A Random Meander

Hi there everyone 😀

It was the Sunday of the late May bank holiday weekend and the weather was a bit grey with the threat of showers on the horizon. It was one of those days when you know you want to do something, go out somewhere, we just couldn’t decide where.

We ended up going on a bit of a mystery drive, with every next move determined on the flip of a coin and were both keen to see whether we would get to see anything interesting, where we would end up and whether or not there would be cake.

We had to throw a few loose rules into the mix, otherwise we may have just ended up back where we started very quickly. We randomly chose a starting point ... the church at Orton-on-the-Hill ... and decided that our first move would be either first left or right, depending on the toss of the coin. The second move would then be second left or right, again dependent upon the toss and the third would be the third left or right. We would then just repeat the exercise until we were ready to head for home.

If a turn we were due to make was a dead end, or a loop round a housing estate, we would take the next available turn and if we came to a T-junction before our turn was due, we would use that as the turn ... if that makes any sense at all.

So there we were Sunday morning parked up outside the church at Orton-on-the-Hill.

Our first move was 1st right, so we pulled on to Sheepy Lane and headed off.

When we are out driving about when we are away on holiday we are always pulling over and stopping to look at things that have caught our eye, it could be anything, a view, a tree, a pretty hedgerows, new born lambs ... you get the picture. We were both interested to see whether we could be as interested in what we were passing driving around the countryside so close to home.

We needn't have worried. This part of Leicestershire is pretty rural, crisscrossed with public footpaths and with the countryside pretty much taken up with farming ... both animal and arable.

We were aiming to find something interesting enough to photograph on each step of our journey and our first pull in for a photocall was at one of the public footpath signs, where a fairly narrow gap in the hedge led to a well defined footpath leading off into the distance ...

Not far along the same stretch and we just had to pull in again, at a field entrance to capture the pop of colour of these poppies which had caught both our eyes as we were sailing past ...

We were on the look out for our next turn which was the 2nd right, which took us on the B4116 through Sheepy Magna, where we didn’t really have chance to stop for any photocall, though we did pass the Black horse, which was calling to us but it was a bit early in our travels for a pit stop.

We took the 3rd left into Ratcliffe Lane where we got to see a field full of fairly young lambs ...

I was just getting back in the car when I noticed the view from the other side of the road. The green barley was rippling and swaying in the wind and definitely worthy of a capture ...

It was then 1st left into Pinwall Lane, through the pretty village of Ratcliffe Culey ...

... before taking the 2nd right onto the A444. 3rd left then took us onto Fenn Lanes heading towards the Bosworth Battlefield. It was all familiar territory but we were both certainly looking at things from a different perspective and interested to see where we would go next.

We took the 1st right heading towards Stoke Golding and were supposed to then take the 2nd right, but had to do a bit of a diversion because of a closed road. We ended up taking a left into Fox Covert Lane, where we spotted the next few photo ops ...

... another public footpath ...

... an intriguing use for an old railway sleeper, according to the Yorkshire railwayman I was travelling with ...

... and a rural landing strip ...

2nd right had us back on Fenn Lanes and I said I was sure we couldn’t be that far from Sutton Wharf, a nice canalside cafe we have visited a couple of times before, when, hey presto there it was. What a result.

It was time for a pit stop so we called in for lunch ...

We spent a very pleasant hour or so just watching the world go by, doing the crossie ...

... and working out our new few moves ...

Before heading back off on our meander we had a closer look at some of the more interesting and unusual vehicles parked up ... both on ...

... and off the water ...
Back on our way and we were looking for the 3rd left which took us past the Bosworth Battlefield, then it was 1st left ...

... which took us past the station at Shenton ...
2nd right had us back by the horse in the crossroads we’d seen earlier and from here we decided to head for home ...

We’d been out a couple of hours, we’d had lunch, seen lots of the Leicestershire countryside and generally had a nice relaxing drive.

I was quite surprised really at how well it went, if the area had been new to us I’m sure we would have been out a lot longer as we’d have spent time at the battlefield. We also passed signs for a flowers festival in one of the villages, so we could easily have made a day of it.

This could definitely be something to try again, either at home or when we are somewhere that is new to us. It’s good to get off the beaten track and we always say that's where you tend to find the best things to see 😀

*********************************************************************************