22.11.19 Mowsley to Gumley return app 5.2 miles

Today we were meeting at Mowsley, walking to Gumley. We'd arranged to have our break at The Bell at Gumley but on the way to Mowsley we had a call from the Bell saying that they had the decorators in and, on reflection, would be struggling to accommodate twenty plus of us walkers. Change of plan, walk to Gumley come straight back and head off to Cherry Lane the garden centre near Countesthorpe for refreshments.

Before setting off someone mentioned that it was their birthday that very day.  Cue for happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you etc etc etc. Mowsley won't forget the day in November 2019 when the Cosby Walkers came to visit!

Time to get a move on.

Out into the countryside. Bit on the grey side but being well wrapped up it wasn't a problem.

Couple of  horses with riders passed us going down the lane.   

Those horses came this way too.

The centre of Laughton and the Queen Victoria tree planted when she was crowned Queen of England.

A discussion on a couple of helicopters that were buzzing about.

Very persuasive.

Good views of the surrounding countryside from up here. Saddington reservoir in the distance.

Not far from Gumley cricket club and where we had decided to turn around.

We stopped at the memorial commemorating the world wars. It was good to see how well kept it was.

 

On our return walk.

A bit on the chilly side, coats and woolly jumpers just the job!

Countryside on the approach to winter, still plenty of leaves and berries around.

Leaving the farm behind we dropped down the hill outside of Laughton then the slight climb back into Mowsley.

Back at the cars, there were cakes galore from the birthday girl.

And off to Cherry Lane for drinks.  Thank you all.

Walking around Draycote Water Nr Rugby approx 5.5 Mls.

What a week, thought we would show some of the many pictures of the floods that were happening in our area over the last couple of days.

With all that in mind we set off for our walk. We elected to go south, down to Draycote Water Reservoir. Reports of flooding in that area did not seem so bad. 

Unfortunately, some of our party of walkers did experience some  floods on the way to Draycote and wisely decided to return back to home turf to do their own walk.

Those who arrived at the village of Thurlaston for Draycote were greeted with a cold damp day but it wan't raining.   

We did this walk the same time last year, and we'd found that the villagers had left cakes for sale in aid of Children in Need undercover in the bus shelter.  We had hoped, but no such luck this year!

Setting off we passed the village hall, where there was a sign saying they were serving coffee and cakes. This was noted just in case we had to turn back if there was flooding on our way around the reservoir.

The place we thought that we might have had a problem was clear of water and the path through, though muddy, was just pretty much the same as usual.

Seat with a view.

Stepping out and setting a good pace among the Autumn colours. 

A fisherman oblivious to the rest of the world.

We came across some Severn Trent rangers planting a memorial tree. We had just passed the tree planting and turned to walk across the dam wall at the bottom of the reservoir when one of our walkers fell awkwardly damaging her ankle. One of the rangers, a first aider, came to the rescue with a soothing ice pack. Smiling through the pain our walker thought that she could walk on it but for only a short distance. The rangers offered help in getting her and her husband back to the nearest access to their car which left them a short walk about 200 yards.

All smiles while ice is applied to take the swelling down.

Assured that everything would be okay, the rest of our walkers continued around the reservoir to the Visitor Centre where our injured walker and her husband would join us. 

The stream that runs away from the reservoir, normally a babbling brook, but not today, it looks like a river.

The front part of the group just visible near to the end of the dam wall walk.

 Into the Visitor Centre cafe where we met up with our friends, and apart from a painful ankle, everything seemed okay. We wished them well and a speedy recovery.

We parted ways and started on the last leg of our walk.

Not the usual crowds walking today, only a few people here and there.

Somebody getting ready for the winter snow?

Nearly back at the start of our walk - we can see Thurlaston on the other side of the reservoir.

Alpacas taking five.

Not far now.

Back into the chocolate box village to the cars and a change of boots into comfy shoes then back home.