I arrived yesterday morning and spent the first few hours meeting up with old friends, something that was long over due!
I've been to previous events that Phil has organised here but apart from visiting the rather attractive town of Oakham I haven't explored the area.
The weather was brilliant so I decided to spend the latter part of the afternoon pottering around Rutland Water on the bike. The route is on a mix of tarmac and compacted grit (the pale surface often found on cycle ways) and had one or two very short steep-ish sections to test the legs. It's a very attractive route with wonderful views across The Water:
Generally the steeper sections had a warning notice:
The Water is a great recreation area with sailing, fishing, a water park for the kids, cafés and bike hire:
When the dam was completed in 1975 the valley progressively filled and Normanton church was partially flooded though the lower part of the building was protected from the water:
This lovely old ice cream van is still in use (N.B. Annie and Chris!):
As you'd expect, this is a water bird paradise with swans, geese, myriad ducks............and I believe that ospreys have been seen here:
The dam is a couple of kilometres long at the eastern end of The Water:
And just outside Oakham there is a wicker Spitfire put in place to mark the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain (with thanks to 2cv for researching that):
My day ended with a chat around the camp fire:
Together with a mountain of popcorn cooked entirely by the power of the sun.
How does Phil do that?
At night, to boot.
Colin ???