Cadney to the Cathedral Day 4
Donnington on Bain to Horncastle
Today was a bit different in that I did the first half of the walk on my own. Starting back at Donnington on Bain, I left the painted rock I had found on Monday on the church wall. The path started next to the village school, I was soon out of the village and alongside fields and quiet lanes again.
I have been using OS maps alongside looking out for the very welcome and reassuring Viking signposts or markers. I crossed a wooden bridge, passing a Viking sign and entered a field with narrow, but definite tracks where others had walked before. I was fairly certain I was on the right route, but was getting niggling doubts. I got the OS app up and remembered all the tips Christine gave me on Monday. I followed the trail and, after a winding course through the field, at the end saw the gate and the next Viking Way sign.
Today I’ve again walked on quiet lanes, stony lanes neighbouring woodland, through woodland, and a couple of times crossed busy roads. I walked along walkways helping to keep you above soggy ground, crossed lovely wooden bridges with brooks babbling away underneath, a fox ran across the path, just ahead of me in a woodland, then a rabbit hopped along a path for a while before disappearing into woodland.
There have been hundreds of butterflies fluttering around, especially in the areas with wildflowers.
Once again, in many places the views have been amazing with rolling hills, glimpses of Lincoln Cathedral on the horizon, and unspoilt views all around. As I started off from Donnington on Bain, Belmont was close by for the first few miles.
After Donnington on Bain, the next village I reached was Goulceby, it has a lovely welcoming church, which is church no. 14. I left a message in the visitors’ book, but could have stayed and made myself a drink. Heading out of Goulceby I passed a lovely brook running through the village.
My next stop was Scamblesby. This had a church open to visitors and a lovely sign on the door welcoming people to come in. It is church no. 15
Belchford was next, where Paul was already waiting, this was a lovely walk, but seemed to take ages to get there, although I did get there without any more directional hiccups.
When I reached Belchford church, I realised I had visited it once before on a walk with Christine a couple of years ago. It is another very welcoming church, with tea, coffee and bottles of water, available for a donation. This is church no. 16.
Paul and I set off together leaving Belchford behind. Our next stop of the day was Fulletby. In the church there was a gorgeous tapestry on the wall, see my photos, to see how lovely it is. Then was a lovely note left in church, someone had called in, needing a quiet space, and didn’t have change for to pay for their coffee, they had left a note, another person had written underneath, not to worry, they had paid for it. Have a look at the photos. I filled in the visitors’ book again, saying that this was church no. 17 as I do Cadney to the cathedral.
There were more outstanding landscapes as we carried on. Now somewhere outside Fulletby we missed the Viking way turn off, we were busy nattering, I know, not that unusual for me! We consulted the OS maps app, and decided to carry on the road to West Ashby, then get back to the Viking Way again from there. It was a very hot day. It did mean we had to walk about a mile on the verge of a busy road. But, when we got to West Ashby, there was a church. We took a photo, but didn’t count it, as it isn’t on the Viking Way. Walking through the village, we saw a lady sat outside in a deckchair, we told her we were off track a bit, and she told us which lane to take to get back on track.
Ings Lane, was the lane to follow, we walked along there until we saw the familiar and welcome Viking Way signs again. Once on the right path again, we could see we weren’t far from Horncastle now.
We followed the signs then entered a lovely shaded woodland walk, as we walked along, we met a lady with a dog, who directed us to where we would find Horncastle church and our final destination for the day. We spotted an old church that now sells antiques, and went over for a photo there too.
At Horncastle church, it was such a welcome sight. Again, it is very welcoming, I filled in the visitor book, saying this was church no 18.
It has been quite an adventure today. As I had a couple of doubts while on my own, and back tracked a little before realising I was right after all, and when we went off track this afternoon, we have walked further than predicted. Today, my Strava says I have walked over 16 miles, and I have done over 47,000 steps.
But it was still a really good day. Day 5 is Horncastle to Bardney.