Rutland Water Circuit 24 miles

When I was moaning at a consultant about wanting to do a marathon and my knees being the biggest worry, he said very earnestly "Is it not enough to know you could do it? You could you know! Now don't do it!"

But it's not enough to know is it.  I at least wanted to prove to myself I can do the distance, if not the running.

Rutland Water is ideal for the proving, it's a 24 mile walk on good paths with only the gentlest of occasional hills.

 I started at the Nature Reserve visitor centre at about 9am and decided to go anti-clockwise.  I chose this way so I would have the bulk of it done before I got to the peninsula.


There are ospreys here.  Bird watching has always been a thing of mine, I considered just staying at the reserve for the day!!




But I set off and immediately felt a bit daunted by the prospect of what lay ahead.

But the weather was perfect, cloudy and just warm.

I was round to Normanton in next to no time.

 I had a rotten cup of tea from the kiosk by the church and watched a wedding party arrive.

 The walk across the dam was lovely.

 There is a beach there now and the families were settling in for a day of play.

 People and nature co-exist very well together here.  It is well managed.

 Some areas are very 'people'

 and I made the most of that whilst I could.

As there was then quite a long length of path by the road, away from the water and fairly dull.

Luckily I took 2 weeks worth of Archers episodes to catch up on to see me through.

 Once I got to the peninsula there was a decision to make: 6 or 13 miles to the car.

I had a rather sore right achilles heel but I took some pain killers and went for it, it would seem a shame to come this far and not do it properly.

 The first mile of the peninsula is also pretty dull but once this is done it was the best part of the walk.

There was hardly anyone around, only 2 other walkers for at least 5 miles (and this was a bank holiday weekend) and very few bikes.

The fields are undulating and there are lovely views over the water.

 And there is clearly an obscene amount of money in this area, the houses are quite special.

There really aren't any facilities on this walk once you are past Barnsdale, so I braved a port-a-loo in an anglers car park - not recommended!

Once I was back on the road out of the peninsula it really felt like the home straight.

 And it was pretty much like walking around at home.

 Country paths mostly.

 But the villages were pretty.

 and occasional views of the water.















The whole route is well sign posted and only a couple of times I was wondering if I had gone the right way but a sign always popped up to confirm it.

 By 5:30 the rain was heavy on the north shore and headed in my direction.

I beat the rain back to the Nature Reserve car park by running the last mile.

It was a good day, well worth the effort.