Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today, Angela and I enjoyed a 6.7-mile circular walk from the Lincolnshire village of Donington.

I had found the walk in a book by Hugh Marrows titled ‘Walks for all seasons- 20 circular walks in Lincolnshire’. We parked in the market square which was convenient to view the statue commemorating Matthew Flinders, perhaps the most famous son of Donington.

Flinders joined the Navy aged 16, sailing with the infamous Captain Bligh to Tahiti. Then, in 1795 came his first voyage to Australia. Teaming up with another Lincolnshire chap named Bass, he circumnavigated Van Diemens Land, now called Tasmania. On subsequent voyages he circumnavigated and charted the whole coast of Australia- the first person to do so. It is said that he was the first to propose calling the continent Australia rather than the previous name Terra Australis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Flinders

Flinders is buried in the church of St Mary and the Holy Rood in Donington.

As someone who is fond of cats, I was interested in learning more about Flinders cat ‘Trim’. Born on the ship HMS Reliant, Trim fell overboard as a kitten but managed to swim back to the boat and climb a rope to get back onboard – he became a firm favourite with the crew and Flinders. He sailed with Flinders on a number of ships and even accompanied him into captivity when he was imprisoned by the French. Trim mysteriously disappeared while in the prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(cat)

Leaving the market square we set off on a sunny, blue sky morning towards the church.

The Moon was visible in the cloudless blue sky. We admired the design of the spire on the tower. After passing through the Church grounds we found ourselves on an unpleasant walk along a pavement beside the busy A52. We were glad to leave that noisy highway and head across tracks through fields of vegetables.

Further along we passed by people harvesting the vegetables – a back breaking job.

We took a slight detour to view the memorial for the six crew of a Lancaster bomber who perished when it crashed in 1944.

The information plaque had photos of the crew – I’ve not seen that before.

Continuing on we saw fields containing a vast variety of vegetables, including Pumpkins (for Halloween I guess) but the most striking field was one of cabbages – the photo does not do it justice.

Walking across the open land was very pleasant with a cooling wind taking away the heat of the sun. The land is covered in drainage ditches and we passed several on our journey. Some were better maintained than others!

Soon, we were walking through new housing developments and the nice park. We looked out for a coffee shop on arriving into the village, but most shops seemed closed for the day. Instead, we headed home to enjoy a nice coffee there.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