We were ably guided by Neil on quite an adventurous 22km for the first day through the mists and mud and through into the sunset. That lined us all up nicely for tea followed by Kathy’s partying through into Sunday. All gamely aided by DJ Debs and her music pod. Just as well there was naught but empty fields for miles around

Later that morning, over a stonkin’ Sue breakfast (with Martin Cycle washing up!), the Book Club didst discuss controversial circumlocutions of a book… No further comment… Good fun for the next book.

Sunday then showed off the area in glorious sunshine for a beautiful clear cool calm day and a much shorter Neil walk!

And so without further a word, herewith is a few thousand pictures words:

(See also the cyclists view.)

This is the cyclists’ view of the weekend. (See here/next for the walkers view )

Many thanks to Kathy for the partying and organizing.

And so, without further a word, some Dave pictures to paint thousands of words

For our intrepid length ‘n’ breadth of Britain cyclist, that one glowing dish should let him fair fly back home after the nosh… Not sure the gentle amble along the canal and marinas can compare for that feast!

Good turnout for the group, good food, and a good evening. ‘Twas dark and damp but nicely mild for a spooky walk along the canal. Shame a certain two of us missed the start! We did get to do a mini pub crawl with our catchup walk

Amongst the usual talk and stories, there was various plotting for the next big events: Chatsworth, Tamworth, and Woody’s Top, and other schemings…

(There was even some amazingly ‘net-savvy’ talk about such things as websites, Twitter, Facebook and “rss” feeds, and that wasn’t from me!)

Cheers,
Martin

Herewith is the photo-shoot of the second ‘Ghost Walk’ around the second quarter of our ghostly-historic wander about and under the city of Nottingham nee Snotingaham nee Tigguo Cobauc (Brythonic “Place of Caves”) or Y Ty Ogofog (Welsh “The Cavey Dwelling”).

Scroll down and single-click for the 4 minutes picture show. And for those that missed the fun:

Most of the group arrived early for a grand Sarah prepared lunch to fortify us for the day. A brief bus ride into the city later set us on our way to view a few sights old and not so beautifully old. Certain members of the group very nearly fell by the wayside on seeing the very first shop on our route!…

Nonetheless, we all made it to our first double ghosting at Ye Olde Salutation (to The Archangel Gabriel). Refortified with fine pub fayre, we then ventured into the subterranean company of two ghosts.

Continuing onwards and under the inevitable concrete subterranea, we passed St Nicholas’ Church, a Fothergill or two, and walked along historic (Low, Middle, High) Pavement to tour through the newly reopened caves in the cliff face under the Broadmarsh shopping centre, to find the next tour to be fully booked up. Indeed, all the tours for that day were fully booked with our group filling the following tour. The entrance to the caves is a little confusing in that it looks very much like a small trinkets shop rather than a portal to a previous world. We booked our places and explored a little more of our walk to return in time for our allotted tour. The guide taking us round was very good for commenting on the history there and for all manner of things of interest. The City Caves are a must see.

We then explored over to the News House and along the cliffs and up to the Lace Market. Various buildings have been built into and around or over the various sandstone outcroppings and old caves. Our timing was exactly right for a cinematic shaft of light to shine along our path as we climbed up an old original cobbled road.

Unfortunately, St Mary’s Church was closed by the time we wandered past, and so we made an early entrance to the excellent Iberico restaurant that hides under the historic Shire Hall.

We then finished with a mini-explore around the city centre guided by Sarah to catch a bus back.

Our next quarter instalment includes the Old Angel Inn and likely will include the Galleries of Justice depending on time and what people want. Thence onwards towards Mansfield Road. Again depending on pub/food stops, the cemetery and sandstone quarry/caves likely will need to be part of a fourth instalment. To be continued!

For our first Ghosting (pubs exploration and history) walk pictures, see:

First Sample of a few Spirits In and Under Nottingham

A recently posted excellent writeup and pictures by a worldwide cave explorer is given on:

BLDGBLOG: Caves of Nottingham

Whereas those intrepid explorers did their walk in just a day, we seem to be doing about a quarter day at a time of walking… The rest is eating and drinking!

