down a bit. Next through a field of peas to reach the next stile which led to a water meadow. Unfortunately after yesterday's rain we could not find a way through. Dad got very wet feet trying! We went back over the stile and followed the field edge until we found a low fence that took us into a drier area of the field and back to the path which took us between buildings and back onto Fountains road. We entered the abbey from the bottom entrance and looked at a landscape photographic exhibition. We chatted to the photographer about how he takes his pictures and then walked through the park to the abbey and onto the teashop. After a spot of refreshment we walked back through the gardens with dad taking photos. The walk 11 miles -so much for a restful day!
We left the carpark at 5.15 and pulled into a farm advertising local produce as we wanted some veg. The shop was open but no-one was about. We then noticed the sign saying "self-service". There was an egg box with money and a book to record purchases. What trust. We bought veg and some yorkshire honey.

Sunday 13th July 2008
We decided on a quiet day today and so walked along the river Ure to Coverbridge. The river banks were lovely, full of giant bellflower, meadowsweet, meadow cranesbill and vetches.

There were lots of different types of damselfly too. At the Coverbridge we decided to walk onto the Blue Lion at East Witton where we had a drink and a bag of crisps and then returned along the river to the caravan tohave a cup of tea and slice of cake. We then thought we would walk to the ice-cream parlour. We walked across Jervaulx park but missed the footpath so came out at the wrong place. We eventually found the road and walked up to Brymores. It was packed as mini cooper, motorbike and TVR rallies had all descended on the carpark. We then walked back across Jervaulx park.

Leicestershire Round - Woodhouse Eaves to Mountsorrel

2008-07-17T11:08:00.005Z

Thursday 4th July 2008
Today we parked in Woodhouse Eaves to do a celebratory Leicestershire round walk as I have finally finished my radiotherapy. The idea was to just walk to the reservoir and back so I wasn't worn out too much. We set off across a good footpath through a field of corn towards a farm and then across a field with a herd of sleepy cows. We then walked through a field of maize until we got to Bunny bridge over the Great Central Railway. We followed the road to Swithland reservoir where we had originally decided to turn round and retrace our steps, however, we decided to continue the walk to Mountsorrel as we were both feeling ok.

Halfway round the reservoir the heavens opened. We managed to stand in the lea of some trees to shelter until the storm passed (about 20 Minutes) and did not get too wet. When the sun came out we continued walking round the reservoir taking care not to tread on the little froglets that were hopping across the wet road. We did pass a lad slopping along in soaking socks, carrying his dripping shoes - he obviously had not been able to find any shelter.

We crossed the road and continued towards Mountsorrel, walking round a quarry and past the castle mound.

We had lunch at "The Swan" whilst another shower passed and afterwards followed the road towards Mountsorrel Quarry where we lost the path and were shown the correct way by a worker. Apparently the bridleway is shown on the map as going through the middle of their weighbridge building. The diverted path took us around the back of the quarry buildings but was not well marked. We dodged the quarry lorries and eventually found the footpath which passed through woodland, until we came back to the road that goes around Swithland reservoir. We retraced our steps and just missed seeing a steam train pass under Bunny bridge- We saw clouds of steam. We walked back across the fields which were a lot wetter than when we had passed earlier. I was exhausted by the time we got back to the car but was pleased to have made it despite having finished radiotherapy yesterday. We walked 14 km.

Ashby Wolds Trail

2008-06-13T19:35:00.006Z

Sunday 8th June 2008

We drove to Measham and set off along the Ashby Wolds trail; a cycle path linking Measham with Moira. It was not too busy considering it was such a nice morning. The trail was lovely and flat and edged with lots of wild flowers.

We followed the trail to Donisthorpe Wood Park which had been a coliary until 1998. It has now been reclaimed and is a lovely woodland.

We continued on the trail and along the Ashby canal to Moira.

There was a canal festival at Moira furnace (a Victorian blast furnace and lime kilns) with Morris dancers and other activities going on.

We passed through and continued along the towpath to Conkers, the National Forest visitor centre. We had been looking for geocaches along the route and had successfully found 6, but the 7th was elusive as we should have got onto the cycle path at Moira but the festival had obstructed the way through, so although we were only 20m from the cache, it was actually about 30m above us on the disused railway line. We abandoned that one and as it had got very warm we retraced our way back along the Ashby Wolds way. We got back to the car after 14.5 km.

