Ivanhoe Way - Nailstone to Shackerstone

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.