Road to Home 2022 Day 6: Worksop - Ollerton

 21.5 km

Life is very different when you walk through it

Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Up early, breakfasted in my room on instant coffee and a scone as the pub was still closed, and set off back down the trail the same way as I came into town, along the Chesterfield Canal.

The trail soon left the canal and headed through a residential neighbourhood, across the A57 and into Clumber Forest. 

A man with a fine collection of lawn ornaments and no lawn

Foxgloves

Into the forest

This is Robin Hood country 

Horse chestnut bloom

Sheep grazing in a clearing in the forest 

What's that doing there??? 

Clumber Lake

I took a detour to the shore of Clumber Lake, where there was supposed to be a café; it turned out to be a National Trust food truck, which hadn't yet opened. I sat down at a picnic table for a rest anyway, and soon a van drove up and two women began to take a long time arranging the day's selection of overpriced sandwiches and pre-packaged snacks, as more and more people (and dogs) joined the small crowd waiting for the "café" to open. I finished reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry while I waited, and then gave it to a young woman who had sat down at the next table and was talking to her father (I presume) about walking. She told me she was training to do the Three Peaks walk in Yorkshire, and so I told her about my walk. She said she would read the book and pass it on to someone else again. 

It was quite chilly with the wind blowing off the lake, and so I ordered a hot chocolate with my slice of sponge cake. I got 25 p off because I had brought my own cup, and I probably also got a larger hot chocolate, because mine is a very big cup! 😁

National Trust food truck café at Clumber Lake

Then I continued on my way over the weir and into the forest, where I promptly got lost as the footpath I was supposed to take was closed due to a collapsed footbridge, there was no phone or Internet signal in the park, and it was hard to tell which of the alternative paths would take me back to my route. I met an elderly couple who looked like seasoned walkers, kitted out with Tilley hats and Ordnance Survey maps in waterproof cases, so I asked them, but they were similarly lost. However we soon righted ourselves and they proceeded on their way northwards, I on my way southwards. 

I followed the public footpath and bridleway to Ollerton, without incident, except for an extremely boggy patch (there were ducks swimming where the pathway was supposed to be!!) where I had to take my boots off, put my Teva sandals on and wade through the water. 

I had tested the bottom with my sticks first and it was quite firm, not muddy, as the bridle path under the water had been sprinkled with gravel. So there was no danger of sinking into the bog, and it was quite fun, adding novelty to an otherwise dull stretch of path! However I was rather mucky when I arrived at my airbnb in Ollerton. Fortunately my hostess, Denise, has a back garden where I was able to hose down my muddy sandals and hang them on the line to dry alongside her colourful laundry! 

Denise gave me the front room, the biggest one! 

My hostess is a widow whose children have left home, so she takes in lodgers in the three spare bedrooms in her home. There's something very old-fashioned about that, but nowadays it's all handled via airbnb! The other two lodgers this evening are a fellow going to a wedding and a young nurse who works nearby for a few days every week and always stays here. 

Denise prides herself on her cooking, and provided me with a delicious three-course vegetarian meal for a small extra fee. 

After supper I watched a couple of episodes of Pilgrimage, a BBC reality show in which a group of minor celebrities of different religious backgrounds walk together on a pilgrimage route, with a different group of walkers and a different route featured each season. We cannot watch it from Italy, where it is not available even on the BBC website. I wanted to watch the 2019 season, filmed on the Via Francigena, but I couldn't work out how to get that to come up, or maybe it's no longer there, so I ended up watching a couple of episodes from the current season, about the Way of St. Columba in Scotland and Ireland. It looks beautiful, but very wet!