Mud and All Things Good
You’d think I might learn to wear a pair of trousers I don’t mind getting dirty when going walking. Perhaps even a pair of dedicated hiking trousers. But no. My thoughts were ‘oh, it’s only going to be a short local walk’ and ‘I’ll try to avoid the mud anyway’. So upon leaving the house, I just wore the same pair of jeans I’d put on when I got up when I thought I had not walking plans. Unfortunately, it turned out that I had seriously underestimated how muddy it would be, seemingly ignoring the rain that had occurred in the past couple of day. I also did not know just how overgrown some of the paths would be. I would say it’s taught me a valuable lesson, but that remains to be seen.
For this walk, I started off on the eastern edge of Clumber Park, quite close to the Clumber Park Hotel, and began to walk southward, along the Robin Hood Way. Although the path was definitely visible, the surrounding vegetation had grown up considerably and had not be trimmed back. It was almost a surreal experience walking through grass which is almost as tall as you, if a little annoying at times.
Following the path further, it crossed a road and then the River Meden before entering an area which I could only describe as a swamp. Big, stagnant ponds lay on either side of the path, which itself was muddy with large puddles. Luckily, before long it began to climb out of this small valley and turned to go east, along the perimeter of a slim belt of woodland labelled curiously as ‘Beard’s Belt’ on the map. After passing a chicken farm, the path began to make its way further east, with only small detours north and south, following the edge of fields and crossing one road. Upon reaching Bevercotes Beck, of which I could not see much, it began to travel north, still following the Robin Hood Way. Speaking of which, looking at the map, I swear that path doesn’t go anywhere, it just meanders around.
After travelling so far northwards, I chose to leave that path and go back east alongside the River Maun, before turning north again up to Bothamsall through fields of barley and wheat. I then stopped for quick break before continuing up through Bothamsall, the main road twisting road like a sickle, before crossing more fields northwards again. Finally, these joined up with - surprise, surprise - the Robin Hood Way, but this time going west and eventually coming out on the road I parked on, about 250 metres from my car.
Coming in at around 7 miles, and taking me about 2 ½ hours, this was a decent walk which once again proved you don’t always have to travel far to get a good walking route. The mud and overgrown vegetation made it a bit trying at time, but an interesting challenge and not detracting too much overall from walk.