Leicestershire Round - Newtown Linford to Woodhouse Eaves

2008-06-03T10:12:00.008Z

Saturday 31st May 2008

As the weather was forecast to be good we decided on a LR walk. We drove to Newton Linford and managed to park in the pretty village which had lots of thatched roofed houses.

We walked through Bradgate park which was lovely. We had a lovely view of two fallow deer, with jackdaws sitting on their heads, looking down at us from the cliffs.

We walked through the park to the ruins of Lady Jane Greys house and then set off uphill to Old John.

This was a surprisingly stiff climb and we were all puffed by the time we got to the top. We left the park and walked through Brough wood and then across Lingdale golf course. The course was surprisingly empty but we did see a muntjac deer scampering across the green.

After crossing the golf-course we reached the road and turned right into Woodhouse Eaves. We stopped for lunch (a baguette and Old Peculiar) and then continued walking through the village. The houses were large and very impressive. We arrived in Swithland and then walked through Swithland woods which brought us back to Bradgate Park at the Hall gates entrance and followed the path alongside the reservoir. We were all exhausted by this stage which was surprising as we had managed the 11 mile walk so easily, just 2 weeks ago. The park was very crowded now and we headed straight back to the car. The walk was 14.9km - 9 miles.

Kent Hospices sponsored walk.

2008-05-22T16:01:00.005Z

Sunday 18th May 2008
Dad, John and I were up early and left home at 8.30 to drive to Charing for the Kent Hospices charity walk. We met friends of dad's (who we were walking with) in the carpark. We set off at 9.30 after getting our walk passports stamped.
There were lots of people walking and we followed a stream of walkers onto the Pilgrims way. We were surrounded by rape fields which affected my eyes so I had to resort to borrowing Brians sunglasses which helped quite a bit. We continued onto the North Downs way and then went to the second checkpoint at Warren Hill where we had a short break for a drink and a hot cross bun.

We continued on to checkpoint 3 which was the almost half way point where we had another short break and then walked along Longreach and the track to Otterden Place. Then onto Stalisfield Green where we had a good sit down and a break at the pub before walking through Kent Wildlife Trust woodland.

It was lovely walking through the woods, there were a few bluebells left but not much wildlife, possibly because of the noise of the walkers sliding through the mud.

We finished the walk at 2.30pm and after getting our passports stamped had a glass of bitter provided by Shepherd Neame. The whole walk was very well organised, soldiers were acting as marshalls at every junction which made it very easy walking as well as drinks and refreshments available at every stop.

It didn't seem like 11 miles, actually it was only 10.5 miles but it still didn't feel like it. We were very pleased that we had completed it and felt so good at the end.

Leicestershire Round - Markfield to Newtown Lynford

2008-05-19T18:27:00.004Z

Tuesday 13th May 2008
We did a LR round walk today in training for our sponsored walk for the Kent hospices on Sunday. It was sunny but with a cool breeze. We drove to Markfield and set off along Main street to reach a footpath which took us under the A50, the path then went through woodland parallel to the A50. It came out into a nice field that had been planted as National Forest in 2000 and gave good views of Bradgate park, where we were heading. We then crossed a large field towards a wood which was filled with bluebells -it was a lovely sea of blue. More National Forest and horse paddocks followed until we reached Newtown Lynford.

We stopped here for some lunch - we were a bit early but sat and waited for the pub to open. We had a nice break out of the sun and then set off again.

We followed the footpath towards the back of Bradgate park where there were lots of people flying kites. Unfortunately the path marked on the map turned out not to be a footpath so we had to alter our route and continue through the park and onto the road. The woods we had planned to walk through also had no public access so we had to walk along the road and find an alternative footpath. We eventually rejoined the LR where we saw a little yellow frog hopping through the grass. After a short stretch retracing our steps, we diverted off onto a different footpath to follow a different return route which brought us to Field Head where we crossed the A50 and returned to Markfield.

The terrain in the last sections of the LR has definitely been new woodland. Leicestershire used to be known as the greenest county in England but with the fewest trees and least access. This has definitely changed with the advent of the National Forest. This area would until recently been full of coal mines and quarries and it is now turning into lovely native woodland. We walked about 7.5 miles.

