Brinsley Steeple Chase Walk

This is a 5.5 mile circular walk found by Danny. After the success of The Walk in the footsteps of D H Lawrence we backed his route finding ability and went for another one of his walks. This walk was off the Nottinghamshire County Council walks section - Brinsley Steeple Chase.

The walk starts from the public car park just around the corner from Brinsley Lodge. As expected in England on 7th February the ground was nice and soggy in places but frozen in others. This did cause some clown feet moments as mud clung to our walking boots trudging across fields. At least we were all prepared and hadn't gone out ill equipped for the conditions.

As we ventured over one of the fields we realised there was a stunning looking bird in one of the trees.

After consulting with Georgia Locock via Instagram she confirmed it was a female buzzard. I'm not going to question her credentials as "I’ve also featured in wildlife magazines, such as two of the junior RSPB ones, Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Watch and the BBC wildlife magazine. I’ve also spoke on my local radio station, BBC WM and I’ve had photos and trail camera footage featured in various magazines and on TV programs. These include BBC Autumnwatch and Winterwatch Extra and Unsprung and the CBBC show, Wild." Taken from her blog profile, click name above to see her blog and photos.

About half way into the walk we stumbled across a park, and as always it's hard not to have a play on there if it's empty. Rob was loving life on the "springy things" as always. Check out his Instagram account for his collection of "springy things" and his walk/run photos too.

After a quick mess about it was back on with the walk, the next km is on the roads between Underwood and New Brinsley, before heading back onto tracks again. This was probably the nicest section coming up meandering along side the River Erewash.

River Erewash

River Erewash flowing fast.

Us lot walking + a bridge + twigs = Poohsticks time! The upsetting fact of 4 sticks entering the race and only 2 finishing, we never got to see who came 3rd. Sad Times!

Time for Poohsticks.

From here we then crossed some boggy land, were Sian was in her element after doing the walk in her wellies hitting the mud and puddles head on. Us in walking boots had to use the fences in places to climb our way around some good sized mud pits. Once the sun comes out to play in Summer these paths will be fine and the land will have recovered. At the minute you can tell they have been working hard to improve the area as a nature reserve and the paths have jsut become a little bit boggy.

Anybody for muddy fun?

After this it was a short walk back towards Brinsley past a brilliant phone box that is now a book hut and Brinsley headstock. Now it was time to ditch the muddy walking boots and troussers and enjoy a warming meal inside Brinsley Lodge round the corner from the cars. This seemed a good idea until we all just wanted to have a nice afternoon nap once we had been fed and watered haha.

Phone box has a new use for books.

Brinsley Headstock.