The Walk

We decided to head to Morland, the next village, for a bit of a drink at the pub. As we set off we saw a sign at the bottom of the drive saying 'Public Footpath Morland' and pointing accross a field. We looked at each other. Shall we? Oh go on then. We knew it was only a mile. So we crossed the first 3 fields with no problem. Each gate had the 'footpath' sign on it pointing through. 

We soon came to a point where the footpath went to the left and to the right of us along a field boundry. We knew the village was down and to our right so we turned right onto the path. This took us into the corner of the field. The other boundary of this field was a river, and the edge we were walking along met the river in the corner. Although we were sure we'd followed the footpath sign, there was no way out of the field at this point. It had barbed wire, double fences, and, oh yeah, the river! OK so maybe we'd made a bit of a mistake. We looked for another way out of the field...We followed the river boundary along to see if there was a crossing point, but there was a fence on both sides, with barbed wire, and really no way out. In the end we walked the entire circumference of the field, ending up where the footpath exited the field in the *other* direction. That couldn't be right.

We came round to the gate where we'd entered the field, and followed the signs afresh

towards the other side of the field. This time we were on the other side of the field boundary...just in case there was a way over the river there. But no exit. Ho hum. We did an about turn and followed the path back up to the road, which was completely the opposite direction to where we knew Morland was. We were officially lost.

Have no fear, we are the king and queen of technology, after a brief browse at Google maps on my phone, we realised that the road did lead (eventually) to Morland, albeit, the long way. We walked about 3 miles in the end instead of the 1 which would have been the direct route! Never mind, we knew there was a pub at Morland, so there was a purpose to our ramblings. 

The little village itself was quite cute (note the church with the praying squirrel outside it) and we found the Mill Race Cafe and the pub opposite which we'd noted on Google as being the nearest to our cottage. We decided to pop in for a pint. Initially it was a bit "Slaughtered Lamb" as all the people sitting at tables, the bar staff and the people at the bar were talking to each other. Clearly it's a very local local. But after a pint and a couple of bags of crisps, the locals seemed a bit more firendly! They did do food but we were a bit late for lunch and a bit early for dinner, so we're going to pop back at some point later on.

We decided to head home. This time we went along the main road ('main' being a relative term; it's single track roads around here.) This time we didn't get lost accross a field, and it only took about 20 mnutes to get back. It had taken us the best part of 2 hours to get there! 

Where on earth had we been?