Leader: Steve Clark

Merrian's photos and route map https://www.flickr.com/photos/60620372@N07/albums/72177720312416606

Steve writes:

Well, what a day on the Nene and Summer Leys walk.

5 of us left the car park at 09.30 wading through a couple of dozen swans looking for an easy morsel. We were expecting rain for most of the day but did not get much. We headed out towards Chester House and after about a mile we turned right and passed Chester House, then across the A43 (who remembers the A43 on the NRP7). Through Irchester then, back out into the countryside, we headed for Wollaston where we had T break at the bottom of the hill. After T break we headed for Summer Leys WT. Ermmm, so on the other side of Summer Leys we........

Oh, go on then, I'll tell you the story …..  after we turned off the road we crossed a field. That was OK till we got to the other side where there was a flood all around the gate we had to go through. So, no great problem, but it just got worse on the other side of the gate. In fact it was flooded all along the path we had to take.  I did say "shall we turn back and go up the road" but the general consensus was "we'll carry on". So we did. For the next 500 yards approx we waded, sometimes half way up to our knees in water. We eventually got back onto dry land and headed in to Summer Leys WT. We did wonder whether we would encounter more flooding but it stayed dry.

At the car park of Summer Leys we walked straight through and crossed the road and headed out into the country towards Grendon Lakes. It stayed dry all the way through and out the other side and up and over a conveyor belt feeding a sand and gravel pit. We turned right on a road to join the River Nene.

We had our lunch next to the River Nene where Dave and Merrian pulled out a can of Hobgoblin from their rucksack. After lunch we followed the River Nene all the way back to the cars, except for a small dogleg into Gt Doddington because that's where the footpath went.

We all had a great day and laughed about the flood we went through. The Embankment cafe was closed due to the weather so that put Terry’s cup of tea out the door.

So where next, yep for me it was the Red Well and Curry Club. Cheers Terry, Gill, Dave and Merrian for a memorable day.