Shep White's carpark to Fosdyke Bridge

After all the rain we'd had since we were walking last weekend, it was a great relief to wake to sunshine and blue skies, though the temperature was distinctly autumnal. I'd also had a tough week work-wise and really wanted to get out walking, so we decided to continue our walk on the England Coast Path in Lincolnshire. Last weekend I'd been using my walking poles; we decided that I wouldn't need those today! In the same way as when we were walking in Lincolnshire two weeks ago, we were using printed maps from the OS Maps App, marked up to show the route (on the basis that there was no point buying a paper map when we knew it wouldn't have the route on it) - and the two pages we'd printed included not one contour; the spot heights varied between 3 metres and 7 metres.

We took both our cars to a section of old road off the A17, at TF317524,  near Fosdyke Bridge, now marked as a car park.  It was a somewhat tedious drive from home to here, but the drive back from here to Shep White's car park  (TF408339) near Holbeach St Matthew, was rather easier and faster than I'd expected; it only took us 18 minutes. There were several other cars in the car park, and two sets of dog-walkers were just returning to their vehicles; one of them had a lurcher-type dog that seemed reluctant to pass us. A new King Charles III England Coast Path sign directed us in a northerly direction along the sea bank. We passed a modern pumping station , with weed-clearing scoops in continuous operation. We stood and watched the process for a few moments.

I was pleased to get a WhatsApp message from my niece Rachel and decided I wanted to reply with a photo showing where we were. This is what led to the photo shown on the right or below, which we have subtitled "Sally, under the name of King Charles". [For those who aren't as sad as me, so don't recognise this, it is a misquote from AA Milne's "Winnie the Pooh", talking about the fact that the eponymous bear lived "under the name of Sanders".] Behind me, you can see the stream that emerges on the seaward side of the pumping station and forms Lawyer's Creek, heading north to the Wash. Meanwhile, we turned left, passing the Holbeach & District Wildfowlers' Association President's Bench and joining a wide grassy bank.

We stayed on the wide sea bank for most of the rest of the walk. Initially, there was a straight wide drainage ditch to the left, with agricultural land beyond. The drainage ditch took a loop around to the left and a bank followed it; this is where the bridleway that predates the England Coast Path goes. However, the England Coast Path continues straight ahead, and I can't see why you would do anything else, even if on a horse or bike in which case you should strictly speaking follow the bridleway. This pattern, with the original bridleway turning off to the left, and shortly afterwards rejoining the England Coast Path, was repeated several times.

Views back to the Sandringham area of Norfolk, on the eastern side of he Wash, had become quite distant, while the Lincolnshire coast to the west of the Wash was getting closer. We could just make out Boston Stump (St Botolph's Church), though it was too far away for decent photos. Still on a wide grassy sea bank, as shown in the top photo on this page, we turned away from the Wash and edged our way closer to the River Welland.

We knew that it was close to low tide, so expected the water level in the Welland to be low, with lots of mud. However, as we got closer to the river, we couldn't initially see any water in it at all! I think this was as much because of the  shallow angle we were viewing from as the water height; however, it was a relief when we crossed a side-channel and could see that there was actually some water there, 

There is a car park shown on the map at Moulton Marsh Nature Reserve and we were hoping we might be able to stop for a break there. First of all we passed the the site of Stone Quay; it's all fenced off and looks distinctly derelict. We didn't find any benches on which to stop, but the car park is there and the reserve is an attractive place. I enjoyed the change of scenery as we passed through a wooded area, and was amused to learn later that the trees were planted on site of a refuse tip. The whole Nature Reserve seems proud of the fact that it occupies an entirely human-made site. That was a salutary reminder of the fact that the same could be said of the entire landscape we'd been walking through (straightened rivers, raised sea banks, pumping stations etc. etc.). But it is a wonderfully peaceful place and attracts a wide range of wildlife - and it has a beauty of its own. 

Having said all of that, the land on the inland side of the sea bank is quite intensively farmed, and we emerged from the wood to another long straight grassy bank, with an enormous ploughed field to our left. The grass was still slightly damp, following the recent heavy rain, so we got out waterproofs and sat on them on the edge of the bank for an early lunch. We were rewarded by a couple of deer bounding across the field in front of us. We then continued along the bank towards Fosdyke Bridge, passing the lagoons (part of the Nature Reserve) in the strip of land between the bank and the River Welland.

As we approached Fosdyke Bridge, we could see a row of boats moored on the river, and we eventually emerged at a little yard, with a rather derelict boat. We turned right alongside the A17, crossing the River Welland, with a better view of the moored boats, then passing a boatyard with more modern boats than the one we'd seen on the other side of the river! We then discovered the problem with the layby where we had left our car, namely that it was on the other side of the road. It took is ages to get across.  We were parked quite close to the Moorings Café, so we stopped for a cup of tea before collecting the other car from Shep White's carpark and returning home.