Leicestershire Round -Thornton to Markfield

2008-05-12T11:04:00.007Z

10th May 2008

Hooray -my chemotherapy is finished and hopefully I can now get back to some decent walking.
We started off by doing a bit more of the Leicestershire Round.
We drove to Thornton, by an interesting route as John was not paying attention! We parked near the pub and set off along the LR and skirted across the top of Thornton reservoir, although the GPS said we were wading through the middle. We then walked through lots of National Forest plantations, mostly planted in 2000 so they were maturing nicely and a great improvement on the spoil tips and coal mines that would have been here before.

We arrived in Markfield and had a drink and bag of crisps at the Bulls Head, where the locals were playing dominos. We then left the LR and walked along lanes and overgrown footpaths towards Cliffe Quarry. We walked around the quarry but did not see any workings although an information board did explain all the geology of the area. There was a lot of gorse in flower on the hills and it was giving off a strong smell of coconut. We walked through Stanton under Bardon behind the houses and then crossed into a field with some cows who were interested but well behaved but a small yappy dog was among them and came charging at us barking furiously.
John eventually roared at it which sent it scarpering away.
We crossed into more National Forest plantations and walked parellel to the same field only to see at the top of the field an enormous bull surrounded by his ladies. I was glad I was now on the other side of the fence.

We continued walking through the plantation to the sound of cuckoos (nothing like yours Judith!!). We finally had to cross a very large field of oil seed rape. Luckily the farmer had cut a good footpath through the middle as it was about 1.5m tall, in full flower and very strongly smelling.

We finally got back to Thornton in time for a welcome drink at the Bricklayers Arms. The walk was only 6.5 miles but had felt much longer as it had been so hot.

Mini-walk

2008-04-20T09:54:00.004Z

Saturday 19th April 2008

Just a short walk today as we had plumbers visiting this morning! We drove to Ingleby to the John Thompson Inn for lunch and then left the car in the carpark -with permission from the landlord and went for a short walk. We walked along the lane through Ingleby, past lots of lovely houses and cottages and then used the footpath to cross a field, going past sheep, donkeys and llamas. We then followed the path above the river Trent and through lots of coconut scented gorse. The views across the river were wonderful. We stood and watched a heron soaring around for a while and then climbed a very narrow path up over the cliffs and then back down to the river side. The cliffs were triassic conglomerate (sandstone with layers of large pebbles trapped in them). We walked to the caves which were very impressive -apparently a hermit lived in them, they were very large with big columns inside.

We retraced our steps to the pub. It was only about 4km but a pleasant and interesting walk.

Leicestershire Round - Nailstone to Thornton

2008-04-09T13:58:00.003Z

Thursday 3rd April 2008
We did a Leicestershire Round walk today. We had originally planned to walk to Thornton but following our colds and lack of walking we thought we might cut it short at Bagworth. We parked at Nailstone and followed the path to Bagworth. This had been coalmining country and our 25 year old guide book warned us about the spoil heaps and quarrying, but the pits had closed and the land is now reclaimed and planted with trees as part of the new National Forest. We arrived in Bagworth quite quickly but could not see anywhere to stop for lunch so decided to walk on to Thornton on our original planned route. We had lunch in the Bricklayers arms which we had visited a few weeks ago. The same group of old men were in there putting the world to rights and discussing the old railways through Bagworth and the history of the Swannington incline which was quite interesting. We walked on after lunch and lost our way a bit around the Thornton brick works but eventually found the route passing by some fishing lakes. We came out onto the road to Barleston and were stopped by a chap who asked us if we were heading onto the footpath across his land. He had had a run-in with gypsies that morning who had been stealing stuff from his stables. He had had stiches and was still bleeding from the assault. He said he had cameras filming so we might be filmed. He spoke to us for quite a while telling us tales of shooting arrows at night and jogging across his land naked carrying an axe to cut down a tree in the early morning and wondering why the birdwatcher ran off leaving all his equipment behind! We had quite a laugh, I think he was a still shaken from his experiences that morning and wanted someone to talk to. He said if we were back that way in the summer to call in for a glass of wine! We continued across the fields towards Barlestone and along a river bank and then set off on a footpath back to Nailstone.

