{"id":1766,"date":"2013-07-11T11:03:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T11:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=1766"},"modified":"2014-11-22T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:28:11","slug":"hit-the-north-stage-7-oakham-to-melton-mowbry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2013\/07\/hit-the-north-stage-7-oakham-to-melton-mowbry\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit the North! – Stage 7 : Oakham to Melton Mowbray"},"content":{"rendered":"

I walked this, the seventh stage of the Hit The North expedition<\/a>,\u00a0in June 2013.<\/p>\n

I picked up the trail in Oakham<\/a> and headed out of town in a northerly direction. \u00a0I was looking for remnants of the Oakham Canal<\/a>, opened in 1802 and closed a mere 45 years later as it was not financially viable.<\/p>\n

I first encountered the canal within Oakham itself though there was no towpath to follow.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Oakham canal at Oakham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I left the town and soon found myself transported into an English idyl. \u00a0The sun was out, the temperature was mild and a shady footpath took me alongside the canal.<\/p>\n

\"Footpath
Footpath alongside the Oakham canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eventually I found the towpath, and what a beautiful scene!<\/p>\n

\"Oakham
Oakham canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was love at first sight with this glorious canal.<\/p>\n

\"Oakham
Oakham canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sadly the grassy towpath only runs for mile or so and after that the canal is either covered over by agricultural land or overgrown and with no towpath.<\/p>\n

The good news is that local groups, such as the\u00a0Melton and Oakham Waterways Society<\/a>,\u00a0are actively restoring these wonderful waterways and gradually opening them up for us all to enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Oakham
The grassy towpath alongside Oakham canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rest of the hike was a little bit of a anti-climax after the wonders of the canal.<\/p>\n

I joined the Rutland Round<\/a> footpath for a while…<\/p>\n

\"Rutland
Rutland Round<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…I passed through the village of Whissendine, \u00a0home of at least two nice looking pubs.<\/p>\n

\"Whissendine\"
Whissendine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whissendine is also the home of a windmill, still working, \u00a0built in 1809.<\/p>\n

\"Whissendine
Whissendine windmill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I walked over some lovely rolling green hills<\/p>\n

\"Rural
Rural Rutland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and past grazing sheep, classic scenes of rural England.<\/p>\n

\"Here
Here be (small) hills!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But too much of my time was spent trudging across fields and I started repeatedly checking my watch, never a good sign.<\/p>\n

\"Following
Following the yellow path<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not from far my destination I crossed the county boundary into Leicestershire. \u00a0I sat down by a pond and had some tea and biscuits to celebrate this historic occasion.<\/p>\n

\"A
A pond in Leicestershire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I reached Melton Mowbray in the late afternoon. I could have done with a pint and one of those famous Melton Mowbray pies but alas I had not a penny in my pocket so made do with some bombay mix on the station platform.<\/p>\n

But oh…that canal!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I walked this, the seventh stage of the Hit The North expedition,\u00a0in June 2013. I picked up the trail in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,26],"tags":[51,32,90,91,79,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1794,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions\/1794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}