Eastwood, Nottingham

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!

Last walk of the Year - Breaston

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!

A walk fro Ruddington Country Park

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.

Gotham, Nottinghamshire

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.

Bottesford, Nottinghamshire

16th June 2007

We've had a busy few weeks with trips to Kent for dad's birthday dinner (75 years) and then back again as John's mum was in hospital.

Dad came up for a visit and we had a trip to Long Eaton for a walk along the canal -we were quite lucky with the weather but on the way home it started pelting with rain. We sat in the car for a while before we could run in doors. We later discovered that our 40ft pear tree had blown over in the wind, luckily not damaging anything except a row of broad beans.

On Saturday the weather was dreadful so we went to Bottesford in Nottinghamshire so dad could take some photos. We read about the Belvoir Angels which are gravestones which were carved by the same stonemason on Swithland slate. The gravestones are local to this area of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Quite interesting and we will certainly look out for them in our rambles.

Ossington, Nottinghamshire -21st April 2007

" Toothy in Norwell Church"

Today we had a walk from Ossington in Nottinghamshire. It was a pleasant, flat walk across agricultural fields (no cows!) and through woodland. Although it was mainly flat it was difficult walking because all the paths had been very muddy and churned up by tractors and horses and now they had dried out and set solid and so it was very uneven walking. We arrived at the village of Norwell (pronounced Norrell) and looked around the church which was medieval.

The churchyard was lovely as it was covered in primroses. We had lunch at the Old Plough and afterwards chatted with a lady who was off to tend her allotment. There were lots of birds about with lots of birdsong. As we crossed a field near the end we saw two lapwings taking off and also a verge covered in cowslips. We finally walked through the grounds of Ossington Old Hall, which had been demolished in the '60s. We went to look at the church but the door was locked but it did have a very unusual sun-dial in the graveyard. (Nearly 10 miles)

Haxey Quay

We spent ths weekend with the Mountain Activity Section of the Camping and Caravanning Club. We arrived at Haxey Quay on Friday evening after a horrid journey up the M1. The site was nice and flat and beside a river.

On Saturday we left for a walk at Gringley on the Hill. It was a nice walk across fields and along Green lanes, a particularly nice one was Lovers lane -no more than a path through a Blackthorn wood, this was followed by Hangmans lane.

Lovers lane;

In one field we saw a nodding donkey in the distance - not sure how much it produces but presumably it is worth it with the cost of oil now!

We had lunch at the Brickmakers Arms at Walkeringham, which was very nice with flag-stone floor and open fire. The locals were playing a simple game called Bull Ring which involved swinging a Bull Ring which was attached to the ceiling on a piece of string and looping it over a hook in the wall - some of them were very good at it. Apparently the game originated from a Hotel in Scotland.

The last bit of the walk was along part of the Chesterfield Canal before returning to Gringley with another sign of Spring -the first lambs we had seen this year. About a 9 mile walk.

We returned home on Sunday with Gale force winds, snow, sleet and sunshine.

Nether Langwith, Nottinghamshire

Todays walk was in Nether Langwith in Nottinghamshire. We had to drive round a bit to find the starting point which was Nether Langwith heritage centre, only to discover that we were parked outside it without realising. The weather was a mixture of blue skies and black clouds so we didn't know what to wear but decided on rain jackets and fleeces –we could probably have managed with t-shirts. The walk was across field edges and through woodland in a former mining area and so it was a surprisingly pleasant walk and not too muddy. We were too late for snowdrops but too early for bluebells although we did see lesser celandine in one of the woods. After crossing an old railway embankment we were supposed to walk past a gravel pit which was actually now a flooded lake - there was no sign of a lake on the map but the trees were standing in water and the ducks had moved in. We walked through a conifer plantation (Cuckney Hay Wood) which seemed to have suffered in the recent high winds. There were conifers down across the footpath which we had to climb over. We saw a rabbit and a hare and two buzzards soaring overhead again. The birdsong was lovely in the woods and we saw chaffinches, blue-tits and long-tailed tits. We didn't stop for lunch as the pub (which we realised we had been in before) was at the beginning of the walk. Towards the end of the walk we walked through a farm where they were building barges which seemed strange in the middle of Nottinghamshire.