The Ranskill Rum Runner - 18th March 2012


The Ranskill Rum Runner - 18th March 2012

Leader, Dave Ashford

Fourteen walkers completed the walk including Peter and his 9 year old son Aiden. The weather was very kind with long hours of sunshine only spoiled by a rather brief but very heavy hailstorm which had us running for cover.  It proved to be a lovely walk of around 20miles, however Aiden probably completed around 25 and also finished in fine style. We walked through the Idle valley, along stretches of the Chesterfield Canal, through Retford, through several pretty North Nottinghamshire villages including Clarborough and Sutton cum Lound and passed through The Idle Valley Nature Reserve (a major bird reserve consisting of flooded gravel workings). At one stage Aiden was concerned that we were leaving his Dad and some other stragglers behind so we felt obliged to slacken the pace for a while! We took a well earned rest in the Rum Runner pub by the canal in Retford, a great pub with a splendid range of real ales, good food and a very welcoming landlord. Just the sort of pub that you might wish was your local! In all it proved to be a great walk in very pleasant countryside in an underwalked area of the country which was very well led again by Dave. Well done and thank you David!