To East Lexham from Litcham and return

The week before Christmas had been very snowy and there was still snow lying. It was a lovely sunny day and the snow was melting, but where it had been compacted on roads and pavements, it was like an ice-rink. We'd intended to park in the centre of East Lexham and start the walk there, but after sliding our way along the minor road from the A1065, we were unable to turn the car into the parking area by the Butter Market (shelter) so we made our way back to more major roads and drove to Litcham. We parked by Litcham Church reasoning (correctly) that the car park at Litcham Common would also be very icy.

We slithered our way to the Litcham Common car park on foot and then crossed the Common - it was beautiful, if slippery. The correct route of the Nar Valley Way across Litcham Common is not entirely clear; we ended up following the boundary of the Common with the road - this isn't quite what the map shows, but there is a track here so this route is fine.

We left the Common and veered away from the road, walking alongside coniferous woodland, then we turned sharp left down a track by a drainage ditch back to the road. Rather than joining the road we took a sharp right hand turn onto a track that meandered its way (with several more right-angled turns) towards East Lexham, with views through another coniferous plantation to Lexham Hall and then across more open land to East Lexham itself. The amount of snow that was lying varied considerably from place to place, presumably depending on the amount of cover (i.e. how much snow had fallen in the first place), whether the land was in the sun, and the extent of compaction.

We emerged onto Lexham Road to the south of East Lexham. The road was still very slippery but we slithered our way down to the Butter Market, where we stopped for a piece of Christmas Cake and to read the history of the Church (with its Saxon round tower) and the village. Then we retraced our steps to Litcham (seeing grazing Dartmoor ponies as we crossed Litcham Common) and drove home (along more major roads!) for lunch.

Following leg of path