Oscar's Nose Causes Cyclists Near Death Experience!

Meg and Oscar

What a beautiful day for the start of the second section of my 290 mile Macmillan Way walk. I am walking in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, you can donate by following the link to my Just Giving Page here.

I started my walk from the Railway Inn, Ketton, where I left off at the end of the last stage, (I wonder if they ever solved the murder mystery?). Meg, my youngest daughter decided to join me on this leg of the walk, as part of her training for her Everest base camp trip. I'm not sure that she will have to deal with altitude sickness today, but the walk will be similar in distance to some of the trekking she will be doing. So off we went, one man, his daughter and of course Oscar the dog - plus of course the obligatory bag full of tennis balls.

Rutland Water

You'll be pleased to know that I've added some professional walker touches after finishing section 1. I've ditched the man bag and now have a rucksack and one of those plastic map holder things that hang round your neck to put my guide book in. I'm starting to look as though I mean business, we just need a set of walking boots for Oscar. Meg decided to carry the rucksack, which meant I had the rough end of the deal, as there was a lot of on lead walking for Oscar on this stretch of the walk.

We approached Rutland Water, through the calm and tranquillity of the countryside around Empingham, that all changed as we made our way from below the dam wall to the path that runs around the reservoir. To be fair it was a sunny Good Friday, but it felt like hitting Oxford Street on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Rutland Water is very picturesque, the walk took us around the north shore, with some lovely views across the reservoir and of course Oscar took every opportunity to jump in the water and cool off, whilst we enjoyed an ice cream.

The thing about Oscar is the he is a bit of a weaver, side to side sniffing to pick up a scent, but on a footpath with cyclists whizzing past you it's not a great walking experience. As we exited Rutland Water there is a long stretch of footpath where he developed the almost perfect timing of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and very neatly managed to take out a couple of cyclists. After some squealing of breaks and the equivalent of a couple of emergency stops, with lots of apologies from us, we cleared this section of the path without unseating anyone and with Oscars nose still in one piece.

The rest of the walk continued pretty much without incident, well apart from Oscar getting caught in a cattle grid. That was really unusual as he normally stops, but something had caught his attention on the other side and he wasn't going to let a simple thing like holes in the road stop him. Thankfully he was OK and managed to get himself out to go and chase whatever it was that was so important in his world.

Resting Point - Butter Cross

Our next calling point was Oakham, and just as we entered the outskirts we started talking to a lady, who was clearly impressed with our professional walking appearance, and asked if we were on a 'serious walk', I managed to hold back the first couple of comments that entered my head, and as the conversation moved on, it turns out that she had walked to Everest Base Camp - small world. Meg pumped her for as much information as possible and got a couple of tips for things to take with her. We said our goodbyes and then headed off to the town centre. There are some really pretty buildings in the centre of Oakham and we took 5 minutes to rest in the shade of the Butter Cross in the Market Square.

Brooke Church

We exited Oakham and then moved back onto fields and countryside, we started descending to the village of  Brooke, the finishing point for today's walk.

There is a Church in Brooke which my guide book describes as one of the most attractive Churches on the whole of the walk, (quite an accolade) with a squat 13th century tower. It is in a beautiful setting.

Alison was there waiting for us with the support vehicle. The walk had taken us a bit longer than expected, so we had a dash to get home - Meg to get ready for work, and me to watch Sheffield Wednesday play Norwich (which ended in the usual disappointment!)

It was great to have Meg with me for the day, some company that I could have a conversation with. At the end of the day we had walked 14 miles bringing the total walked to 57 miles. You can see my progress on a map here

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