Hi all
The past couple of months have seen me concentrating on bagging my latest new County - Rutland.
The drive down was pleasant enough (no motorways apart from a short spell on the M180) and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I can get there. I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely the area is. How green and lush. And, how hilly it is, gentle, undulating hills and valleys not dissimilar to the lower Yorkshire Wolds, which surprised me. Very rural, in an agricultural/farming sort of way rather than a wild and woolly uplands sort of way. The villages are made up of lovely honey coloured stone cottages and houses, some with thatched roofs and I'm thinking you'd need a bob or two to buy a property there.
I concentrated my efforts around Rutland Water with a 7 mile walk on the Hambleton Peninsular, a short 2.3 mile walk starting from Wing and a slightly not-as-I-intended 7 mile walk from Empingham to Whitwell.
I camped both times and used the same site - Wing Hall. I'd stay here again, particularly Sunday to mid-week during term time purely because it was so quiet and about as near to wild-camping as I'll ever get seeing as I was the only tent in the non-EHU field!
The weather was fantastic too, if a little too hot at times, both for camping (no packing away a soggy tent) and the walks (no squelching through soggy mud).
Apart from the typical touristy areas (Rutland Water) and villages, I never met another person on my walks.
I'm all for a bit of mountainous gnarl every now and again but there is a kind of peaceful tranquility about these undulating rural landscapes that just soothes the soul, particularly at this time of year and really does show off our "Green And Pleasant Land" to perfection.
If you want to have a read of my County Bagging adventure(s) then here's a link to my fairly disorganised bloggy wotsit:
County Bagging - RutlandThanks for looking
Mel