Where the Path Disappears - Gunthorpe Lock

4 miles | riverside walk | overcast with some sunshine | coffee at the pub

Flooded River Trent outside Unicorn Pub

Today’s walk was meant to be a recce for the February walk that we usually lead. As we’ll be in India when it’s scheduled, we did the recce with our friend Richard, who has kindly agreed to lead it in our absence. In that sense, it already felt like one of his walks, and for once I was simply following, not holding the route in my head.

We began at The Anchor in Gunthorpe. The River Trent was already wide and moving at pace, edging into places it doesn’t usually reach. From outside the Unicorn the riverside path looked usable enough, and we set off alongside the water, passing Gunthorpe Lock and the strangely out of place “No swimming” signs. It soon became clear that the river had other ideas. The path ahead was flooded, the way forward closed to us.

We turned back and walked through the village instead, then out into the fields where the ground was heavy with water. The morning was warming now, the sun lifting through broken cloud, and once away from the road everything softened and fell quiet. Footsteps slowed. Conversation thinned.

At the next turn, the fields shifted again — no longer just waterlogged, but openly flooded, the intended line of the walk dissolving into still, reflective water. There was no sense in pushing on. Some decisions don’t need discussion.

Over a very good coffee, we reflected that this probably wasn’t the right walk to lead after all. Even though the main walk is still a couple of weeks away, this was a timely reminder of why recces matter, not to confirm a plan, but sometimes to quietly rule one out.