Willaston and Raby 17th January 2013

The old Red Lion at Willaston.

St Lukes Church, Willaston.

The Old Mill at Willaston.

"Which way should I go?"

Splash sculpture, just outside Raby.

Lunch time.

"I wish was was back in nice warm Tunisia"

or

There's always one!

Walk stats: Distance: 10.1 miles. Climb: 201'.

Time: 4 hours 43 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.5 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.1 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Annie, Sue P (Michel absent, waiting in for R& B to come and fix the Central Heating, and claiming that he done all of the house work as well!), David S., Tim and Celia.

A nice cool Winter's day, but as yet none of the white stuff. However we did have plenty of icy terrain, a good thing as otherwise large sections of the walk would have been very muddy or even muddier that we actually experienced. At least it kept dry and the Easterly wind only showed up just before lunch, but many of the tree / hedge lined paths shielded us from the worst.

There wasn't a lot to make us want to linger, and even there were few birds to distract us, so the overall pace was a little higher than normal.

Overall a good walk on a day like this, and as a bonus we were back in the Wheatsheaf at Raby  a little earlier than expected. A bonus as they have real fires that makes this a superb place to visit on a cold Winter's day, the beer was good too. Brimstage's  Sandpiper and Trappers Hat both went down well.

Birds seen or heard today included: Common blackbird, Winter wren, Lapwing, Black-headed gull, Jackdaw, Carrion crow, Blue tit, House sparrow, Great tit, Chaffinch and Common buzzard.