And here we all are again, this time taking a rather circuitous route round Rutland, including bits of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. We decided not to follow the Round Rutland footpath as that seems to involve quite a lot of road walking and instead have struck out on our own, creating our very own long distance footpath. How we we fare will be revealed as do the walks.
And so over to our roving newshound with all the gossip - Pip.
And the first thing to report is that I have an apprentice with me today called Lily, this is a quid pro quo arrangement where she steals food from the kitchen and I take her walking with these old people who can hardly stand up most of the time. Here we are, although I am not quite sure what John is up to - it should be a smile :)
Still it is good to have the old gang back together again, starting new adventures after our wander around Leicestershire.
It has to be said that the weather over the past week has not been all that special, and today is looking a little like rain, but still let's go and see what is out there.
The first part of the route takes us along a footpath past Hill Close Farm with fine views up towards Somerby. It's great for running up and down, although I am sure the footpath has been narrowed recently, it used to be much wider, still not too muddy.
But mud soon makes an appearance near Owston Lodge, mud and rain!
For the first time on Pippin Round Rutland Gillian gets to put her coat on. When we contacted William Hills they would not give any odds on how long it would be before she took it off again - keep your eyes on the photos.
Hmm, need to have a word with the walk photographer about only taking pictures of me from my best end, that is quite unflattering!
We are soon making our way to Twyford under glowering skies. After having to put up with a completely out of control dog (not me or Lily) at White House Farm we finally get sight of one of the one or two wonders of walk 1; the viaduct between Twyford and John O'Gaunt.
This 14 arch railway viaduct near John O'Gaunt station used to carry the Great Northern and London North-Western Joint Railway (possibly - would you believe a dog who cannot even access Google?). Our very own Mr Photo has been here on a better day so here is another image of the arches.
Underneath the arches we meet a group doing their DoE and eating their sandwiches. They must have been forewarned (Ed - they were!) though as everything is out of sight as Lily and myself roam past.
Just after the arches the going gets a little tougher, at least for those of us who are - shall we say - stile challenged.
Always look on the bright side, the next one could be lower!
Ev seems to attract horses on our walks, no sooner had she fallen over the stile than she was being relentlessly pursued across the next field
Successfully avoiding ponies, stiles and brambles we finally climbed onto the road and walked into Twyford. A pleasant enough village, but we had little time to spare if we were to make it to Grant's at Burrough on the Hill for lunch. Astonishingly Gillian, who had been muttering for months about walking to Twyford to look in Dotty Gallery, decided she would rather have a beer and food than go in. So we left the delights of Twyford behind with its two fords, two churches, one pub and possibly a panther!
Striking off East we once again came across the disused railway line again, this time the walk photographer was in arty mood so...
Anyway ... there are pheasants all around so it is time for the first real runaround of the day. Lily and myself took advantage of the stubble fields to chase a few birds around - until we got told off and had to walk to heel.
Lily strikes a pose as she races past the camera (above). In the photo below the dot is me racing up the field, on the horizon (for Gillian that is the bit where the sky and earth meet) is Bradgate Park which some of the happy band visited during their Leicestershire Round walk.
There are sometimes when you just have to admit to being totally baffled as to what is going on in a photo. This is one of those times, so in a field between Twyford and Burrough...
And then we were at our first pub/lunch stop of the day, Grant's in Burrough (*****). Excellent grub it would appear, after racing around the fields I just needed a bit of a kip before the next part.
Soon enough (well maybe about one hour later) we were off again, through Burrough Church and finding the hidden footpath towards the hill fort.
We were going to give the fort itself a miss this time, having visited it previously, but here are Jane, Lily and Ev off-route slipping and sliding their way to the top.
At least one of the group was waiting at the top
although by this point your roving news hound and two others of the party had totally vanished.
What we were doing will remain hidden in myth and legend that swirls around the fort, suffice it to say that when the rest of the group caught up with us Rob had his trousers unzipped and was showing a bit of leg (no photos please!).
It was after that that we slipped, skidded and slid our way down the footpath to Moscow Farm. The footpath appears to have been used by trail bikes or something similar and is deeply rutted and very muddy with pools of water. Fantastic, and I managed to fall in one!
We finally managed to get to the road with our dignity (almost) intact, and set off across a field towards Moscow Farm.
After walking up Moscow Lane a little way we turned left towards our destination, Great Dalby.
And promptly got lost, or "missed our turning".
As a result we ended a little bit further up Melton Lane that I had hoped. Still it gave Rob a chance to pick up a cache which was located on the road into Dalby.
And that was the walk finished. And even though there is a pub in Dalby we all just squeezed ourselves into the car and went home for a nice cup of tea and another kip (well Lily and myself declined the tea and biscuits).
So that means we are 9.79 miles into our journey around Rutland. As far as muddy paws go this was a four out of five walk, with plenty of muddy opportunities near the hill fort.
Next time: November sees us go from Great Dalby to Whissendine featuring St Mary & St Lazarus Hospital, possibly only one dog and a paltry two pubs. Looking forward to it already :)
