Saturday, July 21, 2007
Lovely Summer Walk...
Today I decided to go for a longish walk, as I've been a bit lazy and unmotivated lately! (Did make the gym Thursday...) I have a copy of John Merrill's long circular walks in Nottinghamshire, and picked a 19 mile route round Gotham (not batman fame, alas- it's pronounced Goatam!)
I though it would be very wet and boggy underfoot, and guess what... I wasn't disappointed! I didn't take my camera with me as I thought it might get ruined, and I photocopied the relevent page of the walk to take so the book wouldn't get trashed. I did have a pack, and put waterproofs, a pair of trainers and 3 litres of water in it.
I parked up in Gotham, by the church; the first part of the walk wasn't too bad, but soon degenerated into a mass of slippery mud and ankle deep water. Following a path uphill, I was sliding all over the place and cursing the 'summer'- it was actually more like a mid winter walk!
A couple of times I lost the path and ended up on the road to early, and had to detour through East Leake as my path was completely flooded. As I passed the playing field, I noticed that it was completely submerged- I must have been crazy doing a walk like this after having a month's worth of rain in a day!
In fact, all the way round, part of me was sorely tempted to just give up and find the quickest route home, but no- I stuck to my plans and did what I set out to do- after all, the real test of character comes when things aren't easy, and there are obstacles to surmount; after all, I can't just give up in the MdS. Plus, getting used to walking in a little discomfort will pay dividends. (That's what I was telling myself anyway!!)
I followed what would have been, in normal July conditions, a lovely little path alongside the river. However, in July 2007 I actually found myself wading knee high in places! Nice... the conditions were obviously very favourable to stinging nettles too...
The whole area is on the flight path for the East Midlands airport, so there was something very eerie of hearing the loud hum of jet engines and seeing a huge jet appearing out of the clouds, landing gear engaged.
Disaster struck about 3 miles from Gotham. I was following a bridleway, and according to the book and my map, the route should go straight on along a well defined track towards a wood. However, the bridleway sign was pointing to the left, in a direction I shouldn't have been going, and there was a 'private, no right of way' sign on the track. Weighing it up, I decided to chance it and go along the track, figuring it must have been changed recently. To cut a long story short, it petered out and I ended up wandering around in the woods for ages.
I finally found way out, and headed towards a farm track, figuring it would have to lead to a road eventually. It did- ages later- and I ended up with quite a bit of road walking. I arrived at the spot where I should have joined the road in the end, and decided to rejoin the route over Gotham hill for the last 2 miles.
I'm not sure of my time, but is was shamefully slow anyway. I reckon I ended up doing about 22/ 23 miles taking into account all detours, which is good, as it's the longest walk I'll get to do before the Dipper. I'm not aching much, and still felt I had plenty of 'go' in my legs at the end- in fact, I jogged the last track into Gotham.
I though it would be very wet and boggy underfoot, and guess what... I wasn't disappointed! I didn't take my camera with me as I thought it might get ruined, and I photocopied the relevent page of the walk to take so the book wouldn't get trashed. I did have a pack, and put waterproofs, a pair of trainers and 3 litres of water in it.
I parked up in Gotham, by the church; the first part of the walk wasn't too bad, but soon degenerated into a mass of slippery mud and ankle deep water. Following a path uphill, I was sliding all over the place and cursing the 'summer'- it was actually more like a mid winter walk!
A couple of times I lost the path and ended up on the road to early, and had to detour through East Leake as my path was completely flooded. As I passed the playing field, I noticed that it was completely submerged- I must have been crazy doing a walk like this after having a month's worth of rain in a day!
In fact, all the way round, part of me was sorely tempted to just give up and find the quickest route home, but no- I stuck to my plans and did what I set out to do- after all, the real test of character comes when things aren't easy, and there are obstacles to surmount; after all, I can't just give up in the MdS. Plus, getting used to walking in a little discomfort will pay dividends. (That's what I was telling myself anyway!!)
I followed what would have been, in normal July conditions, a lovely little path alongside the river. However, in July 2007 I actually found myself wading knee high in places! Nice... the conditions were obviously very favourable to stinging nettles too...
The whole area is on the flight path for the East Midlands airport, so there was something very eerie of hearing the loud hum of jet engines and seeing a huge jet appearing out of the clouds, landing gear engaged.
Disaster struck about 3 miles from Gotham. I was following a bridleway, and according to the book and my map, the route should go straight on along a well defined track towards a wood. However, the bridleway sign was pointing to the left, in a direction I shouldn't have been going, and there was a 'private, no right of way' sign on the track. Weighing it up, I decided to chance it and go along the track, figuring it must have been changed recently. To cut a long story short, it petered out and I ended up wandering around in the woods for ages.
I finally found way out, and headed towards a farm track, figuring it would have to lead to a road eventually. It did- ages later- and I ended up with quite a bit of road walking. I arrived at the spot where I should have joined the road in the end, and decided to rejoin the route over Gotham hill for the last 2 miles.
I'm not sure of my time, but is was shamefully slow anyway. I reckon I ended up doing about 22/ 23 miles taking into account all detours, which is good, as it's the longest walk I'll get to do before the Dipper. I'm not aching much, and still felt I had plenty of 'go' in my legs at the end- in fact, I jogged the last track into Gotham.
I did see loads of rabbits, a couple of stoats and a couple of hares, so was worthwhile!
So- not bad, although my ankles are on fire with nettle stings, and I don't think my shoes are going to recover!
