Jurassic Way 5 - Winwick to Sibbertoft

Winwick - Elkington - Welford - Sibbertoft

11 miles. With Marta. Fine, sunny, very warm. Dry conditions.

Winwick church - photograph taken at end of the walk! See time.

From the pond at Winwick we walked past the gateway to Winwick Hall, then turned left, through a field gate to the bridleway.

The gates and Winwick Hall.

The route was clearly marked until we had to turn off to the left towards Honey Hill. This sign was a little harder to find:

Hunt the way markers

The path to Honey Hill skirts the hillsides to begin with, through some fields - at one point there is a way marker near a wooden bridge - don't even bother trying to cross the bridge, the path continues round the field and on, alongside a golf course, which you eventually cross over.
The climb starts here and after crossing a field or two, you join a wide surfaced track past Honey Hill Farm and a field with horses - lovely views if you look back.

The third horse was just relaxing - above Honey Hill Farm.

The road flattens out, and you pass another large house before reaching the road between Welford and Cold Ashby. Turn left for a very short stretch, and the footpath leads off to the left, taking you down Honey Hill towards Elkington.

From the path down Honey Hill

The path was opened here in 1994

In Elkington, you turn right along the road, and follow it to the junction. On the noticeboard, this notice caught my eye - memories of times past, not I hope portents of times to come:

Keep to the left hand road (signposted to Yelverton) and after a short distance, you cross a canal bridge. Turn right here and follow the canal for about a mile, along and under the A14. Continue to bridge 31.

I haven't yet worked out what these 'living milestones' are for

At bridge 31 you leave the canal, cross the bridge and take the footpath on the left. At this time of year, the sign is half hidden in the hedge, but the path is clear.

Uphill to Hemplow Hills. On the following walk we saw a hare ahead of us on this path.

Part of West Hill Farm

The path through the woods is clear - a bit steep at the start. Once you emerge, go along beside a field where young trees are growing, and along a track past West Hill Farm, and these lodge buildings. Then it's over a stile by a remote controlled gate and along Hemplow Drive, past Hemplow Lodge Farm and childcare nursery. Continue along the drive until you reach the crossroads. Cross over and West End is the road leading into Welford village.

At this point we went to the pub at the Wharf, rather than following the official JW path, rejoining it on the Naseby Road, just past the fishermen's car park.

We walked along the path next to the reservoir, then across the causeway.

A less daunting causeway in summer time!

the path cuts across fields, through the bumps and hollows of the deserted mediaeval village of Old Sulby, through a field of cows, past some farms to a track where we turned right and followed the path through several fields - it is well marked.

Soon we arrived at Sibbertoft, where we followed the route round to the churchyard before returning to the car.

Sibbertoft church, photo taken before driving to Winwick - see time on clock!

Georgia History Begins in Savannah

Darcie and I spent Thursday night of last week at a B&B called The Azalea Inn in Savannah; wonderful place if you ever get the chance.
Originally booked as a 35th anniversary get-away for dear husband and myself, he said that if he's only going to be an hour away from home, he'd rather stay in his own bed. "Fine," says I. "I'll just take Darcie." And I did. I showed him.
We're learning Georgia History this year, so I thought this would be a great time and place to start.
Unfortunately, newly-turned-thirteen-year-old daughter doesn't like history. The travesty. I think she's adopted. I love history. Adore it even. Sigh....
So, my plan of attack was to walk through the historic district holding the shopping carrot over her; history first...shopping second. It pretty much worked.
This was the first time I've walked from one end of the historic district to the other. It's only about a mile one way. I do that all the time. But walking on uneven bricks and cobblestones, dodging traffic, taking endless photos, reading the map, etc. is pretty physically draining.
We just scratched the surface. Wait till she goes to Fort Jackson, Fort Pulaski, Fort Sumter, Fort Sunbury, etc. I may have to promise her unlimited use of my Visa!

Change of plans

This long weekend was supposed to be the long-planned (and long-delayed) tour of the Crows Nest region. However, a few timetabling issues from QR have put paid to that. In basic terms, to get a train to Caboolture on a public holiday (i.e. tomorrow) from the Gold Coast requires an hour sitting on a platform in Brisbane. I, for one, can think of far better things to do. As a consequence, that tour is being delayed until the Labour Day weekend (only a week later), the timetabling of which will require sitting on a platform at Central Station for just six minutes.
In it's place, I'm heading for the Border Ranges National Park, a vast expanse of mountainous rainforest to the north of Kyogle in NSW. I have visited this part of the world once before, quite a long time ago now, and have longed for a return. It's going to involve a couple of nights at the Kyogle Caravan park, and repeating the same ride twice in three days, but I can vary the Kyogle ride from this side of Murwillumbah. I may detour into Nimbin along the way, but probably won't as I've been there many times in the past. It will, however be the first time I've climbed the Nightcap range from this side, so that provides some interest.
All that is left now is for the Border Ranges to live up to it's hype, and for the Crows Nest tour to take place next time. Sounds like I've said that before.

Southern California Skies

A Kentia palm invokes thoughts of the tropics.

More Before and After

All this stuff on the dining room table and floor was taken out of the built in cupboard to the left. I'm giving it all away. There is depression glass, Princess House crystal, Southern Living at Home stuff, antique linens, etc.
I thought about listing it on E-bay but almost get physically ill thinking about all that that entails. I'd rather gift it to some of the young married girls in my church who are still collecting beautiful things for their homes. That way, we'll all be happy.
The other photo is of my cupboard AFTER the big declutter. It looks so much better! I don't know why I couldn't part with all this stuff earlier. This is the second big declutter of the cupboard. I've found that I have to get rid of things in stages. I have emotional attachments to all my belongings that makes it hard to get rid of things easily. But I'm learning to, and it feels so good!

Goldfields on Figueroa

Goldfields on Figueroa, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here are some goldfields up on the slopes of Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County. The mountain is spectacular, with beautiful displays of wildflowers.

Upper Calf Creek Falls

Being that we had just spent 4 days and 3 nights camping along Hole in the Rock Road, we figured it was a good time to head into the town of Escalante and stay in a motel and get some nice restaurant food, a hot shower and do some laundry. We completed all of those tasks last night, wrapping up our evening with dinner at the restaurant at Escalante Outfitters, where we had arguably the BEST pizza we've ever eaten! No joke, their pizza was AWESOME!!! And, we're not just saying because we had eaten nothing but camp food for 3 days ;-)


This morning after getting a good night's rest in the motel and some yummy breakfast coffee cake from Escalante Outfitters, we headed out on our next adventure. The first hike of the day: Upper Calf Creek Falls. We were excited about this hike because there would be WATER! We had been hiking mostly in sand and rock for the past 4 days, with very little water. Indeed, Upper Calf Creek Falls was a riparian paradise! We heard a ton of birds along this hike, and saw a lot of vegetation along the creek. It was like a little desert oasis :-)

















The hike was fairly short, but still quite strenuous as we had to hike down a steep slickrock hill that dropped several hundred feet in elevation. Hiking down wasn't all that difficult, but we definitely broke a sweat going back up! Seeing the falls was definitely worth the workout, though. The main falls was beautiful and tall, but difficult to photograph. I had more fun photographing the small waterfalls and pools above the main falls, as they were much more photogenic. The main falls was the most fun to just take in and view, though. All in all, it was another wonderful hike to add to our list of beautiful honeymoon hikes :-)