Thursday, April 26, 2012

Walk 2 Belton to Glooston

 22nd April 2012


Staggered up from my sick bed after there was a suggestion of leaving me behind for this one.  Being a real trooper though I shrugged off illness and away we went.

The "gang" minus one

Not exactly sure what John is doing here, but a good photo of me I think. 

The weather was fairly pleasant as we set off down the road from Belton towards Allexton.  Not much mud to be seen at this point of the walk despite the almost continuous rain over the last week.

Allexton Church

Blue sky at Allexton Church, and then up a wooded path towards open fields. This part of the path is now all stone rather than the muddy track John remembers from his youth (then again it was so long ago.....).

Up from Allexton Church

Beautiful bit this, not too hard on the old paws and the sun was beginning to shine.

 Looking back down the track to Allexton

And here are those open fields with bright blue skies and fluffy white clouds. This bit certainly gets five muddy paws.

A barrn or two
Looking back towards Belton, hopefully the large puddle means muddy paws to come.

Looking back towards Belton


Arty photo with no dog in it

Well so far it has been very dry under paw, and nothing to smell or eat. 

Here are all the humans on the path across to Hallaton.  If you enlarge the picture you can see the path running across towards the Hallaton road.
Towards Hallaton

Errm not sure what is going on here, but I must show Rob how you do it with one leg raised in the air.   [STOP PRESS Rob tells me "I was trying to read my texts but there was too much sunlight so had to go into the hedge. You dogs just don't understand phones!!!" Quite where all that sunlight was coming from is a bit of a mystery though]

Maybe Rob should be the other side of that hedge?

Humans in the landscape again.  Meanwhile I'm racing around the field looking for pheasants and the such like.  Don't like the look of that black cloud though...In the far distance (I would say horizon if some of us were not confused by the word) is Belton-In-Rutland our starting point.

Arty photo with no dog in it

And then we sort of got lost, or rather we were on the correct path but the Leicesershire Round path was off to the right of us.  I suspect this is a clue that the path had been moved.

This way or that

Now these red and white posts caused a bit more of an argument (not difficult when certain people are on the walk), I'm not sure who was called correct now but for future reference going one side is good and the other bad.  Right, enough of that, onwards.

Red'N'White

Got attacked by a twig somewhere round here, bit me on the bum, so if you are being dragged along on this walk watch out for the wood around here because it is not friendly. 

Still no mud to talk of but that big black cloud seems to be getting closer.  This is just before Hallaton and it's beginning to look as if my lunch might be a liquid one.

And it was all yellow

The pond and pub at Hallaton.  This one welcomes walkers and dogs I think, but for some reason we stayed outside while it poured with rain.  Something to do with muddy boots and wet dogs, but all a little beyond me.  Anyway it was here that the temperature dropped and then it rained cats and more cats and then even more cats.  Three muddy paws for this bit, it was a bit boring (no pheasants) and I was so looking forward to lying in front of a fire.
 
Pond and welcoming pub
Rain
Flipping 'eck it's cold and wet.  Even with my coat on I am having to lead the way just to keep warm.  Anyway this is Hallaton.  I'm off...
Hallaton Church

This is one of those pictures that no words can describe.  I'm right off in the distance (near that yellow post), but two stragglers have been looking at Orangeries - whatever they are.  So they are far behind.  Have they not seen those clouds?  Or the rain sweeping across the Welland Valley, not much time folks before we get soaked again.  Oh and it is beginning to get muddy and slippy.
 

Looking over towards the Welland Valley - oh dear, this feeble coat I've got on is not going to keep me very dry.  Anyway, great gates on this bit of the Round.  None of the troubles we had nearer Owston, so five muddy paws for the gates (even if there were an awful lot of kissing gates).


All I did was stop for a moment and suddenly Rob is striding off (something to do with caches - no I've no idea either). Anyway he thinks these cache things are in this general direction, so let's go and see.

That way...

Well no caches yet, but we do seem to have come across the biggest mud slide in the World.  Only problem is we are going up it.  This really is two paws forward one paw back.  And muddy...come on guys what you waiting for?
 
Mud slide through rape, nice.

Sheep, the old Leicestershire woollybacks.  Rather dark though as you can (just) see.  And I believe a cache is nearby, so containing my growing excitement off we go.

Counting sheep in the dark usually means going to sleep

So I feel a bit Robbed (get it - ha ha).  These cache things are not piles of biscuits secreted around the countryside for hungry dogs to nibble on as they go past.  It seems some people walk around the countryside and leave little tubs of stuff hidden in hedgerows and trees.  And then other people stagger around trying to find these "caches".  When they find them high excitement as they write their name in a very small book.  And then...well in the main that's it.  Off to the next cache.  Actually you can see the next one in the picture below, no more clues though.  To be fair Ev found the next one so how hard could it have been.  {Oh I'm told it was camouflaged, another word to look up the spelling of}

Looking for nuts or Stanleycachewing

We've stopped again for another cache - I think this was the bird one, or was it the Round one.  Come on guys big black cloud ahead, as if we were not wet enough already.
 
Thinking I might get wet while waiting for the cache to come to light

 Well I'm not sure he caught me at my very best (and I did try to put him off by licking the camera) but Steve sure got me when I was wet.  Notice the glazed eyes - what the heck is going on with these little tuppaware boxes?

Anyway muddy as heck here.  Stuff stuck to your paws until suddenly you are twice as heavy as you are normally, and the damn coat kept slipping round as well, must pay a visit to my tailor.  So this bit was really sticky going, four muddy paws for effort I think.

A now wet Stanley is waiting for the cache to come to light

No-one could not say that they were not warned.  Hail and rain make a lovely combination and it was very dark.  By this time all the guys are hiding under a tree waiting for the girls to struggle on across the field.  Chivalry?  Dead mate.

All hail

The long road home beckons.  Out of Cranoe and on towards Glooston, the end actually is in sight (even if it is still 1km away)



And that's it folks. A wet, and dare I say it rather dull walk across the top of the Welland Valley.  Overall I think five muddy paws for the lack of stiles and the mud and three muddy paws for the walk itself.

Download gpx file from here (please use a virus checker)


c. Stanley The Dog. April 2012

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Walk 2 Belton to Glooston

Sunday 22nd April 2012.

An 11km (6.86 miles) walk from just outside the pub in Belton to Glooston.  Passing through Hallaton, so there is a pub at 3.8 miles and another in Glooston at the end.  Actual end point to be agreed probably Main Street, Glooston (map SP 749 958).

Likely to be a little muddy, especially if we get more rain this week.