Led by Mel, with me, Norma, Brenda, Gordon and Maureen. Very warm, pretty flat, two breaks. Just over 8 miles in all.
We set off from Aldwincle tea-room, turn left from the car park, then cross Main Street and turn right down Baulks Lane, which takes us down to Lowick Lane, where we turn right. Soon we go through the car park on our left for the Nature Reserve, and then along the track. Once through the gate into the reserve we turn left through the trees, and follow the main track - we have a quick look in the hide, but can see little but distant ducks and swans, so continue. Before long we turn left and cross the river. It looks clear and deep, with fish swimming in and out of the water weed. Almost tempting.
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| Weed and reflections in the river |
We walk southeast towards the A605 - a busy road to cross before we take the road into Titchmarsh village.
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| Church of St Mary the Virgin, peeping modestly from a veil of trees |
We haven't walked far yet, but it's hot, people would like more water, and there's a community shop.
The helpful woman behind the counter suggests we can sit outside, and then I spot that the shop sells coffee. This temptation is not to be resisted. Unfortunately we can't agree on biscuits, so we make do with the drinks.
Definitely not resisted. A great place to stop on a hot day. But we can't hang about all day - there's walking to be done. Onward.
A couple of hundred yards along the High Street, and there's the footpath, going off to our right, through a stile/gate, past a small allotment, and a few sheep, then over another stile. We follow the edges of a field, and the path soon takes us over a minor road, then further down to another crossing of the A605. When we arrive at a lake we turn left - walking south west, just north of Thrapston.
We have another break by the skateboard park, sitting on a shady stone. I could get used to these two-break walks in the sun.
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| It's a duck's life! |
Over the bridge by the mill, and up Mill Lane on the edge of Islip.
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| View from the bridge |
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| Very pretty alien invader - Himalayan Balsam. |
We turn right along Ridge Road towards Aldwincle. At the start of the woods we take the path to the right, and walk as far as the river. We keep this on our right and go past Aldwincle Lake and Heronry Lake on our left. We rejoin our route from this morning just before the bird hide, and retrace our steps back to the cars.
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I was reading the Rivendell blog today, where Grant Petersen revealed a "mystery bike" that has been in the works for some time. It looks like this. And aside from the obvious oddities, it is endowed with an unusually long top tube for its size: a 62.5cm top tube on a 54.3cm frame. Apropos this geometry, Rivendell notes that the bicycle is"basically a flat-to-rolling land bike that, by virtue of it’s superlong top tube ...locks you into a sweeepyback bar." In other words, it would be difficult to set this bike up with drop bars due to the excessively long reach that would create.
Baby Wiley has taken a moment to rest. Notice I said a moment. Most of the time he is going full blast and it is almost impossible to get a photo of him. By the time I snap the photo he is gone.
