Gretton, Thorpe by Water, Caldecott, Gretton

With Eddie, Thursday 15th November, 7.5 miles approx. 

We took the path down Church Gap, and out into the field with ridge and furrow. We cut across to the half-hidden gate. Through the gate and along the path to the railway line - cross with care. On the other side the path goes downhill over a field which is often muddy, then follows the hedge. Just before farm buildings the path goes through the hedge and we turned right along the farm track.  At this point the path has diverted slightly and now follows the line of the Welland. There is a new bridge since I last walked the route three years ago. Not quite Monet, but at least it has two handrails. 

 When we reached the B672, we crossed it and walked along the minor road into Lyddington. A favourite of mine, with its very mini switchback, and little traffic. As we joined Lyddington we turned left, away from the village, and took the permissive footpath on our right, just outside the village. 
This was not the path we intended to take, as we soon realised, but we followed it and with a bit of map reading and a slight retracing of steps we rejoined the original path, over the fields, including one with a few curious, but not aggressive cows. We reached the main road, the A6003, at the electricity substation. Here we turned left and followed the main road into Caldecott. This section, about half a mile, is not to be recommended, even though the verges are quite wide - it's very noisy and busy.

From Caldecott we took our usual route across the valley.  We turned left along the B672, and after less than half a mile the footpath turns off to the right. we followed it , coming closer to the river after a few fields. We reached Mill Road at the weir and made our way back up to Gretton.