Out for the Long Haul

With my stomach in better order today, I felt I needed to really get out there today and make up for the rather pathetic weekend I've had.

So, as soon as I was up and ready, layered up, fleeced and brushed of tooth, I decided to head out for Barnby in the Willows again, to attempt a route I had messed up last summer from the opposite direction.

It was a cobalt bright day, but a very chilly one at 1030am. I needed those layers! Judging by the noise, I also might have needed a steel helmet, as a pair of USAF F15 Eagles practiced for the invasion of North Korea overhead as I struck out along the country lanes. They were really going for it with their mock dogfights, and were noisier than they entire WW2 Luftwaffe.

I watched them for a good 15 minutes!

About 3.5 miles I was in Barnby Village, and rather than heading for the River Witham as I usually do, I took a left onto Long Lane, to be met by a friendly yowly cat pointing me towards the footpath I missed last time.

This initial path went through a field of sheep, and I was really happy to discover within it my first badger sett. Bloomin 'eck they dig big holes these badgers! Apparently it is an active sett, but Brock was entirely asleep when I rumbled by. Rightly so.

It wasn't the most scenic of walks, but it was good practice, and I only got off track once when trying to find my way through Brown's Wood on the way to Coddington. Apparently wild boar have been seen in this wood (!) but none today. No toadstools either, which was disappointing.

There was a couple of geocaches on the route as well, which I totally failed to find. The last one was in a another field full of sheep, and thus also full of their droppings, so I was hardly going to get down on hands and knees to look for the bloody thing. Plus, the sheep looked hostile and likely to kick me.

Still, I ended up doing over 10 miles in the end, so the exercise was good, if not the dropping dodging.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.11.17