Ivanhoe Way Challenge 2010

Distance: 35miles
Walked: 15 Sept 2010

Very proud of myself today (and a little sore) after completing the Ivanhoe Way in less than the challenge time.

I started at 6am, just as the sky was getting light, finished at 6:40pm - that's 12hrs 40mins, well under the challenge time of 15 hours. Includes a 35min lunch stop, and various very short stops.

All photos from today are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shieladixon/sets/72157624845072143/

Rutland Water Egleton Circular Walk

Walked: 15 August 2010

Distance: 5.5m

This is a very pretty walk, devised last year while trying to find high views over the reservoir. Today was reasonably sunny, but hazy in the distance, meaning that the long photos aren't quite as spectacular as they could be.

I saw lots of these minibeasts this morning, looking at first glance a bit like something an animal has left behind. I think they may have been looking around for something that an animal has left behind. Very shiny and black, with a little bit of irridescence, similar to the classic scarab beetle.

Ivanhoe Way (in two halves)

Distance: 36m

Walked: 7th & 8th August 2010

Not feeling quite ready to take the challenge for this year (that's the full 36m in less than 15 hours) I decided a good training exercise would be to do the full loop in two halves, with a sleep in between.

I live virtually on the route, so I drove my car to the furthest point from home - Stanton-under-Bardon so that I could walk half the distance, have tea and sleep, then finish the walk and finish at my car.

I didn't get as many photos as I could have because a few miles in on the first day I thought my camera had packed up. It turned out that the batteries I'd bought in an emergency on the way to the start were useless for anything other than remote controls.

Lots more photos are here at Flickr

More information about the Ivanhoe Way

Rutland Water with Peninsula

Walked: 31/7/10
Distance: 20-something miles (or 14 without peninsula loop)






More photos of today's walk at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shieladixon/sets/72157624499826137/

early blackberries

Walked: 25/7/10
Distance 5m

Yes it's true, on 25 July, I found ripe blackberries.



With just a couple of hours to spare, I needed a short walk with a start close to home. This walk starts and finishes at the Beeches pub in Ashby, passes the Tap House (used to be Anwell Inn), crosses the A511, past the Bluebell Arboretum, through Smisby and past the Smisby Arms, takes in some beautiful views just north of Ashby and returning via the Ivanhoe Way.



And yes, they were delicious!

More photos from this walk on Flickr

Click the map below to view it at OS Explore

Spring in full bloom

Walked: 23 May 2010
Distance: 11m






More photos from this walk are here on Flickr

The route is below. For the most detailed 1:25,000 map, buy Explorer 245, The National Forest

My new heroine

From now on, the Gore-Tex stays at home. Like Mary Henrietta Kingsley I'm going to adopt Victorian formal-wear for walking including corset, good thick skirt and sensible shoes.

Animal-traps, crocodiles and cannibals held no fear for this English lady as she explored Africa clad head to foot and straight-backed.



Read more about this Great British Nutter here:
http://greatbritishnutters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mary-kingsley-friend-of-cannibals.html

Trent and Mersey, Wilson to Willington Circular

Walked: 8/7/10
Distance: 17m
Route: http://explore.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/os_routes/show/17744




As my photos have become more important in my posts, I've decided to make more use of Flickr. (Sorry, Blogger)

All photos from this walk are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shieladixon/sets/72157624453181190/

Dawn Chorus Walk

I'm really not a morning person, so it takes something special to get me up at 4am. I've never really been a bird person either, other than enjoying birdsong as background noise.

The Dawn Chorus Walk run by the Environmental Education Project at Rosliston Forestry Centre was a real eye-opener (ear-opener?). Here's a taster of what we were listening to at about 5:30


Dawn Chorus 1 May 2010 | Music Codes

A chap called Dave led us around the site telling us about the songs that we were listening to. It's amazing that once a particular song has been explained to you, you can pick it out from the general cacophany. Also amazing that once you can recognise a particular bird's song, you can then 'spot' that bird from its call alone, tell roughly where it is, and then maybe even see it.

The dawn chorus itself is something special. Each bird has its own special song, but when put together they make a fascinating piece of music with random elements.

I'm very pleased to have experienced it, and to have seen such a wonderful sunrise.

Packington / Normanton

• Walked: 23 April 2010
  
• Distance: 5.5m
• Terrain: flattish
• Summary: Park in packington, cross fields to Sprng Lane and continue straight along track. Take the muddy bridleway to Normanton le Heath, and take paths which run parallel to the road back to Packington.
• Time: 2 hrs

The weather's been so nice recently, so the muddy bridleway wasn't. A beautiful afternoon, with lots of signs of spring around; various shades of green in the trees and hedges, blackthorn flowers, dandelions in full flower, elder starting to come into leaf, lambs in the fields.








The route above was generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Map image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Eerie silence

the reason that this little chap has a puzzled look on his face is that it's unusually quiet. Eerily quiet.
We're beside East Midlands airport, and the reason for this silence is that somewhere up there is a cloud of volcanic dust from a volcano far away with an unpronounceable name. It stopped the aeroplanes from flying yesterday and again today. It looks like continuing into the weekend. The walk around the perimeter of the airport is pleasant enough, but I wouldn't normally do it because of the constant stream of aircraft going to and fro. But today they're all sat on the ground going nowhere. :-)On the way round, I went out of my way to visit the memorial plaque to the people who died, were injured or helped in January 1989 when a plane crashed on the M1 motorway below.

It has turned into an extraordinarily nice day today.
Some kind of fungus? Or something alien? Not sure what this is.
I do know that this is hawthorn - the leaves are unfurling now turning the hedges a beautiful bright green.
And these are the flowers of its sister, blackthorn, the flowers generally come out earlier than the leaves. And eventually turn into sloes, which make gin into a gorgeous liqueur.

Albert Village circular walk

Distance: 5m
Walked: 28 March 2010

My first tentative steps into the sunshine after a long hibernation were to explore some paths around Albert Village on the South Derbyshire / North-West Leicestershire border. A short 5m walk was just enough to get the legs working again.

After a very long cold winter and a long wait for the daffs to come out, I managed to spot several very early signs of spring. some trees as well as the hawthorne were coming into bud, and a few of those buds were starting to unfurl. Fluffy catkins were showing on willow trees.

Extra year-round colour on this walk is provided by gorse.

The National Forest is a Forest in the Making. This walk takes in some well-established as well as some newly-planted woods, and has some beautiful views over the lake at Albert Village.

On the second loop of this walk, to the east of the lake, a viewpoint gives you a great view over the lake and surrounding woods.