Wednesday 8 June 2022

Le Tour Du Rodney. Warm up to Woodhall.

As we pulled into the car park at The Rodney in Horncastle (our home for the next couple of nights) the sun was out and the weather looking promising.  After at least a week of cold easterly winds and rain, conditions had improved and it was at last pleasant and warm.  Friends Brian and Heather arrived shortly afterwards and we soon had the bikes off the racks and we were good to go.
We were soon riding across the Wong and then alongside the River Waring looking idyllic in the summery weather.  I was reminded of Norman Clark an old family friend who in his 1950s book Country Gleanings describes taking his lunch breaks here in the 1930s and watching kingfishers.  A little further along we joined the River Bain by the municipal swimming pool.  Now a modern facility, I remember it in my Horncastle Grammar School days in the 1960s when swimming lessons were held here.  In those days it was outdoor, unheated, diverted, brown river water and those lessons began regardless at Easter.  The memory of having to jump into the freezing water are still vivid. Continuing we joined the old Kirkstead - Horncastle branch line, now the Spa Trail, a delightful off road walking and cycling route.  Butterflies were plentiful in the warm sunny weather: brimstones, common blue, spwckled wood, small tortoiseshell and speckled wood.  We followed the trail until we could turn off onto the quiet back road route down Kirkby Lane into Woodhall Spa, my childhood home.  We chose the Teahouse in the Woods for lunch hoping we wouldn't experience the same weather conditions Brian and I did a few years ago when the heavens opened for our final stretch into Horncastle.  After lunch we parted company, the ladies heading for the shopping hotspot of Woodhall while Brian and I pottered along a longer route back to the Spa Trail and Horncastle, calling in at the Bridge cafe for a welcome cup of tea and to feed cake crumbs to the large chub cruising under the bridge.
We are now ensconsced into the Rodney looking forward to a beer and dinner before a nightcap and bed.

To view large, please click on an image.
The River Bain as we leave Horncastle
Dog Rose
Dog Rose
On the Spa Trail
Returning to Horncastle along the River Bain.
Returning to Horncastle along the River Bain.

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