Your walk today...

[PeteXXX]

Out before 05:00, locally, for a decent walk with the dogs as they'd not been properly walked for a few days because of the heat.. .. Nobody else around walking but a surprising number of cars while I was by the main road. I had to use the path alongside the A508 for 200 yards or so to reach my public footpath of choice..

A Boughton House Folly, with Hawking Tower.

Needs a bit of work but still probably worth ½ a million!

Heading down towards the nature reserve with the dogs still on the leash as I didn't fancy losing them in the sweetcorn (?) field 😂

Back home on 4¾ miles & ready for porridge & a cuppa

 

[PeteXXX]

Lovely walk, yesterday, with my sister, around Wandlebury park and Iron Age fort in the Gog Magog hills, Cambridgeshire.

We were planning on walking from Stapleford, where we'd met up, but we judged it as too hot for crossing open fields to get there and back so we drove to the area and stayed in the cool of the woodland & Iron Age ring dykes.
Wonderful place to visit, IMHO, but likely to be very busy at weekends & holiday periods I think!

The Outer Ring

Thar be bees!!! You've been warned 🐝

The grave of Godolphin Arabian, the father of thoroughbred horses, so I read. 🐎

The Gog farm shop, deli & The Shack café does great, if pricey, food and drinks.
Probably no dearer than most of the similar places but it really was top quality nosh 👌😎

Anyway, I digress. We ended up doing several circuits of the area, meandering around the footpaths & ancient defences.

Probably about 5 miles, give or take, but most pleasurable chatting & catching up with family stuff as we onky meet up a couple of times a year.


Edit: PS 'The Gog' is on OS as Heath Farm. Not trendy enough, I suppose 😋

 

[Poacher]

Just a short walk yesterday in the Peak District with old friends Graham and Crazy Nick. Set off from Taddington on a fairly direct route to Chelmorton for a very satisfying lunch and a couple of pints in the Church Inn. There's an unusual wind vane on the actual church in the form of a locust, the symbol of John the Baptist, here with a Blackbird enjoying the ride.

Initially retracing our steps as far as Syke Lane, we turned North then took a recently opened permissive path to the Neolithic tomb and beyond. Graham knows nearly every inch of the Peak District, but he covered new ground on this walk. Crazy Nick and Graham inspecting the tomb.

Thumbnails of the recently placed footpath signs.






Rather than return directly to Taddington, we crossed the busy A6 to take in Priestcliffe Ditch, Lydgate farm and Rock Lodge farm to make the distance up to maybe a tad lass than 10km, enough on a day that started cool under low cloud but ended hot under a clear blue sky.
The view back towards Pillwell Gate.

Two heavy horses sharing a pile of hay.

Wildlife: Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and a family group(?) of four Ravens stood out among the birds. Large numbers of butterflies attracted particularly to scabious flowers included Peacock, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Wall, probable Small Skipper or was it Large?, Dingy Skipper and possibly others, and Six-spot Burnet moth.