My Walking Journeys

Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today myself and Mick continued with another leg of the Leicestershire Round. You may recall from an earlier blog that the Leicestershire Round is a 100 mile circular walk around the county of Leicestershire. We are doing the walk in stages and today was a 9 mile walk for leg 3 – Hoby to Thorpe Satchville.

As usual, we parked one car at Thorpe Satchville and the other at Hoby. It was a foggy morning and quite chilly when we resumed our walk by the church in Hoby.

Our first port of call would be Frisby. The mist was proving stubborn at lifting which also made navigating interesting.

We crossed the river Wreake over a wooden bridge hoping the fog would lift soon. When crossing fields we normally look out for the yellow marker posts denoting the exit but we were snookered with the mist.

The walk would turn out to be one where we cross lots of stiles, pass through many gates and, on the first half of the walk, get surprised to find we were walking through a field of cows because they suddenly appeared out of the mist.

Arriving into Frisby a helpful couple pointed us in the right direction of our way out.

Leaving Frisby we started to ascend and continued to do so for quite a while. The mist was lifting and blue skies were visible. We would cross gently rolling hills to Gaddesby.

It was time to get the jackets off as the temperature was rising now.

We arrived in Gaddesby and asked a resident whether there was a bench near by – he pointed us in the right direction. We needed a drink and some food.

Gaddesby is a lovely village with some thatched roof cottages. It also has a grand hall but we only saw its entrance gates.

Refreshed after our break we set off again, passing beside the church. The church is generally reckoned to be the most beautiful in the county with a tall spire that can be seen for miles.

As I was taking the photo a lady who was tending the gardens informed me that inside are grade 1 listed medieval wooden benches.

Leaving Gaddesby we were headed for Ashby Folville. We had to cross four fields that had had manure sprayed over the surface so the air was pungent and slippery underfoot. As Mick said, ‘this would not be a good place to slip over!’ Thankfully, neither of us did. The subsequent fields were grassed so helped clear the muck from our boots. The joys of farmland walking.

We passed through a tunnel under a dismantled railway line (Melton Mowbray line?) and then saw a field containing only black sheep – quite unusual.

Arriving into Thorpe Satchville we both felt that the walk had not been as nice as our other two legs. I guess they can’t all be special. This was more a ‘getting the miles knocked off as the scenery was nothing special’ type walk. Enjoyable never the less – you can’t beat being out and about!

Happy Walking! 😊🚶‍♂️

Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today myself and Mick did our second leg of the Leicestershire Round – Mountsorrel to Hoby-10 miles. It was a really lovely walk, taking in the river Soar and some beautiful villages along the way. The walk started and finished in sunshine, and in between, we had heavy rain. It was a chilly day with a cold north wind blowing.

Having parked our cars at either end of the walk we set off from The Buttercross in Mountsorrel.

We passed a replica of the 15th century market cross.

Following the Sileby road we reached the Waterside Inn and then took the towpath along the river. I was admiring the narrow boats that were moored up- it would be nice to win the lottery!

Passing under the A6 then by a weir and crossing a bridge we headed for Sileby marina. I was enjoying walking by water, I don’t know what it is but it is just nice.

At Sileby Marina we saw a great little weir that was very bubbly – I wondered if this was a way of oxygenating the water by creating turbulence?

Leaving the Marina we headed towards Cossington Meadows – a nature reserve created from old gravel pits. I spotted a narrow boat with a lovely display of flowers on its roof.

Passing through Cossington village our route took us past Ratcliffe College, a co-ed Catholic public school. It started to rain. We crossed the school playing fields and arrived at the A46 dual carriageway. It took a while getting across because it is very busy and the cars/lorries were travelling at 70mph. Eventually there was a gap in the traffic and I was glad to get across safely.

The rain was persisting down (light showers according to the weather forecast – you could have fooled me!). Sheep were sheltering under the trees – sensible animals.

Our boots got very muddy crossing one of the fields but soon cleared crossing grassy fields. We saw some white cows which I thought were quite rare in these parts.

We came to Rearsby Mill and had to decide whether the path took us up the front drive of this beautiful large house – it did, but as there were no signs I couldn’t help worrying that some irate owner would come out and berate us for trespassing.

Further along we crossed a mainline railway line which we thought was unusual for its traffic light system for crossing.

We arrived into Rearsby and I was delighted to see a wonderful example of a packhorse bridge, which was built in 1741.

The bridge is listed as an ancient monument. According to village records it was built by six men in nine days at a cost of just over £11. Fifteen loads of stone and 21 quarters of lime were used in its construction.

The heavy rain started again so we sheltered under some trees leading to church. The rain eased slightly so we set off passing the church of St Michael and All Angels.

Annoyingly, we missed our turn in Rearsby because the sign was buried in shrubbery. A sixth sense told me to check the GPS so we didn’t go too far adrift – funny how you sense things.

We crossed a field containing a now wet crop and we both got very wet legs/feet from it.

Fortunately, the sun made an appearance and helped dry us out slightly as we made our way to Hoby, our destination.

We made a note of where to resume our next leg of the Leicestershire Round- Hoby to Thorpe Satchville, hopefully next week.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶‍♂️