Leader: Adrian Moody
16 miles, 20 walkers

It looks like The Scribe has been coaxed out of temporary retirement for a further review of a Thursday walk, or was it because Gill can`t remember what went on between the start and finish ? and that`s without a pint of Waddle Goose cider !  

A virtual reality walk it said. Good I thought, I`ll stay at home and watch it on “drone cam”. No such luck. Despite a thought WWW stood for Wellingborough/Wollaston/Wymington, our leader informed us it was Walk With Waendel, being a partial route check of some of his Waendel Walk routes.  

So, without the need to add in a swan or six, 20 of us set off towards Irchester Country Park, passing the Railway Museum and going alongside the quarry to a relatively new overlook point, Mr McMorrow having kittens here as he thought we were going straight off the end. Amazing to think that the iron ore that was extracted was sent to Teeside. Passing through Irchester, it was good condition cross field paths to Wollaston and then past the alpacas and on to Strixton and its wonderful balance beam double stile, then on to lunch at The Half Moon at Grendon, or the open church for those who chose not to imbibe.

It was as we set off for the afternoon that our leader realised he had lost his phone somewhere between Wollaston and the pub (efforts the following day to locate it, by re-walking that section and visiting the pub came to nought. B#g$*r !) Having had a mountaineering ascent the previous week, Adrian appeared to want to continue with a sporting theme as, after passing between Grendon Lakes, a loop around one of the Hanson quarries led us to the site of the 2038 Wellingborough Winter Olympics venue and, as we were informed, the Dunkley`s Mill Ski Jump (small hill). Personally I thought it was a gravel extraction conveyer, but then I`d not imbibed myself at lunchtime.

Now it was back along the River Nene (its pronounced Nene at the Northampton end and Neene at the Peterborough end), passing Hardwater Mill and heading up to Great Doddington before having a lovely view over the lakes and the Summer Leys Nature Reserve. We were told that on a sunny summers evening, the views from here are truly fantastic. A gentle mile or so later found us back in Wellingborough. Two questions remain unanswered though, 1) did our secretary ever manage to get past the swans and into his car and 2) how many swans has he got on his fish pond, as I`m sure I saw a couple of them in his boot !

Thanks Adrian. That`s two in a row now. Time for a rest … till August at least.

The Scribe

Photos from DFH