Martyn's Blog

Welcome to the third (of four) instalments of the Review of the Year 2022. You can catch up with part one here, and part two here.

July 2022

I didn’t go anywhere in July 2022. It was far too hot.

August 2022

It was just as hot in August 2022, but I managed to venture out to a few places. The first of which was Outwoods Woodland in Burton on Trent, between Anslow and Outwoods in the north west of the town. It was a pleasant morning walk in the sunshine, and not nearly as muddy as when I attempted it for the first time in March.

The annual Martyn’s Blog outing to Cromford in Derbyshire took place in August. After the success of the walk on the Cromford Canal in April between Whatstandwell and Ambergate, I decided to walk the canal from Cromford to Whatstandwell, in a reverse of the route I walked in September 2019. The weather was lousy, but the highlight was a train driver sounding his horn and waving at me when I was on a bridge over the railway line.

Another throwback to an earlier trip occurred later in August when I returned to Attenborough Nature Reserve for an evening walk, as opposed to the early morning trip I took there in May 2021. The walk was very good, the weather was great, but the trip home almost turned into a nightmare.

It was back on East Midlands Ranger Area duty at the end of the month, with a ride to Leicestershire, and South Wigston railway station. There was an old railway line, a big park and the Grand Union Canal to enjoy.

September 2022

The month of September began with a bus trip to a train station, Lichfield City in the city of Lichfield. Although I had a walk around the station, I didn’t catch a train there. In retrospect, I could have got off the bus at Trent Valley and hopped on a train there, but I didn’t think of that at the time. I had a good look around Lichfield, including the city centre, the cathedral and the war memorial which was the focal point of the city’s tributes to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who had died on the 8th.

On the bank holiday of the Queen’s funeral, I visited Lincolnshire to tick two stations off the East Midlands Ranger Area list, Swinderby and Hykeham. Both places were almost deserted, what with it being a bank holiday, but I managed to find a couple of interesting things in both places, including the fact that Swinderby station still has a manually-operated level crossing, where a man comes out of the signal box to move the gates by hand.

September ended with a trip to the magnificent Peak District to Bamford, and nearby Ladybower Reservoir. The trip almost didn’t happen because of a cancelled train at Sheffield, but I pressed on after a two-hour wait at Sheffield station and it was well worth it.

That’s it for the review of the summer. The next part, covering the end of the year, will land on the internet on Wednesday 21st, so look out for it then. Thanks very much for reading.