Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today’s lovely 9 mile circular walk began in Vicar Water Country Park which was once part of Clipstone Park, a popular royal hunting retreat set deep within Sherwood Forest.

Vicar Water Country Park was created in the 1980’s from the spoil mounds of the former Clipstone Colliery and Vicar Ponds, a fishery that served the nearby Welbeck Abbey estate of the Dukes of Portland.

As myself and Mick were driving to the Country Park the rain was chucking it down. Thankfully, it had stopped by the time we parked up the car.

Setting off we walked beside Vicar Pond and a striking sculpture of a golden hand.

There were quite a few anglers around the pond which was going to prove a theme for the day when, later on, we passed other ponds on this walk – there was competition fishing going on.

We followed a good path towards the village of Kings Clipstone passing the old colliery workings. We could see the remains of the former grand hunting lodge, King Johns Palace, named after the Plantagenet king and nemesis of the legendary local hero Robin Hood.

Walking through the village we spotted a handy bench and decided to have a quick coffee stop.

Leaving the village on a tarmac road (squires lane) we passed a grand house – Cavendish Lodge – that had some intriguing old wooden horse carriages in the stables.

The sun was shining and it was warming up – Mick removed a layer to cool down. It was so nice to feel spring in the air!

Our path next took us through Cavendish wood towards the river Maun.

Arriving at the river we found a sign telling us that the footpath ahead was closed. We wondered why? After consulting the map we retraced our steps through the wood and found an alternative route around the restriction joining the river Maun once again.

We met a couple of walkers and asked them why the path was closed -apparently a storm last year had washed the path away.

Walking along the path the river was on our left and large ponds on our right. The banks of one pond was lined with Anglers. I asked if there was a competition on and an angler replied yes – that would explain the serious looking faces!

Our walk next took us up a hill ( We could hear Chris, who was missing this walk, saying ‘I am just saying – there is a lot of up on this walk!’ and myself and Mick smiled to ourselves) where we walked along a path with the river Maun visible below nestled beside the lush green wood.

We stopped for another cuppa taking in the view before heading off towards Spa Ponds Country park. We headed downhill, crossed the river Maun and then headed uphill again through Spa Ponds Country Park.

There were numerous paths through the park but thankfully we didn’t get lost😊 . Leaving the park we walked through Clipstone village towards our final destination.

Navigating was again tricky but we eventually found the path that we wanted and it took us up a hill towards a couple of viewpoints where we could see the pit winding heads clearly in the distance.

The gorse was a joyful yellow, flowering brightly beside the path and we were getting nice forest views. It was great to see butterflies enjoying the sun. Spring has definitely arrived.

Descending from the hill we soon reached the carpark and the end of today’s journey.

It had been a lovely walk in the sun and no mud!

Happy Walking ! 😊🚶‍♂️