Ashby Wolds Trail

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.