Manton, Egleton, Hambleton - Rutland Water

Thursday 08 March.  With Maureen.  A mixed forecast, so we set off on spec to see how far we'd get. In the end we walked almost ten miles.  We parked on the road near the Horse and Jockey and walked north, downhill following the cycle route round Rutland Water. 

As the trees are very bare the views of the reservoir were good from here, in spite of the generally grey outlook.

 However we were surprised how much snow was still around on the pathway.

 We persevered and followed the track, walking alongside the busy A6003 for a short distance, then turning right along the track past the nature reserve and the lagoons, and into Egleton.

 There are still masses of snowdrops, particularly in Egleton churchyard - they've been around for a month or so and still look fresh. 

When we came to the junction with the road to Hambleton we decided to turn right and walk up the hill to the village - quite a long section of roadside walking here, but the prospect of a break spurred us on -  either in the churchyard, or with luck,  in the porch.

In fact the church was open, and has some fine Victorian stained glass windows. For some history look here.

 The porch sheltered us from any wind, and we had a leisurely hot drink and scone before continuing. The next section was rather unpleasant today, as we had to walk into the cold wind and rain. 
It was downhill towards the reservoir, then we turned right along the waterside track. Usually this is lovely, but we hardly saw it today, concentrating on keeping our heads down and our feet moving. A solitary cyclist shouted a wry greeting, "Lovely day for it!"   - "Yeah, beautiful!"

By the time we reached Egleton again the sun was almost visible, and we ended the walk at Manton in bright sunshine.

The Hebridean sheep do well on the fields near the lagoons. Ans see, they have shadows!

 We finished the walk with a well-earned lunch at Wellies.