Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today, myself and Mick completed another leg of The Leicestershire Round (a 100-mile route around Leicestershire) walking 10.7 miles from Frolesworth to Burbage Common.

After a rocky start, where I struggled to find the meeting up point (Burbage Common Visitors Centre), I eventually found it, and we set off in one car to Frolesworth – the point where we finished our previous leg last week. It was a chilly morning – roll on summer!

Our route was, as usual, across arable land and meadows.

The land was bone dry. We had half the normal rainfall in March and the sunniest April on record and I must say, with my walking hat on, this has been great news. I fear however, that we will pay for the fine weather now with a very wet June and July – I hope that my fears prove unfounded.

Passing through the small villages of Claybrooke Magna and Claybrooke Parva we were heading for High Cross.

High Cross, at the junction of two important Roman roads, was the geographical centre of Roman England. The Fosse Way (Lincoln to Exeter) and Watling Street (Dover to Wroxeter near Shrewsbury) met here.

We approached a nice street sign just before we came to the old Fosse Way.

A few large boulders (from Croft Quarry) mark the Geographical Centre and it had a bench which we took advantage of for a break.

After a break we followed the very straight Fosse Way towards Sharnford.

The route took us through Fosse Meadows where there was a lake and forestry. We paused in a bird hide to peer at the lake. The surrounding wetland was dry. Mick spotted a duck on the lake.

I enjoyed the meadows with the bright yellow buttercups sprinkled across the grass and the white hawthorn bushes lining the sides.

A lovely walk beside a stream brought us into Sharnford.

Mick commented that there had not been as many stiles compared with the last leg. A fatal mistake, because subsequently, we had 23 stiles to cross! – quite a few of which were in perilous condition.

After walking through Sharnford we crossed fields to reach the hamlet of Aston Flamville. A very attractive hamlet with houses to drool over.

Shortly, we crossed a bridge over the M69 motorway.

Descending steps adjacent to the Motorway we walked beside it for a while then headed off across stiles/fields, touching the edge of Hinckley and towards Burbage Wood. We skirted the outside of the woods arriving into Burbage Common, 200 acres of access land. Clearly a popular spot -there were plenty of people enjoying a walk.

We arrived back into the car park – the nearby café was very busy. All that remained to do was for Mick to drive me back to Frolesworth to collect my car. It had been a nice easy walk – most pleasant.

Next week we will walk another leg – to Market Bosworth, I am looking forward to it.

Happy Walking! 😊🚶