 |
After an extended spell at home, my feet are getting restless. But I can't commit to a long, distant tramp lasting many consecutive days. First, I'm involved in giving the house and garden a complete makeover. Second, I'm supposed to be studying on a proofreading course. Really I need a local walk I can complete in separate stages over snatched half-days and the odd weekend.
The two long distance trails nearest to here are the Trent Valley Way and the Viking Way. I've already walked the Trent Valley Way - with a friend in 1994. We covered it mainly at weekends and visited practically every pub on the route. It starts in Long Eaton, south west of Nottingham, and follows the course of the river Trent and the Chesterfield canal for 84 miles to West Stockwith.
So I'm considering the Viking Way. I've already walked a couple of sections. This 147 mile path begins at the Humber Bridge, breezes through the chalky Lincolnshire Wolds, shadows the river Witham to Lincoln, then runs due south along a thin limestone escarpment before cutting across part of Leicestershire and finishing on the shores of Rutland Water.
The bit I walked this afternoon took in part of Ermine Street, the old Roman road. I passed this fun, mosaic road sign ...
... and later ate a banana sitting on a wooden bench beneath a huge flowering horse chestnut tree in the middle of Welbourn village green. This is Welbourn church ...
 |
... and this is the approach to Wellingore where I'd left the car. Some people love it, others hate it - but you can't avoid the dazzling yellow colour of the oil-seed rape fields at this time of year. I always welcome these crops, providing us as they do with rapeseed oil, one of the healthiest of the vegetable oils, rich in omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
