Lincoln to Wellingore: E2 Day 82

A short day walking along the Lincoln Edge.

Leaving Lincoln down a road lined with shops including I thought, an unusually large number of tattoo parlours and hairdressers. However, I was soon walking across green areas, albeit close to housing. Then it was a climb up to the top of the Lincoln Edge also known as the Lincoln Cliff, although I saw no exposed rock to justify it being called a cliff. Rather it was an escarpment, associated with the underlying Jurassic limestone. To the west the ground dropped steeply to a wide plain of clay. During the ice age this was maybe a great lake. A plateau extended to the east.

Looking down the escarpment of the Lincoln Edge with the southward spread of Lincoln visible, more housing is planned.

Looking down the escarpment of the Lincoln Edge further south.

From the top of the Edge, the Viking Way provided good views across the plain below me. As well as fields, some yellow with rapeseed, there was the much housing, some quite recent, as Lincoln continued to grow. Many dog walkers used the track. They were concerned about a bypass being built across the very field on which we were walking, little flags marking out the route. They thought it would cause congestion in the nearby villages. Mercifully, today the Viking Way avoided any new housing developments but my informants said many more houses were planned, often on the flood plain with a high risk of flooding. Inevitably, immigrants with large families were said to be the reason why all the new houses were needed.

I continued by a succession of villages with their pubs and old churches, in between my path went in straight lines between fields, either ploughed or with young, green crops. Navenby was one of the larger villages and included a busy café where I enjoyed a coffee and cake from the multiple, flustered staff. My inn for the night, the Red Lion, was in the next village. A friendly pub which had a pizza stall in its garden whose produce I much appreciated.

Straight path of Viking Way with Sunday dog walkers in the distance.