Hit the North! – Stage 6: Stamford to Oakham

This is stage six of the Hit The North expedition.

I arrived in snowy Stamford just after midday, a friendly gent on the bridge agreed to take my photo.

The river Welland was running swiftly under the bridge.  I followed the river westwards out of of town…

…and soon found myself on the Jurassic Way an 88 mile walk starting in Stamford and ending in Banbury in Oxfordshire.

Four miles later I found myself in the pretty village of Easton on the Hill where I stopped for a snickers bar and some water.

I then struck out over gently rolling hills and fields.  The snow was quite deep in parts, I could have done with the snowshoes I enjoyed using so much earlier in the year during my Pyrenees hike.

I crossed the river Welland once more just outside the village of Ketton.

At Ketton I crossed the county border between Northamptonshire and Rutland.

This was the first time I’ve walked in Rutland and I immediately thought of Eric Idle’s Monty Python follow-up, Rutland Weekend Television, that I enjoyed as a child in the 70s.

In Ketton I was met with a welcoming sign, only 10 miles to go!

However, that 10 miles turned into 14 or so as I managed to get terribly lost just north of Ketton.  It took me an hour of walking around in circles before I managed to rejoin the path to Oakham, via Rutland Water.

The last six miles of the walk were spent following a track around Rutland Water.

And what a joy the walk was!  The cold had kept other walkers away and I had the route to myself for almost the whole way to Oakham.

I arrived in Oakham as the sun was setting and caught the train back to Ely.