Things I’ve learnt today – a) I really should have done more training on gradients, b) I need to waterproof my boots better, c) Stonton Wyville is very considerate to walkers, and d) the Met Office was right.
The weather looked a lot better than predicted as I set off from Foxton Locks, and it even looked like the sun was going to come out. At East Langton I came across a dog walker whose pace was about the same as mine, but who didn’t want to talk, so we continued, grunting thanks to each other as we held gates open for one another. A very pretty little village, East Langton, dominated by East Langton Grange. One was given something of a clue as to the house prices by the large number of BMWs, Jags, etc. registered this year.
Thorpe Langton was similarly expensive looking and pretty, and led to the first gradient. It was admittedly nothing compared with ‘real’ climbs, but it was enough to remind me I should have trained more. It was also then that it started raining. The climb led to a presumably now redundant trig pillar on Langton Caudle. It was then that the rain got heavier.
The descent into Stonton Wyville was an absolute delight though – a majestic rolling hillish type effort overlooking the valley. The whole hillside was covered in a crop of wheat, and I just had to stop to photograph a montage. The heavy black clouds set off the colour of the crop wonderfully – a fact that I can appreciate a little more now that I’m indoors and not underneath said clouds.
So, into Stonton Wyville. A tiny little hamlet with nothing much more than a church and a farm, but the people of the hamlet saw fit in the year 2000 to provide walkers with a bench, where I enjoyed my tuna salad type thing.
The return journey was, what can I say, wet. The rain had made the mud just sticky enough to put a few more inches on the soles of my boots and had flattened and watered the crops such that a few yards walk treated my trousers to a drenching.
I must admit, I was feeling it in my legs as I neared Foxton again. But, that’s 13.78 miles under the belt, and so, onto tomorrow.
Follow me