We were stopped by another local who told us we had missed the footpath and pointed out the correct way. He stood chatting to us for about 15 minutes telling us about all the local walks. We finished off the walk and got back to Nailstone at about 5.30 after 16 km. So much for a shortened walk but it was nice having chatted to so many friendly locals.

Dover -14th March 2008

2008-03-28T10:54:00.006Z

Friday 14th March 2008

We decided to celebrate Easter early before my fourth chemo session so travelled to Kent for the weekend to do family visits.

On Friday it was dry when we got up so despite the forecast rain we decided to go for a walk. Dad drove us to Dover and we parked by the NT visitor centre. We then walked along the cliffs to St Margaret's bay. It was quite slippery in places, dad slid down a bank at one time (luckily nowhere near the edge of the cliff) and we had to haul him up and find another route round.

The sun came out and it was lovely looking at the cliffs and the ferries arriving from France. The SeaFrance strike meant that several of the ferry bays were empty which was unusual but there were loads of lorries queued up waiting for crossings.

At St Margaret's we stopped at the Coastguard for a drink and then walked back along the same route. The gorse was in flower and there were lots of rabbits about.

At the South Foreland lighthouse there was a sign out showing it was open, for the first time this year, so we went in and had a quided tour. Several landmarks were pointed out from the top including the WWII radar staions (originally 4 now only 3), the house where Ian Fleming wrote the first 007 book -apparently the local bus number was 007! and finally the house overlooking the cliff owned by an American who insisted on flying the Stars and Stripes when in residense so that the first thing travellers saw when arriving at Dover was an American flag! The lighthouse was clockwork powered and we got to wind it up so that the top was turning -great fun. We continued the walk back to the visitor centre and had a cup of tea before driving home. A really nice day and our first real walk for ages! (10km walked).

Yorkshire

2008-02-29T12:03:00.007Z

17th February - 24th February 2008

I am into the third week of my second chemotherapy treatment and as I am feeling fine we decided to take advantage and head off to Yorkshire for a few days. We took the caravan to Jervaulx Abbey caravan site which is a caravan club cl which holds 5 caravans and is very peaceful. We set the van up and headed off for a short stroll around the abbey.

18th February 2008

After a very cold night we discoverred that everything was frozen. We had no water so could not have a shower. It started to defrost by about 11 and we then found that the drains were frozen so nothing would drain away. We decided to move the caravan down the field where we weren't in the shadow of the wall and it got the sun earlier. We wound the legs up and John moved the caravan on the mover. I moved everything else. We then went for a walk. We crossed the road and then walked down to the river Ure. It was a lovely walk along the river bank which was covered in snowdrops. The sun was bright and warm. We arrived at the Cover bridge Inn where we stopped for lunch. We had a cold meat salad and a very nice glass of Old Peculiar. The pub was warm and cosy with a roaring log fire and it was an effort to move on but we eventually left and walked along the river Cover which was bubbling over limestone pavements and was lined with icicles along the bank. We crossed the bridge and walked down the other side of the river until we reached East Witton. We then crossed fields and returned to the Cover Bridge and followed the river back to the caravan. About 13 km.

19th February 2008

A very foggy and cold day today and the water pipes were still frozen so we set off to Richmond to order some new walking boots. They will be ready in May. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Richmond. The castle was closed so we couldn't go in but we walked round the walls and enjoyed the views -albeit through the fog!

