Duddington to Fineshade Wood and return

Since our last walk on the Jurassic Way, I'd been to Cumbria to do some family history research, we'd visited our daughter and her family in Wiltshire and we'd had Richard's brother and sister-in-law to stay - and we'd even managed time for some work! The weather yesterday had been horribly cold and wet, but we were keen to get out walking.  The forecast for today was better, but we were expecting a dull day, so much so that I decided there was no point taking my sunglasses with me. That was a mistake, though a nice mistake to make!; the sun came out  for much of the walk and we very much enjoyed it. We drove to Duddington, where there was plenty of space to park on Mill Street close to its junction with High Street (around SK988008). 

We walked up High Street, passing lots of attractive buildings.  Duddington is a lovely place and it seems really peaceful, but it is actually close to the junction of the A47 and the A43. We'd approached the village via the A47 (crossing it when on foot on the last walk, and turning left from it when arriving by car this morning); now we needed to walk a short distance alongside the A43 before crossing it, but first of all we passed the Royal Oak, a foodie pub with rooms. We'd contemplated staying here when we were planning to walk this part of the Jurassic Way over several continuous days. The Royal Oak looks nice, but we are currently quite happy with single days (or part-days) of walking, though that will probably alter when we're in the section that is further from both West Norfolk and Milton Keynes. 

Leaving Duddington and the A43 behind, we took an attractive track which climbed towards Fineshade Wood. As we passed onto Forestry Commission land, we passed a one of those signs warning us of forest operations, and, shortly after this, we passed a gas pipeline relay station of some sort. Then we continued straight ahead into the wood,  It was slightly muddy underfoot, but nothing too bad. As we crossed one of the wider Forestry Commission tracks, we stopped to fuss two dogs; their owner noticed the way we were heading , and warned us that it was very wet underfoot. A friend of the man we were talking to also stopped for a chat; he was out running with his two dogs.

The local advice imparted was that, instead of heading straight ahead, we should turn right, then a left and left again would bring us to "the triangle", where we could rejoin the official route. We set off as instructed, and Richard realised that if we just continued to follow the track we were on, it would take us all the way to the Visitor Centre.  That would shorten the walk quite considerably, and it would be "cheating", so for now we decided to follow the instructions we'd been given back to the  official route of the Jurassic Way. However, it give us the idea for an alternative route for the return leg to the car, thus creating a circuit. 

I thought I'd found the suggested detour on the OS Maps App, but turning left down the first track that I thought I'd found on the map was NOT what was advised; fortunately the conversation between the two men must have gone on for some time, and the second man with his dogs came running past just as we were eyeing up a rather indistinct track, and he told us we needed to go further. Then as he ran past the correct turning, now some distance ahead of us, he waved and indicated the location. What helpful men! In fact the turning is obvious when you know to wait for a proper track with some of the marked forest trails going down it. The next turning was similarly obvious and on the wider tracks there were quite a lot of dog-walkers etc. about.  There had been quite a lot of forest clearance, resulting in some large piles of felled wood. 

We turned right, back onto the Jurassic Way, now in what is labelled on the map as Westhay Wood. We'd joined another good track, shared with a number of the forest trails. However, the track around the third side of "the triangle" looked distinctly wet, so we decided we'd made the right decision in taking the advice we'd been given. As we continued, we realised that our printed OS Map (Explorer Sheet 234, 2011 copyright) shows the Jurassic Way as staying on the track we were on, while the Maps App shows the path heading off to the left of the track. We decided to stay on the track! We turned right and rejoined the Jurassic Way again close to the south-east corner of Westhay Wood, a short distance from the village of King's Cliffe.

We were now on the track that would take us almost to the Visitor Centre with no more diversions or turnings, but the route ascended and descended and twisted around somewhat, presumably because we were on a track or road that pre-dates the forest. It was attractive walking, and we particularly enjoyed seeing catkins; spring must be on the way! There were lots of other people about, including  dog-walkers, horse-riders and cyclists. Many people had children with them and almost everyone apart from us had at least one dog; Richard also noticed that most of the men (again, apart from him) had beards. We felt distinctly like odd ones out!

As we got closer to the Visitor Centre, the track curved around, above a disused railway line - and now we noticed the people coming towards us were carrying cups of coffee! The view to the west became more open; I guess this is where we'll be heading next time we are here.  The entrance to Grounds Café was slightly further on than I'd expected; while we were looking for it ,a dog that was out with a female jogger decided to head through a hedge towards some Estate buildings, and it didn't seem keen to come back to its owner. There were also lots of dogs and children in the café, but the queue was not too long and we didn't have difficulty finding somewhere to sit to enjoy our cups of coffee, 

By now we had decided to follow one of the forest trails back through the wood, towards the point at which we'd met the helpful men.  Mill Wood Trail, indicated by pink markers, and which we had followed for quite some distance before reaching the Visitor Centre, seemed the appropriate trail to follow now. After crossing a large car park (which was pretty full, despite the fact that it costs £9 to park here for the day at weekends), we found the start of the trail and we were off, passing various play areas and other attractions, and losing many of the family groups who had left the car park in the same direction.

Some other groups of walkers continued, like us, on the "pink" Mill Wood Trail as it meandered its way through the woods. We realised later that this trail didn't head directly to the point where we had first left the Jurassic Way this morning, but rather took a more circuitous route close to the northern extremity of the wood, and that was fine - it was very enjoyable walking. We'd been descending, but another couple (who overtook us!) alerted us to a hill ahead. There was a conveniently-placed-for-lunch bench at the bottom of the hill, but a family got there before we did; there was another bench halfway up the hill, so we stopped there instead, with good views back the way we had come. Then, from the top of the hill, there were good views to the village of Tixxover to the north.