09 April - Grafham Water

With Norma and Marion. 9 miles in light drizzle.

We walked clockwise from the Marlow Park visitor centre, stopping for coffee at the Harbour cafe, then on.

View from the cafe

 Another brief pause at Grafham church porch for a browse of their second hand books,  then finished off with lunch back at the Visitor Centre cafe.

Lots of primroses, and blossom, and we saw a couple of bluebells emerging.

Empingham, Rutland Water to Barnsdale and back

Monday 26 March 2018, with Marion and Kate. 7.7 miles. A beautiful morning, sunny with very little wind.  Spring in the air, for the moment.  Almost the same walk as last Thursday, but slightly shortened.

The Great Tower

Trees and reflections

A well-earned break

Ready to move

That looked fun this morning

Empingham to Rutland Water to Barnsdale and back.

Thursday 22 March with Maureen. 8.4 miles. Fine morning's walk, with a break at the bottom of the hill near Barnsdale Lodge, then back.  This was followed by lunch at Wellies (again!).

Manton to Normanton Church - Rutland Water

A weekend away and a drive back through the rain meant that I didn't walk on Monday. On Thursday 15th, Maureen and I were loth to tackle any sodden field paths, so off to the reservoir we went.
A hot drink at Wellies Garden Centre set us up, and we were able to park there while we walked.

Remarkably, the worst weather we had was some light drizzle, and the paths round this section have improved recently. There are still masses of snowdrops in evidence.  We walked as far as the church, had a break there, watching grebes diving, though they weren't indulging in any courtship weed dances. 

Four miles there and four miles back, and we were ready for a lunch of hot soup and bread.

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. 

Pitsford Water again

Monday 5 March. With Maureen, Eddie, Kate and Norma. What options did we have after the snow? And the cabin fever was getting intense. The usual 7 miles approx.

Across the dam

Ice on the water - the gulls were walking on it

 At this point there was a sign claiming the footpath was closed. We asked a passing official who said it wasn't too bad, but the responsibility was ours. Snow and a flooded section because of a burst water main. We assured him we'd turn back if it looked too dodgy.

Not as simple as we'd expected

 The flood had already pretty well subsided, and we had no real problems.

Coats on for the snack break

As ever we ended the walk with lunch in the cafe.

not a walk . . . a fieldfare

In the garden, photographed through the window.