Day 6 - Nettleham to beyond Walesby

6 April (0920-1645)
Distance: 18.5 miles (Tot: 102.5)
Fitbit Steps: 41000
Weather: dry but overcast. Breezy
Number of offers of tea I declined: 1

I did something unforgivable this morning: whilst Mick was a distance away, having a shoe faff, I turned down a cup of tea and plate of biscuits! I was standing in a church yard when the offer came, and ordinarily I would have no hesitation in accepting such a kind invitation. But, we'd had a late start, had only been going an hour, and had already had four cups of tea before the offer came, so I thanked her kindly but declined. Of course, later in the day I would have jumped at the opportunity to drink more tea, but even though we loitered outside another couple of churches, we remained tealess for the rest of the day.

Going back a little in time, before the tea-refusal incident, we had walked out of the door of our B&B this morning just as the rain stopped. In spite of the forecast, and with the exception of a few drops early on, it stayed dry all day.

The earlier rain had, however, wetted the fields of rape through which we had to walk, which made it all the more unfortunate that the paths hadn't been reinstated. The one I've photographed above had an obvious trodden line; the first one we crossed was more of a wade. Curiously, in between the various fields of rape, very wide and well-defined paths had been cut through the fields of wheat.

In between stints across farmland (where many hares were seen), sections of lane were used and the amount of tarmac was rather more than I would prefer - about 8 or so miles in total. At least the lanes were quiet. In fact, everwhere was quiet today. The only person we saw out on the footpaths was a chap and his German Shepherd, for whom he had laid a scent trail. He was most eager to check that we hadn't interfered with it by straying across its path.

It was probably a combination of the late start and the amount of road-pounding that made the day seem much longer than it was. By the time we got to Middle Rasen Plantation we were both ready to stop, and Mick was yet to find himself disappointed when he found that I had understated the distance we still had to go.

Even so, when we got to our intended night-stop and found that it wasn't very nice at all, we both found the energy (having naughtily stolen some water from the campsite tap) to continue up the hill. The hill actually worked wonders; suddenly my pounded feet felt so much better.

Our pitch tonight appears to be pretty discreet (although recent evidence suggests that I can misjudge these things!), but to achieve that we're a bit slopey. We're also rather exposed to the wind, which is fair blowing just now. Hopefully it'll drop later...

(AlanR: Good suggestion - give me a nudge if I don't continue to remember to give the running total.
Conrad: Our easterly trend is now giving way to northerly progress. The question is, do you want an outline of our route, or do you want to continue guessing?)

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