L2L Day 29 Ashby to Burton on Trent

I was joined for the walk today.....


and Pam joined me for breakfast having travelled across by early train from Birmingham.

The weather was perfect for walking. Cool air temperature but bright sunshine.

Having looked again carefully at the map, we'd selected the most picturesque route.




As always with Pam, we talked all the way on all sorts of subjects - the birds of New Zealand, new housing estates, retirement, junior doctors strikes, cyclones and anti-cyclones, university funding and that was before we got on to dorsal root ganglions.


We stopped for a coffee and well deserved chocolate tiffin at Calke Park.


Calke's stables are famous for having trained Squirt - the most succesful horse in flat racing for having gone on to 'sire' descendents including Red Rum, Shergar, and Desert Orchid.


Back on the National Forest Route we crossed the Calke National Nature Reserve and Mere Ponds and saw this 'Small Blue' butterfly


as well as a number of Peacock butterflies and Brimstones.

As we dropped down to Ticknall we could see the cooling towers of the old coal fired Wilmington power station loom onto the horizon.


After a reviving half of Pedigree at the amazingly busy Bulls Head in Repton, Pam caught the 18:24 back to Birmingham. It was lovely to had her company on a lovely day.

I went to check in at the Travelodge but went straight out again to catch the last of the sunshine on the Town Hall and St. Paul's Church with the statue of Lord Burton - as in Bass and Co.


On the recommendation of the night watchman at the Town Hall, I went to the Oak and Ivy for a pint of Pedigree  - a friendly, darts and dominoes pub.


Around the bar there was animated conversation because one of the guys had been this afternoon to see the motorbike racing at Donnington Park. He'd even seen one of his schoolboy motor racing heroes - Roger Marshall,   'Meat and Veg Reg'!!

The pint Pedigree was excellent.

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