Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today, the Three Amigos met at 07:30 at Hickling Basin and enjoyed an 8-mile circular walk from Hickling to Hose.

Hickling basin lies on the Grantham Canal and all was quiet when we arrived. It is a very popular spot with the cafe and nearby pub.

We took a walk through the village admiring the nice houses. The village hall looked good. Formerly, it had been the village school. We read some memorial plaques for villagers who had lost their lives in the World Wars. It is good to remember their sacrifice.

As we left the village and headed for the fields we passed a couple of chairs in a garden and I felt sure that Chris was minded to take a break there! I must say the chairs did look inviting.

Our route took us across a couple of fields of mixed origins. The sunflowers looked like they were struggling with the extraordinary hot/dry summer.

We continued across several fields and the going was much easier than the last time I had done the walk, when it was extremely wet and muddy. After a slight detour, due to the footpath being overgrown with vegetation, we arrived into Hose and took a break on a bench close to the church of St Michael and All Angels.

I enjoyed a cold drink and a scotch egg before setting off through the village. Blacksmithing is clearly an important part of the village and we found two references to it.

The temperature was rising as we left the village and followed a road to bring us to the Grantham Canal. Sadly, the canal is looking quite sad in this section.

However, it does have a good towpath and is away from traffic, so is a lovely tranquil place to walk. I must say that I was shocked by the loss of water from the canal – the lack of rain is having consequences, and you do wonder if sufficient rain will fall over the autumn and winter to refill canal, rivers and reservoirs.

We came across a hut (The hut by the cut) with benches to rest on that was selling drinks, cakes, jams and chutney operating in an honesty box manner. This was not here when I last walked this path. It was good to see.

After a short path diversion we passed by three relatively new swing bridges.

A nice brick bridge (Clarks Bridge) came into view and we passed under it – it looked like the underneath had recently been rendered.

Markers along the way told us the distance we were along the canal from the river Trent – the original start point for the canal.

Close to Hickling we passed a restored Lengthsman hut – originally used as a shelter for a Lengthsman whose job it was to maintain a section of the canal.

The canal close to Hickling was also dry.

Arriving back at Hickling basin the area was very busy, even the Swans and Ducks were up now.

The water in the basin is a few feet below normal levels. We noted that someone had kindly put a wooden ramp in place as the water level is so far below the brick ramp normally used by wildlife to enter the water.

It had been a good stretch of the legs. Mick and I took advantage of being by the café to grab a coffee and chill. The walk can be found on the Grantham Canal website on the link below.

Hickling Basin to Hose | Grantham Canal Society

Happy Walking! 😊🚶