Walk 09/2007 – Nettleton on the Viking Way

Sunday 22nd April 2007

We travelled 90 miles to the well–kept village of Nettleton, the start of our walk, and where there was a delightful Saxon church built in the local orange coloured ironstone, quite a picture.

The Walk length was 9 miles; the weather very pleasant and we completed the circuit in 5 hours as suggested. The walk was described in the newsletter as “Rolling hills in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds”. We certainly experienced some but only a few undulating Wolds and passed through the attractive Nettleton Beck valley and a small wooded area of pretty Beech trees. However the majority of the walk was relatively flat for the Wolds; we seemed to either cross grass fields housing varied livestock or arable farmland, some of which was fallow and unattractive, or at the more boring and earlier stage of crop growth.

The highlights for me were the variety of colourful wildflowers seen growing in the grass verges and in the fields. The collection we observed included; Field Speedwell (low to the ground) and Germant Speedwell in the verges, Cowslips, Bluebells, Cellandines, Forget-me-not, Wild daffodil and Bullrushes. The Common Nettle and White Dead Nettle, made regular appearances and wondered whether there was any link to the village name.

Whilst crossing the fields we saw several suckling calves and one breed was almost all white and so the cute calf became known as ‘snowy’! And a photo was definitely required of this one. We also met a most tame pheasant but we concluded that perhaps he was feeling pretty poorly to allow us so close.

We had a great lunch once again adopting our gnome poses and finding a tree each to support our backs whilst munching.

All in all the walk was pretty mediocre and this was a consensus opinion, but as always the company and exercise makes to an enjoyable day.

Cathy

Walk rating – Below average

There must have been something wrong with this pheasant to let us get this close.	The Nettleton Beck valley.
Wolds scenery?	Spring is sprouting.
We passed this attractive pond.	Like gnomes in the wood, we find trees to sit against for lunch.
More Wolds scenery.	I’ll be glad when spring’s over.