Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Yesterday Angela and I met up with Mick outside St Peter and St Paul’s church in the small Lincolnshire hamlet of Kettlethorpe.

We had planned a walk from Kettlethorpe to the river Trent which we would follow to Torksey Lock, where the Fossdyke joins the Trent. Then, we would take a walk along the bank of the Fossdyke, after which the plan was to follow footpaths across fields back to Kettlethorpe. As you will see things didn’t quite work out as planned!

We set off walking on a pleasant morning, after plenty of overnight rain, and were soon arriving into the village of Laughterton, which oddly had exactly the same village sign as Kettlethorpe.

Walking through Laughterton I noticed some very pretty hanging baskets in a garden. They were a pleasure to see!

A walk along Marsh Lane brought us to the magnificent river Trent.

Having reached the river we followed the grassy bank admiring the views.

As we walked along the giant cooling towers of the former Coal Fired Powered Station at Cottam soon dominated the view.

And before long the short grass on the bank turned into something much more difficult to walk through. There were many ruts and trip hazards in the grass and we needed to be careful where we put our feet.

After a very tedious walk through long vegetation we arrived at Torksey Lock.

Torksey Lock is where boats on the Fossdyke can access the river Trent and vice versa.

Angela pointed out all the tea pots resting on the beams of a lock gate. Most curious.

It took a bit of finding to get on to the towpath of the Fossdyke but eventually we found the way and set off along the canal. There were several pleasure craft moored up in private marinas.

A narrow boat passed us by as we strolled along the towpath.

The power station cooling towers were still in view.

As we continued along the canal bank the vegetation got more difficult to walk through which was tiring. Eventually, we reached Drisney Nook and finished the section along the Fossdyke. We headed off to find our route across fields. Here things went pear shaped. Footpath signposts disappeared and after referring to the map, we got back on track only to find the subsequent path completely impassable with overgrown vegetation. Unless rights of way are maintained by the landowner this is always a possibility during summer months.

We looked at the map and came to the conclusion that some road walking was necessary to pick up the route further on. So, we had a horrendous walk beside the busy A57 to reach our route – nobody enjoyed this section and all were glad to get off the road and follow a quiet track back to Kettlethorpe.

We passed a large Paintball site but there were no competitors there today.

Angela was amazed at the large number of chicken farms that there were in the area. There was certainly a lot.

We were glad to arrive back at the cars after a 13.5-mile walk on what turned out to be quite a hot day. It was a shame that our enjoyment of the walk was tainted by the walk along the road. I don’t think we will be doing this walk again too soon.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