Jurassic Way 9, Honey Hill to Welford. Just under 8 miles.

What a lovely day! We met at the back of The Wharf Inn in Welford from where we explored the village, deciding which houses, or cars, we would, or wouldn't, like to live in or buy. A new thatched house? An old cottage? a larger Georgian house? Plenty of variety and hillier than most of us expected. Interest was added by an ongoing timed cycle trial, with many participants. The route coincided with ours in several places, including during our routes to the starting point. From a 1960s' close we emerged into the field where a fence had been erected in preparation for a new estate.

On the pre-walk the route from now on had been extremely difficult with brambles and nettles totally obliterating the signs and stiles. Once bashed back we then had to scramble across a field of oil seed rape, then repeat the jungle experience to get out of the field on the other side - watched by a herd of bullocks.

Spot the sign - I knew it was there, somewhere!

Looking back at the hidden stile once we had got through the overgrowth.

However, I had reported the difficulties to the local Ramblers and although no-one had got back to me, the path had been really well cleared. Thank you - whoever the person was. (I had gone prepared though with emergency secateurs and gloves!)

A short road section soon led us to the A14 - the noise was cleverly obscured by the surrounding embankment until we were on top of it - on a bridge, thankfully. The footpath to the right soon appeared and we made ourselves comfortable for a repeat picnic, this time right on the ridge, on Honey Hill, the point where the Long Distance path was officially opened. Was this the mid-point we wondered? Had it really taken us a year to do half the walk?

This is an interesting viewpoint with many landmarks - not all picturesque. Could we see three or four different counties, we wondered. There was the A14 bordering Leicestershire and  Northamptonshire, the cement works at Rugby in Warwickshire and several wind-farms around the M1. Could we see over to West Midlands too?






A nice downhill walk over the other side of the hill then a short climb up to the hidden tiny hamlet of Elkington. Fantastic crop of apples in the orchard that looked very tempting. Around the corner we climbed down the bank to the Oxford Canal which was devoid of any wildlife as far as I could see, this time, and only one boat passed by, as we went under the A14 this time.

A walk across a field and a short drink stop before we climbed up through the wooded HemploW Hills. Some walkers dared to complain that there only seemed to be one hill! A confusing map showed a path deviation which seemed to be to skirt round a new property, but we were soon on HemploE Drive. Does anyone know why the W changed to E, or vice-versa? A straight walk ahead from here took us back into Welford.

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