Their write-up echoes pretty much what we’ve found so far on our two (and a bit) “Ghost” walks. One surprise is that there is no mention of the tunnel running from the Broadmarsh Centre deep under the city through to the Victoria Centre car park… And beyond… The Nottingham Contemporary has been built across the entrance, perhaps the old tunnel could/should become a subterranean extension to art?

And without further ado, enjoy a few pictures below:

Cheers,
Martin

Very aptly, some nearby very noisy mobile machinery that can be expected at semi-regular intervals for that venue was deftly included into the proceedings

Our earlier estimates for easily getting tickets on the night may need to be revised… Both the outside marquees were pretty much full!

In summary: A very good do from a slightly different crew to those we’ve seen before.

Cheers,
Martin

We did get to see a good double full rainbow. Also, the evening light skimming under the clouds made for some spectacular vivid colours. That also made for some fun photography…

And as before, we enjoyed some good food and beer at the Plough Inn, Diseworth.

There were a few wet feet but all good fun!

Cheers,
Martin

We were very lucky for the weather for our camping. We got the tent up quickly inbetween showers and we were inbetween some stonkin’ big vehicles so we were nicely sheltered. Also, we very carefully planted ourselves on a slight mound that was less wet than elsewhere. Later in the evening, I think we were too zonked to notice if it rained… Others in the group were rather late back from the beers…

No hangover for the next day but I didn’t need any wheels to be wobbly!

We enjoyed a very good selection of beer, all in a good and friendly village. Still surprised for the number of pubs there…

Unfortunately, there was the one minor detail of all the catering being very much not veggie-friendly Sarah’s sandwiches were good and easily made up for that small detail

I’m still giggling over being so impressed with the new double-sized cab, air suspension, chunky tyres, and very impressive clean rework of The Richard Monster… Especially so for the hydraulic ram operated extension to the chassis just to hold bikes and a spare tyre – a very clever addition. I was also admiring the beautiful welding work presumably from Welder Dabbs. … Only to then find the real now chameleon coloured Monster sinking into the grass (parked) alongside on the opposite side of the new doppelganger in the group! Ooops…

During the day, we all went on various walking, wandering, or cycling expeditions to explore round abouts. We noticed quite a few canal boats moored along the canal for the festival. There was also the Exploditions couple with their horse drawn traditional caravan filled to capacity giving tours of the village. All good fun!

The campsite is Marton Road Farm and is almost in the village itself.

Here’s a few pics, 06/05/2012:

Cheers,
Martin
and Sarah

All good fun and a few fun pictures from Dave and Lisa…

Until pumpkin time again!

Cheers,
Martin

(Click once on a picture to see a slideshow of all the pictures.)

Good campsite once you got used to the bleating sheep and the thunder of 100Mph trains… After a few beers and some camp cooking, I’m sure we were all sleepy enough. One hint is: Do not set up your tent underneath a tree. Especially not when you can expect rain in the night. Very especially not when that tree is the favourite breakfast roost for an unholy dawn squawk of crows!

Jenny organised a good tour of Lichfield with time enough for a look around the cathedral and a little shopping before we cycled back to the campsite to then collect together the picnic and to be ferried to the proms.

And a stonkin’ good picnic was had! Famously helped by Sarah’s bountiful Pimms including added essential ingredients garnered from a good doctor’s herb garden. The orchestras were good also We were highly fortunate with the weather and the fireworks finale gave a good send-off.

Next morning was a very damp very heavily dewed start. Most of us went on a merry cycling wander around the locality and explored the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas. There was also the required tea/coffee shop stop en-route…

Everything had dried off nicely for our return to finish a very good weekend.

Thanks go to Dave and Jenny for a well organised break.

Here’s a few pictures from the weekend:

Cheers,
Martin

Any further photo gems for the group albumn?

Cheers,
Martin