70th Birthday Cycle Tour of Lincolnshire.

It being my cycling friend Brian's 70th birthday we decided to celebrate with a mini bike tour of Lincolnshire with an overnight stop at the Admiral Rodney in the Wolds market town of Horncastle. We met up at our usual spot of Beelsby at 9.00 am, a six mile ride for both of us.  Although cold, the morning was bright and sunny and we put thoughts of 'wintry showers' to the furthest recesses of our minds. We set off without our usual delay for catch-up conversation as we had a lot of miles to cover during the day.  Our route initially undulated to the hamlet of Thorseway before climbing steeply to the top of the Wolds where we stopped for photographs by the Sustrans Route 1 sign.  From here we rode down to Tealby passing the point where it is possible to see both the coast and Lincoln Cathedral.  After Tealby we were soon at the fine teashop of Sunnyside Farm on the edge of Willingham Woods where I enjoyed coffee and magnificent toasted Lincolnshire Plum Bread with cheese.  Refreshed, we continued heading towards the distant River Witham so that we could complete the ride along the old railway line to Woodhall Junction and then along the Woodhall Trail to Horncastle, which follows the disused branch line.  As a child I travelled on steam hauled trains on both lines and now they make excellent traffic free walking and cycle routes.  The route we took from Sunnyside to the river was on quiet back roads with short stretches of bridleway and we were lucky enough to get a good sighting of a little owl.  By the time we arrived at Woodhall Spa it was beginning to cloud over and was actually raining by the time we had stopped for tea and cake in the Tea House in the Woods so our final eight miles was in the rain.  By the time we reached the Rodney, though, it was beer o'clock and we were soon relaxing in the bar waiting for the support team to arrive.  After a lovely hot bath it was time to head out into the town for an excellent celebratory meal at Shakesby's, a restaurant we can well recommend.  Our evening finished pleasantly with a night cap at the thatched Kings Head.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny once more, but with a strong south westerly wind.  Once again heavy wintry showers were forecast.  On the outskirts of Horncastle we turned onto the back road to Fulletby.  We immediately began climbing up into the Wolds and gained increasingly expansive views back over Horncastle and the flat landscape beyond.  Fulletby is a very attractive village set high on a ridge of the Wolds overlooking Horncastle and the Bain Valley one way and Tetford and the valley of the River Lymn the other.  The River Lymn is the 'Brook' which features in the famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson of the same name.  We also looked down on the distinctive, conical shaped  Hoe Hill  rising out of the valley.  After exploring the church and village, we descended quickly to Tetford for coffee and cake before continuing over the Wolds, passing the watermill at Ketsby and dropping down to the edge of the coastal marsh.  Our route hugged the edge of the hills and into Louth.  By now the weather was closing in we were caught in a sharp shower before stopping at the Woolpack by the Riverhead.  After a well-timed lunch stop the rain had cleared and we meandered through the lanes to a point where we could cross the busy A16.  It was good to see large numbers of cowslips gracing the verges and a good showing of early purple orchid.  Now it was a case of girding our loins for the very steep climb up to North Elkington into the teeth of the wind.  All was downhill after this, through the delightful Wold Newton Valley; or it would have been if we had stayed dry.  The showers finally caught up with us and we had to endure a couple of freezing drenchings of rain, sleet and hail before reaching home.

An excellent couple of days during which we covered 104 miles at an average speed of 10.1 mph. 

Cycling the Water Rail Way; Bardney to Lincoln

Although we had cycled this section of the Water Rail Way some years ago, Heather and I arranged to repeat it in order introduce friends Dorothy and Steve to the route.  We met up in the car park of the Black Horse in Bardney, where we had booked lunch later, at 10.45 am.  We quickly biked through the village to the River Witham and onto the 'Way'; part of Sustrans Route 1 and also the Viking Way long distance footpath.  Yet again we were blessed with beautiful weather and, not only was it perfect for our cycling, it was an opportunity to secure some more photographs of the River Witham for the  Body of Work section of my degree.  Signs of Autumn were all around now, with trees taking on yellow, orange and bronze hues, hips, haws and large juicy brambles abundant and the last of the dragonflies and butterflies on the wing.  We saw speckled wood butterflies and migrant hawker and common darter dragonflies,  many of the darters in tandem pairs as they copulated on the wing before egg laying in the river.  At Bardney lock the river splits into two or three channels but the old railway line runs closely by its side all the way into Lincoln.  The river has witnessed the presence of man by its side since at least the bronze and iron ages, when it was regarded as a sacred place and the still, marshy pools 2500 years ago may have been regarded as mirrors to the heavens or portals to the underworld.  Whatever, beautiful weapons and tools were placed here, perhaps as offerings to the gods.  The most famous of these, the Witham Shield, dating from the 4th century BC, is made in iron and bronze and now in the British Museum.  The Romans also had an influence on the river and may have begun the first draining of the fens.  Many years later it was canalized and used for transporting goods to and from Boston and the sea and Lincoln.  As the river approached Lincoln and in the Brayford Pool, were wharves, warehouses and factories.  Later still, came the railway, which, first rivaled, and then superseded the river transport and was finally closed in 1971 at the end of the Beeching era.  The railway also brought hundreds of match fishermen, but that, also has changed.  Not only have the characteristics of the river altered, but anglers now prefer to fish in ponds, complete with tackle shops and cafes.  The river now seems to be used mainly for boating and there appear to be far more narrow boats than when I was child living close to its banks.

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