Exploring

Hello. Yesterday I drove a few miles to a neighbouring village to start my walk. I wanted a change, and it was nice weather. I have done some of this walk before, but it was a few years ago. I set out along this footpath which runs alongside an old railway line, now disused. There are views across to the River Trent here. 

There is a rickety old footbridge which crosses the line. It doesn't go anywhere, there is a field at the other side. Probably not a good idea to stand on it. 

Muddy tracks to slip and slide along. My walking pole helped to keep me upright. A few dog walkers were about, but the area is so spread out with lots of walks in different directions, it was easy to avoid them. 

Hidden away in a small wooded area I found an ancient graveyard. The headstones must have been laid flat some years ago because trees have grown up between them. The dates were mainly from the 1800's. The trees have been cut down and the logs were laid out around the edges. Here you can get an idea of how big the trees were by their circumference. Someone had fastened makeshift laminated notices on the remaining trees asking people not to step onto the stones out of respect for the dead. I was quite surprised to see this here. It's on the side of a hill, not what you would expect to see. Apparently there was a church here, but all I saw was a short piece of low stone wall, which might have been part of it. 

A view of the Solar Farm, taken near the graveyard. 

Eventually I came to the Retail Park. Not a very exciting place to walk through, but it joined the circle.

The main car park looked busy, from a distance. 

I came out of the Retail Park and walked along a busy road to the Industrial Estate. Again not an exciting place, but it was quiet with the odd few lorries about. I walked all the way through it from one side to the other. 

As I headed towards the other end of the Estate, I thought I would try and cut the corner and walk across a piece of wasteland. I could see that others had walked across it before, maybe going too and from work. I came across what looked like a squatters camp site, maybe someone homeless had been here. They had gone, and left all their belongings, everything was strewn about and wet. 

The disused railway line was between me and the road I wanted to get to, but it had high metal fencing on both sides of it. I walked alongside the fencing to see if there was a gap I could get through. No gap, but there was a gate which wasn't locked, lucky. Now all I had to do was walk along the track and hope that I could get up onto the road. Yipeeee, done it. Climb up the bank from the track down there, with the help of my pole. 

Success, now all I had to do was walk back to my car along the road. The wind had got up and I was flippin cold. Quite an interesting walk, I like exploring. Six miles covered. 

Thank you to those Walking Group members who have checked in. It's good to see you taking part. If you haven't yet checked in you can go back to the page on the first of every month, at any time. 

Tattybye for now. We'll catch up soon. toodle pip.   ilona