It’s a Right Floody Hell –The Final National Forest Way Stretch

Okay, let’s start with the bad. The National Forest Way is not a good match to the Leicester Round. The route marking is much weaker, the paths themselves are more frequently less well maintained, the road walking feels excessive and the hills oddly more frequent. Now, let’s tackle the good! The scenery is stunning, the walking pleasantly challenging, the villages and towns more varied and the sense of accomplishment just as good.

So, before we get into anymore, why not have a watch of my final – epic – stretch of the walk.

Enjoyed that? Good, so did I – in the end. It took a lot longer to warm up to this route than I thought I was.

Anyway, this last leg of the National Forest Way was always going to be a tiny bit epic due to the potential distance. Having finished three legs, I’d roughly calculated it was 24 miles to the end point – based on the notational ’75 mile route’ as advertised for the Way. When I sat down with RoutePlanner to figure out the exact route [1] I found it was only a little over 21 miles. Now, I’ve done a few marathon distances in my time, although for the past few years I’d not quite managed a single walk over 20 miles in one go. So, this was looking like being a little more of a stretch – and that’s without factoring in the hill climbs along the way. However, given the recent weekly walks I’ve been on have been tracking nearer and nearer to 20 miles, going the extra mile (and a half) didn’t feel like a big ask. I didn’t actually tell Mrs Llama how far it was though as she might have been less than encouraging.

Of course, the slight concern I still had when setting out was ‘if I go off course or there’s a lengthy diversion, I might end up walking a lot further than 21 miles’. What I was really afraid of was going so far off course, that I’d would have had to call it a day with only a few miles left still to go on the route. Asking Mrs Llama to drive me over an hour away, to go walking for not much more than 2 or 3 miles another day, would not have been warmly received at Casa della Llama, I can assure you. Thus with this slight concern in mind across the walk I decided to make extra sure I followed the signage, rechecked my map frequently and avoided any side trips.

Sadly, the plans of mice and men and hiking llamas though, oft go astray.

Initially, relatively early in the walk, there was an unscheduled, and poorly signposted, diversion off the track south of Burton-on-Trent. Passing successfully through a lightly flooded nature reserve, to suddenly encounter a singular ‘building works ahead – divert’ sign and a load of Haras fencing baring the way wasn’t a great discovery. The lack of any signage directing you to where the replacement route was, was certainly a poor move on either the Staffordshire pathways team or the builders – or both. As a result there was a whole load of fevered guesswork as I tried to find how to rejoin the route without plodding down a dual carriage way for miles.

Sadly, I ended up doing the plodding. The A38 is not fun to walk along, but there didn’t really seem to be a viable alternative. Thankfully this diversion didn’t add too much distance to my route, even if I did agree to cut off a now redundant stretch into the fringes of Burton’s urban squalor. Having concluded I’d already gone a mile out of my way extra, losing some street walking felt like no loss at all.

What I didn’t know at the time as I rejoined the route, was that the last few miles would prove to even more of a challenge. In a word: floods. In a few more words, the river Trent near Alrewas had burst its banks and converted what should have been a nice easy flat stretch of field walking, into a half-mile yomp through flooded fields and into the river itself [2]. I got extremely wet and probably slightly panicked Mrs Llama when I recounted the tale later. However, I did end up feeling very satisfied with myself for not backing down from the challenge.

Not planning any more river crossings any time soon though.

At journey’s end (or start if you’re doing the route west to east) I reached the National Memorial Arboretum. One common issue with both the Leicestershire Round and the Way is a lack of clear start/end points. With the Round, I guess given it’s a rough circle, there isn’t really any ‘start/end’ [3]. With the Way, well there are clear points at Beacon Park and the Arboretum where you could have placed a nice ‘Start/End Here!’ sign. As it was, I ended up standing outside the Arboretum entrance where the route on the map ended wishing there was something concrete to mark the end. I celebrated as best I could by the sign for the Arboretum, but it wasn’t the same. Although, the visitors there were slightly baffled by my appearance – I was the only one dressed for a hike in this slightly out-of-the-way attraction.

Anyway, all that aside, I’ve now finished my second long distance pathway. [4] What’s next in the world of llama trekking? Well, this weekend after Storm Babet hit the country, everywhere near me in the UK Midlands is pretty badly flooded, so the impetus to squelch across miles of muck and mire is lacking. I also fancied a bit of a break. [5] I suspect my next few walks will just be local ones, old favourites keeping myself match-fit as we move into the autumn/winter interface and the weather makes the terrain more challenging. That said, I’m plotting out one last long-distance pathway a couple of counties away to round out the year next month. Weather dependant mind you. After that, I’m not sure – answers on a postcard/tweet/comment!

Maybe I’ll finally tackle Hadrian’s Wall, I’ve always wanted to do that one…

Follow my plotted route here: https://www.routeyou.com/r/acwrrh

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Endnotes

[1] Don’t rely on OS maps to guide you – half the time national routes converge, overlap and diverge in the damndest way. All of which means it can be very easy to go off down the wrong pathway if you’re not careful.

[2] To my pride I never left the footpath – although the river had at this point gifted a foot deep of water.

[3] Conventional wisdom says Bradgate Park. Well, I say anywhere on the Round can be the start/end.

[4] Should I be getting medals for each one or something?

[5] I did a load of DIY instead. Would have rather been hiking!