Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

As the rain poured down from the heavens all day yesterday, myself and Mick both had the same thought – are we going to be able to walk tomorrow morning?

Fortunately, the rain moved away overnight and we had a warm sunny morning for our walk. The walk would take us on a 9-mile circular route from Caythorpe to Hough-on-the-Hill then Normanton-on Cliffe before arriving back into Caythorpe.

Parking in Back Lane, Caythorpe we set off on our planned route and were soon crossing a field of wheat where previous walkers had carved a path through.

Unfortunately for us the crop was very wet from the rain and by the time we had crossed the field our feet/trousers were soaking wet! Not a good start.

Undaunted, we carried on and found that some of the paths were overgrown and so, also wet. Our feet /trousers were getting a soaking. Soon we came to an open field containing sheep and were relieved to be out of the long grass.

We could see Hough-on-the Hill in the distance as we strolled onwards.

Hough-on-the Hill is a small village – it only had a population of 399 in 2011. The word Hough is Old English for enclosure and yes, the village sits on top of a hill. After arriving in the village we decided to walk around it and view the big houses.

The church in the village is called All Saints and dates back to the 11th century. It is built of ironstone and limestone. Mick spotted a bench in the church yard and we headed up to sit and take a break and allow our trousers to dry in the sunshine. As I munched on my scotch egg Mick had a perusal of the gravestones which although old (c1875) were in very good condition.

Leaving the church we got talking to a cyclist who was on a 70 mile day trip – it amazes me the distances cyclists cover in a day. In the village we spotted a few small old metal gates and wondered what their purpose was ?

Leaving the village we crossed a field containing an old Foden excavator which was unexpected and interesting to see.

After leaving this field the path took us along the edge of the adjacent field which was overgrown with vegetation. Our trousers which had started to dry out soon became even wetter than previously!

Reaching the end of the overgrown section we could not follow the defined pathway because the landowner had fenced in the route. This was not helpful but we did find a way around. We were feeling at this stage that this was proving a troublesome route.😒

We continued to cross fields and at one point we could see, in the distance, the point of entry into the next field which looked like it contained oil-seed rape. Our hearts sank – we have previous experience of not being able to cross oil seed rape fields because the farmer had not restored the footpath after planting the crop.

However, we were pleasantly surprised to find, when we entered the field, that the oil seed rape we had seen was only remnants from a previous year and the farmer had sprayed a path through the new wheat crop. Maybe our luck was changing.

We followed the yellow stripe path, crossed the route of a former railway line and entered Normanton-on-Cliffe. After a short walk along the main street we turned off and headed along a road that headed uphill giving nice views over the surrounding countryside.

Having reached the top of the incline we crossed a field where the farmer had placed cones at the entry/exit point but we didn’t realise this because they were not on the defined pathway. Oh well.

Having walked up the hill we were soon walking down the hill and looking for the footpath. This was not to be found so we decided to abandon trying to follow the footpaths and follow the lanes instead, back to Caythorpe.

Arriving in Caythorpe we passed a bright yellow flowering tree which I think is Common Laburnum / Golden Rain.

Back at the car we both felt that, for whatever reason, the walk was tougher than the 13-miler we had done last week. Maybe it was the blocked paths, although we had that last week too. Despite this, it had been nice to be out in the sunshine and explore new territory.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶‍♂️