Weather: Fine, hot at times
Distance: 21 km (13 miles) Total
Distance: 2763 miles
We
drove to Boston via new places like Grantham, I just about
managed to figure out the way down to The Haven and got my boots on whilst the
boys went to have a quick look at the river.
It was a hot day and not a terribly good place to have a picnic so
Margaret decided to leave me there and go and find a park to have their food
whilst I pressed on.
I walked over the
bridge and up towards the town – there was no direct way down the north bank of
the Haven because it was blocked by the docks.
I took to some very narrow back streets before hitting the main bridge
over the River Whitam and making my way back towards the Haven again along
roads that were a mix of residential and industrial. After a mile I found a path that led onto the
banks of the Haven itself and pressed on to put Boston behind me. I could see them working on the rubbish dump
on the south bank but fortunately it did not smell as bad as it has done when I
was here before. By the time I got to
the outskirts of the town it was very hot indeed and I ate some food including
the fast melting chocolate bar.
I
passed the sewage works then had a quick peep at the memorial to I think it was
the Pilgrim Fathers who set out from here.
Then it was out beyond the place where I walked on the South bank. I had made a phone call to the local ramblers
association who had told me that they thought there was a path right along the
sea defences even though it was not marked on the map. By the time I got to the mouth of the Haven
there was little life around apart from the collection of fishing boats that
were now heading for Boston up The Haven.
I
turned to go north and soon found that there was indeed a decent footpath along
the sea defences at least for most of the way.
Much of the grass was short because sheep were grazing it. There was a memorial to the people that had
reclaimed this land from the sea. From
the sea defences I could look up toward Boston past the prison.
There
was now a six-mile stretch of sea defences with hardly a living sole to be
seen. At one stage when I was walking on the sea defences I came to a head of
cows – I was busy shooing them off when I came to one particularly reluctant
one. The head turned and it slowly began
to look angry and rise to its feet only for me to realise that it was a bull
and not a cow. I told it to sit down and I skirted around the foot of the sea
defence instead.
I had
to be careful not to miss the place where I had arranged to meet Margaret and
the boys. I found the place called
Sailor’s House expecting it to be a large place a bit like a retirement house
only to find it was a cottage. My
greeting party was not there to meet me so I started walking slowly
inland. They turned up about twenty
minutes late having had quite a bit of trouble finding the rendezvous because
of the very flat terrain, lack of road signs and the fact that every field
looked the same – a cabbage field.
When I
asked if they had found a camp site they smiled because they had used their
initiative and found a cheap B&B a couple of miles outside Skegness. We were all sharing one room that turned out
to be interesting because the boys did not want to go to sleep until we
did. There was also no lounge but there
was a bar on the adjoining campsite.
We
went out for a nice Italian meal in Skegness that night and did a little
exploring of the promenade – deciding that it was a better place than Great
Yarmouth.
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