Wednesday 20th February 2008
Freezing fog today, it looked beautiful out - sunny but so frosty it looked like snow. We drove to Thornton Steward Reservoir along lovely frost covered lanes. We walked along the side of the reservoir and then onto the bridleway. We found a geocache near the end of the reservoir. The frost was falling off the trees as we passed. We followed the bridleway to Finghall where we were met by a large barking doberman, but luckily he just walked past us. We had a nice lunch at the Queens Head and then walked down the lane and across fields beside a stream and across the Wensleydale railway. It was lovely and sunny. We found Drews mistle -our second cache which had a travel bug and a useful shoehorn! We passed the 12th century St Andrews church and walked through a large caravan park, across the golfcourse and back across the railway. The footpaths were not well marked here and it was difficult to work out where we were going and ended up the wrong side of a spinney and farm house but we found the path at the top and managed to cross the fence! We then followed the path round fields and through small woods where we saw several hares running across the fields. We passed a large group of boys who were out for a walk and then emerged near Aysgarth school which was a very posh looking school, complete with castleated tower. We followed the track, picking up another geocache on the way, hidden in a tree stump and picked up a geocoin and 2 dvds. At the end of the track we walked along roads for a while and then back onto a footpath where they were renovating two cottages. They had completely blocked the footpath and we had to find our way into the wood and follow the gps through as there was no obvious path. We emerged at the footpath sign so must have followed the right route. The rest of the walk was across fields and muddy tracks (where Yorkshire water were laying new mains water pipelines) and the road back to the car. 15 km. We got back to the caravan to find everything melted and working. We had tea and a welcome shower. We watched Notorious - -a Hitchcock dvd that we had picked up in Nook and Cranny geocache. Lets say they don't make them like that anymore! It will be recycled in the next geocache we find.

Thursday 21st February 2008
Whoopee, no frost today, it has been replaced by rain and strong winds! We pottered all morning and then drove towards Masham along very scenic windy roads - meaning narrow and steep. We went to a forest area and visited The Druids Circle - another place we wouldn't have found if I hadn't searched for geocaches in the area. The circle was fascinating, based on Stonehenge but built by the Victorians to provide work for local men. We followed the gps into the forest and found the geocache. It had been unvisited since october but was still dry. John took an interesting "american free iraq" coin. It was very cold and windy so we retraced our steps to the car. We drove into Masham and parked and then strolled to the market place. We bought some boar sausages for tea. We then had a wander round the town solving the clues for Masham march (another geocache). We went into the church which had lovely stain glass windows and a painting attributed to Joshua Reynolds. We had tea and baguette at "Mad Hatters tea shop" and then did a little shopping. Just a couple of short strolls today!

Friday 22nd February

After a very noisy and windy night it was slightly calmer today. We weren't sure what to do but in the end drove back to Richmond for another look round and to finish the geocaches. We walked to the top of the town and had views across to the castle then walked along the river to solve the last clue. The waterfalls were very dramatic. We then did another cache which was on the other side of the river. Finally we went for a drive along a lane for about 2 miles to the Richmond beacon. It was pouring with rain and blowing a gale. During a break in the rain we set off up the hill to the beacon. Halfway there the rain started again, it was freezing. We were both frozen and soaked when we got back to the car.

Saturday 23rd February

It was a bit dismal today but Emily and Mike were coming to visit but they didn't arrive until 1.30 because they got caught in the Middleham diversion. We went straight out to the Coverbridge Inn for lunch which turned out to be enormous. We had ham and eggs which must have been about a 16oz gammon. We got back to the caravan at about 3 and had a cup of tea. Then went for a short walk round the Abbey. It started to rain so we went back for another tea and they left at 6.30.

Swarkestone Bridge

2008-02-16T18:47:00.004Z

Saturday 16th February 2008

Just a short walk today so we decided to go geocaching. We drove over Swarkestone Bridge and parked down a lane next to Swarkestone lock. Although we have driven this way many times we didn't realise the lock and canal were here!

Swarkestone Bridge is the furthest South that the Jacobites came in the cause of Bonnie Prince Charlie. They didn't conquer the bridge (although they could have) and retreated at this point.

We followed the canal towards Barrow on Trent, solving the clues for the cache on the way. The canal was lovely with lots of barges, we then left the canal -looked round Barrow churchyard (the church was locked) and then followed the River Trent back towards Swarkestone. A nice lunch was had at the Crewe and Harper Arms and then we continued the walk through along the river and back to the car. Only 6 km but a very nice walk in the sunshine.

