Country walk

The walk was 11 miles, out Stevenage way - we arrived by train, then took a local bus to Aston, all in sporadic sunshine and calm air. Conditions changed once we got going, walking over, around, and across fields, such is the joy of the countryside. 

Blue sky and catkins

Grey skies and mud

Until lunchtime - the larger part of the walk - it was All Mud - and sometimes the mud was thicker, gooeyer, stickier at the top of a hill than at the bottom.

Moments after taking this photo, before I could put the phone/camera in my jacket pocket and zip it up securely, I skidded and fell, and the phone landed in the mud. All those little holes in the bottom - speaker, mike, jack, port for charger - filled with mud. The tiniest hole - the most delicate and the hardest to clean - is the microphone ... I'd had it cleaned out two days ago  and will have to take the phone back for more attention.

By lunchtime I'd thoroughly used up all my tissues to keep the ever-dripping nose in check and, worse, developed a blister which brought on despairing thoughts of the four or five miles ahead. Fortunately someone gave me a plaster and it was definitely a lifesaver ... next time I'll carry copious plasters.

Also by lunchtime it was drizzling steadily, ie making fresh mud, and the wind was quite sharp. I had my picnic lunch outside at the pub [too muddy to go in] and waited around impatiently. Finally we set off - in the wrong direction, but not very far - and oh joy, most of the rest of the walk was along paved roads. We even took a few moments to visit the church in Datchworth (a village settled by 700AD by Saxons though there's evidence of Belgic settlement before that) - 

All Saints, Datchworth

(Identical) graves of the Pennyfeather family, 19th century

Mostly it was one foot in front of another to Knebworth station, where buses  replaced trains in both directions. Two hours on the southbound bus, calling at all stations ... I was glad to get home. 

If this had been the first walk I'd gone on, I would never have risked another. Even with proper walking gear, that sticky mud was a killer.

We did see horses, geese, snowdrops, and some dotty sheep that couldn't be bothered to get out of the way - very un-sheepish behaviour -

Baa baa black sheep...

Two distinct breeds in the flock

Many sightings of snowdrops under hedges

 ... and signposts, and lots of landscape -

Woods and rolling fields - an ancient landscape

Not a lot of signposts came our way

The walk is part of the Stevenage Outer Orbital Path (STOOP)