Thursday 26 June 2014

Nettles and pea fields

Wednesday 25 June

Rachel has continued as the support vehicle negotiating a few hills today that have been walked up due to the weight of the panniers - no incidents.
Today has been a wonderful day travelling along the Viking Way and the Drift an SSI nature site.
This brought me out to Saltby Airfield which played a vital role in the D-Day landings parachuting units to the Cherbourg peninsula. Later that year Operation Market Garden flying to Arnhem. The Buckminster Gliding club now use the site and were instrumental in the dedication boards to the previous history of the site. 
After leaving the Drift I spent the rest of the day travelling sometimes very slowly across fields of crops - pea fields being the absolute pain in the bottom - see photo. Other instances saw official footpaths either not marked, gates locked to stop direct access, barbed wire fences where paths should be, needless to say this will be raised with the respective district council to action. It makes you wish you could carry some bolt cutters and a pot of yellow paint to put things right!
A big thank you to the National Trust person at Woolsthorpe Manor who let us use the cafe without paying an admission charge into the site.
The other highlight being crossing the A1 without becoming strawberry jam, yes the path does officially cross it. I waited for a gap in the traffic both sides and ran across like my bottom was on fire jumping across the central reservation like Red Rum or Shergar!!

We were going to stop at Burton le Coggles owned by the Chummley family but chose to carry on and do a few extra miles due to the shorter day yesterday.
Now we are at Swayfield and will be wild camping tonight - Rachel is now a firm fan of this now…….not, after the Bovine incident. We have identified a site again near the church so fingers crossed for a peaceful night. 
We will let you know how it went.

Total distance today: 13.6 miles for the planned route + 2 miles from the nights accommodation
Total since Helmsley - 207.4 miles

1 comment:

  1. Glad you are enjoying the walking!! Will tweet your exploits once a week!! Don't forget to hi-6 everyone whilst your down in the sticks!

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