Leicestershire Round:Shackerstone to Nailstone

2008-01-27T14:58:00.001Z

Saturday 26th January 2008
Despite having had my first course of chemotherapy last week I felt fit and fine and as the weather was ok we went for a walk. We drove to Shakerstone and parked near the pub and set off under the railway bridge where we could see shunting engines moving trains around on the Battlefield line. The paths across the fields were beautifully marked and were firm underfoot which was surprising considering the amount of rain we had had recently. We walked past Odstone Hall and then continued on towards Nailstone. We stopped on the way to do "Odstone Out" - a geocache, which we found easily. In Nailstone the pub was closed so we sat and had a cup of coffee and a biscuit in the churchyard. The church was also closed. We left the Leicestershire Round and started our return walk. On the way we past a pub, so called in for a drink and bag of crisps -purely medicinal to keep my fluids up. The next field had been completely enclosed with electric tape, blocking off all the stiles but it wasn't live so we ducked under and followed the footpath to reach the road to Carlton where we took the footpath to Barton in the Beans. The first field here was exceptionally, ankle deep muddy (possibly cow slurry-but we don't like to think of that -John will clean the boots later!), but we got across and followed the footpath, stopping to do Birthday Surprise -another geocache. We finished our walk along the very muddy bridalway back to Shakerstone having walked about 13km. This walk was all across old coal mining areas but there were no signs of slag heaps or mining industry anywhere much of it being converted into the New National Forest.

Leicestershire Round: Market Bosworth to Shackerstone

2008-01-13T13:48:00.001Z

Saturday 12th January 2008
The first bright day for a while and the only one forecast for a while so we made the best of it and did a bit of the Leicestershire Round- we are now about 2/3rds of the way round.
We parked at Market Bosworth Park and walked through the town and along a lane to join the footpath. The path went past some lovely houses, all with balconies to make the most of the views although it looks as though the views may be disappearing as a lot of the land had been excavated for what looks like a road and a housing development. After a short diversion along the wrong footpath we continued across fields to Carlton. At one place the footpath was under about 6 inches of fast flowing water which we waded through, only getting the tops of the socks wet, thanks to our gaiters, and continued through the very muddy field.
Yes that is a footpath under all that water!!!!
Although the fields were muddy we did not have to go across any ploughed areas so it was not as difficult as last weeks walk.
After Carlton we crossed more fields to arrive at the Shackerstone Railway. This is a tourist railway known as the Battlefield line. There were no trains running today but the Victorian Station was open so we had a look around.
We crossed the Ashby canal at Shackerstone and stopped at the Rising Sun for lunch which was a lovely pub –very warm and cosy, and good food.
When we eventually pulled ourselves away from the pub we returned to Market Bosworth along the Ashby canal. We got back to the car just as it was getting dark after walking 14.2km.

Leicestershire Round:Dadlington to Market Bosworth

2008-01-07T10:24:00.001Z

5th January 2008
It was a bit brighter today so we went for the first real walk of the New Year. We parked at Cheyney Wharf by the Ashby Canal to do the next bit of the Leicestershire Round.

We walked along the canal towpath for a short while before walking through Albion Wood to Bosworth battlefield. At the battlefield we had a short diversion off the route to look for a geocache which we found it near King Richards Well where Richard III drank before the battle against Henry Tudor.

We walked back past the visitor centre and across fields to Sutton Cheyney. The church here was very plain from the outside but inside was quite ornate with memorials to Richard III who fell at Bosworth. We continued through woods to Bosworth Park stopping to do another geocache on the way. The paths were very muddy and it was hard work walking, two steps forward and sliding one step back. We eventually arrived at Market Bosworth and diverted off to have lunch in Ye Olde Red Lion which was a very nice cosy pub. After lunch we looked around Market Bosworth which was small but had some nice shops. We then left the Leicestershire Round and continued our walk going down the other side of Bosworth Park and then crossing more very muddy fields planted with oilseed rape. The footpaths had not been marked so in a few months these paths will be very difficult to walk. We walked back through Sutton Cheyney, using different paths. We then walked towards Daddlington so that we join up our sections of the Leicestershire Round. It was getting dark by the time we rejoined the Leicestershire Round. We did the last mile along the towpath after sunset looking at all the barges and houseboats with names like Chucklebutty, Tin Hatters and Beardlets Billet. We got back to the car at 4.30pm after a good walk even though it was very muddy. It was 15.7 km and there were no cows or horses -just a sheep with a cough!

Leicestershire Round:Burbage to Dadlington

2007-12-21T16:18:00.001Z

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

2007-12-21T16:02:00.001Z

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.