Ramble around the Lincolnshire Wolds

I've done it! ;0) I wanted to beat the 16 miles that I did last week, yesterday's walk came in at 18.13 miles on the mileage checker http://www.bikehike.co.uk/ I walked my little legs off, ha ha. I decided that to walk further I needed to choose an area closer to home, so I drove 23 miles to the Lincolnshire Wolds. The hills may not be of the same greatness as Yorkshire or Derbyshire, and may not require the same level of physical fitness, but the views are still impressive, and the solitude of walking in a less busy area gives one the sense of being at peace with nature.

I set off from Nettleton , a village a mile and a half south of the market town of Caistor. The time on the clock church is 10.30am.

My route for a good part of this walk was the Viking Way. I have walked the northern parts of this long distance path around Barton upon Humber before, so I wanted to see how it develops further down. The only problem I can see with walking the Lincolnshire Wolds is the lack of footpaths. Not a problem with shorter walks, but to do a longer circular walk, without doing a lot of road walking means going a bit out of your way to get back to the start. Which is what happened to me.

I came over the brow of a hill and came across this beastie chewing the cud. Not knowing if it was a he or a she, I kept my eyes on it as I gave it a wide berth. It glanced at me and carried on chewing. On closer inspection I decided I was safe, it looked as if it was ready for the knackers yard and wouldn't have the energy to haul itself onto it's feet. Phew, I'm always cautious where cows are concerned.

In fact I came across a lot of cows, didn't always have to walk through them but they add a bit of interest to the photo's. I think we should all stop eating them and just keep a few as decoration, but that's another subject for another time.

Gentle rolling hills were the order of the day.

On the map it said disused pit, I came across several of these tunnel entrances which have been bricked up. It looks as though they went into the hillside and came out at the quarry at the other end. Probably a way of transporting the chalk away from the area.

I was lucky with the weather, blue skies and fluffy clouds for most of the day, with the ocassional dark cloud passing by.

I spotted this golf ball from a distance,

and made a short detour to get a close up picture. It's a Radar Station.

I passed through the pretty little village of Normanby le Wold, and came to Walesby. The church is worth a good luck round here, as it is called The Ramblers Church. It sits high on a hill outside of the village, and is lovingly cared for by local volunteers.

A notice on the board says they had some lead stolen from the roof, and it has now been replaced with a substitute material which has no value at all, and is security marked. We have had that same problem, as I suspect a lot of churches have, twice our lead has been stolen. It is now going to be repaired with stainless steel.

This is the view from the church looking out over the Wolds. The wooden bench gives walkers a welcome rest place. Looking across the horizon I can see Lincoln Cathedral, a good 25 - 30 miles away.

As I left the church I looked back to take this photo.

A lot of the footpaths were well defined bridleways and easy to follow. If you look on the horizon of this photo you can see where I entered the bridleway from the road, the path followed the gentle curves along the edges of the fields.

I left the Viking Way at Tealby, it was about time to set off back. I went through Tealby, Stainton le Vale, skirted round the edge of Thoresway, and arrived in Rothwell to see this babbling stream.

All the villages have their own individual signs, this one stands proudly on the roadside close to the pub. It's a shame that I am too early for the daffodils that are about to come into bloom at any time.

I arrived back at my car at 6.55pm, just in time for the Archers. Thank goodness it isn't far for me to drive back home after my epic journey. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.