Nene Way Challenge Part 2: Weedon & Flore

See Part 1 here.

To the outsider this might not look like the most exciting leg of the Nene Way. It’s certainly not the most scenic or interesting bit, but I’ve been looking forward to this stretch and I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve done this walk many times from a young age and I particularly enjoyed taking Finn with me as I walked through the village where I grew up.

I actually did this in two legs. For the first stage I walked from where I finished in Little Everdon last time to the end of the bridleway. This 1.6 mile stretch passed through some beautiful open countryside. Once again the weather was perfect for walking, I’m really enjoying this amazing Indian summer!

I’m quite proud of these photos. I’m finding that it’s sometimes quite difficult to get into the best position to take a picture with Finn on my back, although I do seem to end up doing lots of squats which is at least toning my legs up nicely!

A couple of days later I returned to walk the next section. You can see the route here. This bit went through the villages of Weedon and Flore. I find that walking on the road is easier on the legs, even if it’s not always quite as scenic.

I walked through the village following the Nene Way signs. I had left the map behind as I thought I’d be fine without it. (I did go wrong once but only very slightly-you can see where on my route near the church).  I reached the bottom of the village and passed under the railway bridge, I should have gone through the churchyard here, but I carried on walking along the road. After going under the canal bridge, I climbed a set of steps up to the canal.

It was nice to have a change of scenery and walk along the canal for a short while.

When I reached the bridge (as shown in the above pic) I headed away from the canal and towards the A5. This was the worst part, I don’t know if it’s because I had Finn on my back, but I felt very vulnerable crossing such a busy road. But once over it was a lovely walk over the river and up towards All Saints Church at Flore.

As I crossed the River Nene, I was reminded of when I used to play by the river in my younger days. I distinctly remember a time when me, my sister and best friend were playing on an old rope swing over the water. We solemnly promised each other that if any of us fell in, the others would jump in and save us. Well my poor friend did fall in, and me and my sister were laughing so much we were completely helpless. Luckily, another friend who was there leapt to the rescue and it all ended happily. I look back on this with horror now, being a parent gives you another perspective, I’m certainly much more aware of dangers these days!

I walked through the churchyard and Finn started crying. This is such a rare event, he whinges a bit but hardly ever cries, and even if he does, it’s usually so easy to comfort him. This time however, even my best horse impression wasn’t enough to cheer him up. So we stopped for a breather and I let him sit on the grass and have some milk.  One of my old neighbours walked past and recognised me. She didn’t know about Finn and couldn’t believe it, I guess it just made her feel old! After a brief catch up, I put the carrier back on and we continued. I headed past my old primary school (I didn’t get a photo as it was finishing time and I don’t think people would’ve liked a stranger taking photos with so many children about) and past my old street. It’s always a funny feeling revisiting old haunts, especially as I was pretty much walking the route I used to take home from school. I definitely did a lot of thinking on this walk!

Date of walk: 27th & 30th September 2015

Total miles of the Nene Way compeleted: 7.5