大象传媒

A student's set off to walk the border of Nottinghamshire. Below is a map of the route she's plans to take. She set off on the 13th May 2003 and hopes to complete the walk in 10 days.

Day Ten: 01.00am : Home : Wow. We stopped at the Bridge Inn at about 6.00ish last night and realised we had about 11 miles left. It was raining - quite bleak - so we decided to walk the rest of the border finishing at 1.00am - a day of 15 hours of walking. All we could think of was our bed. From 6.00pm onwards we didn't see a soul, we were on auto-pilot. The walking at the end was really hard going - not because of the terrain but because of our feet - we spent alot of time under bridges stopping for a cigarette to take our mind off the pain. By the end we were pretty much elated.

Day Nine: 5.30pm : Heading for Stapleford : We got lost in the woods for an hour and a half yesterday. It was the first time Amy's map reading skills had let her down in eight days. Luckily she regained her skills and we found our way out. We ended up in the White Swan at South Normanton last night. Thanks to Sue who took us in. We didn't even have to camp and we were able to dry our socks by the fire which was bliss. It was chips and gravy for tea, then we took part in the pub quiz - and came last. We won a bag of crisps! We left at 9 this morning and headed across country following rivers. Haven't met anyone of note - only a woman leading a horse on the border. We said hello. We're going to try and hitch a lift with a boat on the Erewash canal. We're determined not to stop until we reach Stapleford. Considering we've covered more than 100 miles it doesn't seem like we've been walking that far. Hopefully we'll find a pub with a beer garden where we can pitch out tent. We've got our bottle of rum out (our third) to raise a glass to the end of the project. This time tomorrow we should have finished the walk.

Day Eight: 4:00pm : West of Pleasley : It's raining. Amy's back in her boots. We failed to get the flight yesterday as the flight controllers at the Sheffield Aero-Club said there was nowhere to land on the border. Last night we met a nice couple, named Linda and Martin, in Whaleythorne who showed us a really good place to set up camp. They then brought us breakfast in (camp) bed - a much appreciated flask of tea and biscuits. We've also been given a contact who might be able to help us out with tonight's resting place. Apparently, Paul at the White Swan in South Normanton has a field behind his pub which we hope to gatecrash - he doesn't know it yet! It's been really hard work today on the route due to construction and industrial sites. However, we've been going straight on through. It's always men that we meet on the border - We chatted to a bloke who was building a wall. He's lost all access to his house close to the border just south of Shirebrook due to building work and the widening of the railway that's going on!

Day Seven: 3:00pm : Sheffield Aero-Club: The route we've been walking this morning has been fairly easy - paths, tracks, roads. However, we're both mentally exhausted. Amy's got really sore feet and has had to resort to the emergency flip-flops! We're looking to the good weather to lift our spirits. Oh, and we're trying to catch a lift by plane. We're back on the Derbyshire border. We hope to get to Whaleythorne or Presswell by nightfall. The border so far has been fairly flat and today's no different, but it is getting a bit more urban. The highlight of the weekend has been meeting a man from the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust who was counting insects. We're hoping to be at the 大象传媒 by Thursday at 4.00pm. That is our goal.

Day Six: 4.00pm. Langold : It was really hard work today. Trying to follow the border has meant barbed wire, fences, walls etc. We a really angry farmer saying we had no business doing what we were doing. Thankfully, on the positive side, the walk was very pretty. We managed about 15 miles. We're slightly behind because we had Saturday afternoon off at the Blue Bell Inn in Finningley.

Day Five: 3:00pm : Finningley : Last night we stayed in a lovely b + b called 'The Gate' - it was a luxury, but I think you can forgive us for that in this weather! We're now in the most northern part of Nottinghamshire. While we were here we visited the most northern Nottinghamshire farm, however when we got there it was derelict. We have done about 10 miles today, but it's been pretty uneventful, except for the fact that Sarah has been wearing her flip flops all day because her boots have made her feet sore! Tomorrow we'll be heading south; officially we're half way through our walk. We're now settling down to watch our home town team, Southampton, play Arsenal in the F.A Cup final.

Day Four: 4.00pm : Gainsborough : We're trying to warm up in the Copper Kettle. It's been raining all day and we're cold and wet. It's brought us back down to earth after we had a really nice night. We made it to Marton and ended up in the pub. It sounds really bad but I can't remember what it was called, but it was the only one in the village and everyone was really friendly. We chatted to the locals who were interested in what we were doing but thought we were a bit weird. It was women's darts night and we were invited to partake of the buffet which was really nice. Thanks. We also played loads of pool. The landlord let us put our tent up in the beer garden which was really nice of him. We awoke this morning to rain. We hoped it would pass over but by 9.30 it showed no signs of stopping so we got up. We're on the wrong side of the river which means we've been walking though waist high stinging nettles which has been awful. It's been the hardest bit of the walk so far. We didn't manage to get a lift on a boat. We chatted to a lock keeper who said there weren't any boats going north. So no luck there. We're pretty wet and tired but tomorrow's another day. We're heading for West Stockwith.

Day Three: 4.00pm : Dunham on Trent : We had a bit of a lie in today. We didn't get up until 8am, mainly because it was so cold. But the weather now is beautiful and we've had a really nice day. We've travelled about 10 miles across country but now we've reached our first proper footpath which is great. We're right along the banks of the Trent now. In fact we've got a stretch of about 13 miles ahead of us. We're hoping to hitch a lift on a passing boat but there hasn't been much traffic so far so we're not holding our breath. The highlights of the last 24 hours have been a visit by our friend Simon Somauti, who took some photographs of us, and a pint which we've just finished in a pub in Dunham. We were surprised to see they still have a toll system here for cars using the bridge. We've also met some really friendly farmers who were good enough to let us walk over their land, had some good county borders tales and were really keen in what we were doing. We're going to try and complete another six miles and maybe get to Marton...maybe!

Day Two: 4.00pm : Old Hag Wood near Skellingthorpe : Last night we got invited to dinner with a family in Beckingham. We had a lovely time. The family live with a Nottinghamshire postcode but are on the Lincolnshire electoral role. They told us alot about the border disputes between Lincs and Notts in the 1800s. The border in this area used to be the dyke but due to the dispute it now goes back and forth over it. The family ended up putting us up for the night so we were drinking home-made bottles of wine into the wee hours. This morning we set off at 7.30am. We walked through Stapleford Wood. There were lots of ditches and fences to climb over and this slowed us down quite a bit. The weather's been okay. Quite bright. The border ran along the A46 for a while and, due to the road being widened, their was some construction work. We ran into some trouble here. We asked if we could enter the construction site and continue walking along the border. We were told that if we tried to we'd be hung, drawn and quartered. We have met some great people on day two. One lovely farmer let us walk across his land in in-between Collingham and Swinderby. Hope to get to Harby tonight.

Day One : 4.00pm : Barnby in the Willows : We're a little behind. We set off at 6.30am but it took us a long time to get started. We took a train to the nearest train station at Bottesford. We walked down to Three Shires Oak where we've taken a 360 image to celebrate the beginning of the walk (it will be appearing on the site shortly). Map readings been a bit of a problem. We ended up going round in circles for the first few miles until we found our bearings. Then we found a dyke which marks the boundary and we've been following it for the last six miles. The weather is very changeable. For lunch we ended up having a picnic in a hailstorm. We've not come across another living soul. The boundary's been fairly easy to follow, apart from a few fences we've had to climb. No barbed wire yet. We plan to stop in the next village after Barnby for our first pint and then continue walking until 9.00pm.