To A428 near Warrington from Emberton

It was six weeks since we'd done a serious walk, during which time I'd had a flu-type virus. Even though I was now going down with a cold (...and I'm normally pretty healthy...) I was keen to get back to normal and so to go for a walk today; the next short leg on the Three Shires Way seemed just right. We'd had some rather wet weather, and yesterday was very windy, but the weather forecast was for a quieter day today, with only a low probability of rain. I hadn't slept well, so didn't rush to get up, which meant that it was 9am before we left Norfolk. Uncertainty over parking in Emberton (which was actually fine in the end) meant that we decided to walk this leg "in reverse", driving first to the lay-by at SP903546 near to our last parking place, between the village of Lavendon and the roundabout where the A428 meets the A509 at Warrington. We decided to meet at the lay-by rather than the spot where we had parked last time because it would be more reliable and less muddy; as things turned out there were several vehicles already in residence where we had parked last time, so this was a good decision - and the lay-by is less than a quarter of a mile from the Three Shires Way. We drove on together through the attractive town of Olney, and parked the other car close to the A509 on the outskirts of Emberton at SP887494. That's Emberton not Embleton (I regularly get this wrong, despite having lived two miles down the road in Sherington).

I donned my hat in consideration of my health and the fact that the weather was still not warm (though the sun was shining), and we crossed the main road and took the minor road towards Clifton Reynes, taking the left hand option a few hundred metres along. There were good and changing views towards Olney Church from both the A509 and the minor road along which we were walking, and the road was not too busy, with more cyclists than cars. However it was a road!, and the official route of the Three Shires Way has you following it for a couple of miles, all the way to Clifton Reynes. We've enjoyed the Three Shires Way, but one of its issues is that it appears to have been designed as a horse-riding route so it can't take footpaths. On this occasion, Richard spotted a footpath on the left around a kilometre along, which would take us to the route of the Ouse Valley Way and so into Clifton Reynes from the other end. The footpath was good (not too muddy) and gave us more excellent views down to Olney and, closer to us, the braided River Ouse.

We joined the Ouse Valley Way at a point high above the river, on the reverse of the route we last following on 15th April 2015, and headed through a field of horses to the pretty village of Clifton Reynes. A distinct advantage of approaching in this direction rather than on the official route of the Three Shires Way is that it brought us past the attractive church. We rejoined the official route took a left turn onto Spring Lane then, whilst the route of the Ouse Valley Way continued straight ahead, we took a left hand turning onto a track, still labelled as Spring Lane on the map. We were following another couple of walkers, but they soon headed off through a gap in the hedge to the right, perhaps to join the disused railway line that we were crossing.

The track we were following was easy walking and the countryside was attractive but nothing special, but we got a pleasant surprise at the end when we reached an interesting sluice/weir on the River Ouse at Lavendon Mill. The Ouse Valley Way by-passes this section, which seems a shame, so thank you Three Shires Way! We crossed the river and walked past the old mill buildings to the B565, which we also crossed.The track continued on the other side to the rather attractive Lavendon Grange.

After passing the buildings we turned to the right, now on a path between trees. Despite yesterday's heavy rain, today's walk had not been too muddy, but suddenly, just for a short distance, the path turned into a veritable pond. We had to wade through initially, then Richard found a way round through the adjacent bushes. We emerged into fields of sheep and lambs, the first we've seen this year and delightful as always. We were soon back at the A428 and from here it was just a short walk back to the car. We stopped for lunch before driving back to Emberton, and just as we left the heavens opened. The precipitation was something between hail and sleet, and we very grateful not to be out in it.

Following leg