Tuesday 11th April 2017 Stathern - Wymeswold - 17 miles

Tuesday 11th April 2017  Stathern - Wymeswold - 17 miles


After the tribulations of the previous day, we decided to take it on the chin, and still head for Wymeswold so that we would still cover a projected 22 miles this trip. This meant a longer walk than planned today but we'd got all day and could make an early start.

Well, we could, but breakfast was a bit of a leisurely affair and its so good to be on the trail again! Anyway, we set off, not quite as early as planned, to resume at Stathern.

You leave the village on a wide, easy-walking track, before heading off across fields to drop out onto a road. Not sure we got that quite right, but we ended up on the right road, so all good! The road verges were rather bumpy and some nasty bends, but after a sharpish pull up you head off across country again.

An access track takes you onto a good grassy path across pasture, then down through a copse - bluebells just coming and out across pasture land until you hit a track which you follow into Hose.

Hose is another charming village, the pub seems more of a restaurant than village pub these days, so we stopped for coffee on a bench on the road out of Hose on the way to the canal.

The next part of the route took us along the towpath of the Grantham Canal again, which we had left at Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir. The towpath is well maintained and its a pleasant section of the canal, open, bright and sunny. It would be a good section to travel, if they can bring plans to make it navigable again to fruition. 3 miles plus of flat, easy walking, but it made my legs ache more than climbing!

The canal takes you all the way to Hickling, a bustling village. A lunch stop at the welcoming pub by the canal and then off again, initially through fields to the ridge of the Hickling Standard.

Following this ridge took us past the trig point and gave cracking views. We met a farmer on this ridge who was very amused to watch us negotiate the only really muddy patch we had encountered!

We were on the right path, but apparently not many venture this way - or not that he had seen! Apparently there are Roman remains on this ridge - which makes sense given the views.

The route continues along the ridge until you meet the A606, which you follow briefly until you head off down a quiet lane. This takes you straight on, over a railway bridge to pick up field paths again towards Willoughby-on-the-Wold.

To cross the busy A46 you end up walking a lengthy stretch of road which was quite busy in the early evening! From here you take a footpath which takes you into the centre of Willoughby.

Walking right through the heart of the village we passed a mobile fish and chip van doing a roaring trade. If we hadn't already booked our dinner, it would have been very tempting - time was creeping on!

Instead we headed on out of Willoughby towards Wymeswold, soon to meet the road again. This was our final section of road walking before we took footpaths across fields. This last section seemed hard as the light was starting to fade! In reality, it was probably not harder at all, but we were tiring and each stile seemed to get bigger!

We finally hit the lane down into Wymeswold, turning at the main road off the route and back to the lay by where we had parked. Here we found the mobile chippy once more! Again we resisted temptation to head back to the hotel.

A successful trip, with 23.5 miles of our route covered, but we felt a bit rushed! Probably having to forego relaxing in the Spa!

Fortunately, with our mileage done, we could visit Woolsthorpe Manor, birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton and then Belvoir Castle on our way home next day!