Sewstern to Grantham Canal and Harlaxton
Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 16th August 2014.
12.5 miles of walking (5.5 hours including stops); 9.5 miles progress on the Viking Way.
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
It had been too long since we' d been walking and we'd expected to have to wait until the autumn to get back to the Viking Way, so it was a pleasant surprise to find a free Saturday with a weather forecast for a cooler but dry day. It felt distinctly autumnal as we left home at 6.40 in order to catch the one bus of the day that would enable our plan. I'd thought that we'd have to catch the bus from (and thus return to) Grantham, but Richard spotted a bus stop and parking in a big layby on the A607 in the village of Harlaxton.
We arrived with about half an hour to spare, so walked into the village and attempted to photograph the church and the pretty houses. My camera refused to work at all; dead batteries! Fortunately we carry spares and by the time the number 56 bus towards Melton Mowbray arrived at 8.42, I was ready to photograph it, a habit that amuses my family.
Actually I didn't photograph the bus until Sewstern on this occasion because I was confused by the fact that the bus claimed to be the number 55 and going to Grantham. We had the bus to ourselves all the way and the driver told us he hadn't driven this route for more than a year, but he was an excellent driver and it was a glorious route, through rolling countryside and the delightful villages of Croxton Kerrial and Waltham on the Wolds, then back through Stonesby, Saltby, Sproxton and Buckminster (an Estate Village) and down to Sewstern.
The bus dropped us on the corner that was our previous furthest point on the Viking Way and there were some locals waiting to get on the bus here. We headed back along the bus route, labelled 'The Drift' on the 1:25000 map and in fact we followed one continuous line for most of the day, for most of the way with Leicestershire to our left and Lincolnshire to our right. Straightforward navigation, yes; boring, no! It was a far more varied and interesting walk than we'd expected and we really enjoyed it.
After leaving Sewstern we had a view down to Buckminster and spent some time working out whether we were looking at a church or a water tower (it was a water tower). The road soon became more minor then, after passing another water tower, it became a rather rutted track, which descended through woodland to Cringle Brook. We climbed again and the there were wildflowers beside the track.
We reached Buckminster Gliding Club, on the site of the Saltby Airfield. There was a memorial to WW2 activity, with American, British and Polish flags, and lots of gliders being prepared. We skirted round the edge of the runway and rejoined The Drift.
To our delight, motorised vehicles have recently been permanently banned from the next few miles, which are part of the 'King Lud's Entrenchment and the Drift' SSSI, and there were more pretty wildflowers. Our photography attempts were generally disappointing, though Richard did well with the teasel! There were some ominous and atmospheric clouds, but thankfully the rain didn't fall on us.
We crossed the A607 (at a point we had passed on the bus) and descended. I'd hoped for rolling countryside at this point, as we'd seen from the bus, but the descent was actually through woodland. It was pretty enough; just not quite what I'd expected. We stopped for an early lunch.
As we continued north we reached the rolling countryside and descended again to the Grantham Canal. As we crossed Longmoor Bridge to the towpath on the northern side, some young men on motor bikes asked us if there were any garages (as in filling stations) back the way we had come. Unlikely!
We walked a short distance to the west, just to look at a couple of swans with a large number of cygnets, then we turned round and followed the towpath towards Grantham. The Grantham canal was built to link Grantham to the River Trent in Nottingham and we passed markers telling us the distance to the Trent (around 30 miles). The towpath is now national cycle route 15 and it was a bit hard underfoot, but the countryside was glorious and it was just the right level of busy-ness for a summer Saturday afternoon. We said hello to the crew and passengers on 'The Three Shires' on the canal, slightly surprised and very pleased that the canal, which appears quite overgrown in places, is navigable. We also stopped to talk to the owner of a delightful 15-week-old puppy.
After about 3.5 miles we reached Harlaxton bridge and crossed it to Harlaxton Wharf. We then walked back up to Harlaxton Village and the car. On the way home we stopped off at Newton's birthplace at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth for a cup of tea.
