Day 57: Stamford to Skillington

Well! What a day! Yesterday's sunshine had turned to rain overnight but we optimistically set off minus our rain gear. Ha! We soon had to stop and put it on and off we went again. Initially the route led us along the road but we were soon off into the countryside ... we could tell by the mud. The rain was coming down so we had our hoods pulled down and so we missed our first turn and continued up a muddy tractor track until we realised our mistake. Hoping to avoid having to retrace our steps we followed a path around a field of rape but soon realised that this was not going to let us get back on course: so we eventually admitted that we would have to go back to where we went wrong and start again. 

We had moved from Lincolnshire into the smallest county in England: Rutland and were following the Rutland Round track.

Reaching a farm which was practicing an environmental plan to encourage wildlife by leaving tracks of grassland and woods which were really beautiful.

Unfortunately this led to our next issue for the day. The rain had stopped so we were following the route but as we came out of the woodland.... no path! So we followed a tractor track through the field which seemed to lead in the approximate direction but to no avail. Facing us was a large quarry so we had to detour around it adding even more Km to what was already a fairly long day. Such is life as Ned Kelly said. Anyway we soldiered on and were soon back on track. 

As we walked we spied this lone Alpaca guarding his little flock.

Then we left the Rutland Round and followed the Viking way.

The path lead us through the field of rape which was almost shoulder high and very damp from the rain so we came out the other side covered in bright yellow petals and 2" taller from the mud adhering to our boots.

The rain held off until we were about 15 minutes out of Skillington when we needed to don our rain gear again but arrived safe and sound to our B&B.