Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

This morning myself and Mick did a boggy 12 mile circular walk beginning in Branston and taking in the villages of Eaton, Eastwell, Hose, Stathern and back to Branston.

It was a sunny and slightly chilly morning when we met outside St Guthlac’s Church in Branston. It was great that it wasn’t raining – we have had plenty this week.

We set off by a path adjacent to the village pub and it wasn’t long till we saw Eaton in the distance. Mick pointed out a red kite circling in the blue sky overhead . We stood and watched.

Dropping down via an unusual set of metal steps we headed for the village.

Eaton is a pleasant little village – narrow lanes and quite hilly. We walked through the village and left via fields for Eastwell. The fields were very boggy as expected.

At one stage in the field we stopped for a moment to chat and when I tried to walk again my feet wouldn’t move and I nearly fell flat on my face. It was a strange feeling and took some effort to free my feet from the suction of the mud – lesson learnt, keep moving and don’t stop!

Arriving in Eastwell we stopped for a cuppa in a handy bus shelter next to a nice coach house.

Leaving Eastwell we had a little difficulty finding our way through a field which had been divided up into horse pens but we managed it. We picked up the Cross Britain Way and followed the path down a hill through a wood.

Leaving the woods we had a nice view over the Vale of Belvoir.

We passed across a dismantled railway line and headed for Hose.

We skirted around Hose and followed a very straight track for quite a while . We couldn’t help noticing some leaning telephone poles.

Eventually we reached the end of the path and found our way barred by an electric fence placed there by an unfriendly farmer. We managed to climb over it without getting a shock.

After the boggy walk we had just had we were glad to do some road walking and sat on a handy bench for a break. The weather was on the turn.

We walked into Stathern, past the library and hit the track taking us uphill to the escarpment.

We were feeling quite tired at this stage. Slip sliding through muddy fields is quite tiring and our walking pace was much reduced. From the top of escarpment we picked up The Jubilee Way and made our way towards Branston.

The walk had one more steep climb for us to land us back at the church in Branston.

The walk had felt quite long and having to concentrate on where you are placing your feet, to try and avoid slipping over, did mean the chance to just chill and walk was reduced. Still we had walked some new sections so that was good.

We also chatted about walking the ‘Leicestershire Round’ when the weather improves – this is a 100 mile walk around the county of Leicestershire which can be done in stages. I am looking forward to this walk – it should make for some interesting blogs. https://www.lfa.org.uk/leicestershireround

Happy Walking! 😊🚶‍♂️