The
radiators in our rooms (together with large amounts of paper towel provided by
the hotel) have done a very effective drying job on our bags, clothes and
boots. However, the prospects of completing our planned walk today – just over
15 miles to the Ship Inn at Fosdyke Bridge in time to pick up a cab booked for
2:30 to take us to Spalding – are problematic. First, the weather is dreadful.
Heavy rain with a strong, and quite biting, wind. And secondly, having hoped to
get a cab to return us to Clay Hole in time for an 8:30 start, we discover that
school runs mean that we can’t be picked up from the hotel until 9:00 at the
earliest. During our extra time in the hotel lounge, we witness two men at the
bar having a couple of beers (we assume – or hope – that they’re night workers
at the end of their shift) and John and Mike venture outside to establish that
our route from Clay Hole through Boston will bring us back past the hotel
because we’ll be unable to cross the river at an old swing bridge a few hundred
yards away. This serves to confirm an earlier provisional decision that we
should leave our rucksacks at the hotel and collect them later which will
hopefully mean that we’ll have some dry clothes when we finish. We’re picked up
shortly after 9:00 and we’re out in the rain at Clay Hole around 9:30,
unencumbered by luggage – and by scenery. Once again an embankment with flat
fields on one side and the river and more flat fields (and a couple of
industrial sites) on the other. The rather monotonous nature of the walk is
illustrated by the fact that we fail to notice the point where we cross back
into the western hemisphere and that one of the few memorable events is Ben’s
attempt to make a connection between cricket and walking with Mike towards the
Boston Stump. The somewhat tenuous link is “stump mike”. So not surprisingly,
the prospect of returning to the Quayside lounge becomes more and more
attractive and, on our wet and bedraggled arrival there after over an hour and
a half’s walking, it is clear that there’s neither the time nor the inclination
to try and get to Fosdyke Bridge. Instead, we settle down to agree other
arrangements over warming cups of coffee for John, Mike and Gary, and an early
and equally warming glass of red for Ben. We decide that the rucksacks will
remain at the hotel and that we’ll walk another 5 miles or so back along the
south side of the river to Marsh Farm where there’s a lane for a cab to collect
us and return us again to Boston. John also gets the cab booked for the Ship
Inn to pick us up at the Quayside. By the time we leave the lounge, the rain
isn’t quite as heavy as before but, after half a mile, we have to divert away
from the path leading to the river because of some flood barrier works which,
if the water in the yards which we pass is anything to go by, aren’t yet wholly
effective. It proves to be quite a long diversion which we soon realise could
make us a bit late for taxi rendezvous time. So when we eventually reach the
embankment, the walk gradually develops into an easterly yomp (with the
meridian going unnoticed yet again) and we arrive at the Marsh Farm lane as the
cab is driving towards us. By 1:45 we’re back at the Quayside and, as it
doesn’t serve lunch, John pops out to a nearby shop and returns with crab
sandwiches. We have time to enjoy these, wash them down and change into
gratifyingly dry clothes before our diverted cab arrives. Mike has decided that
it's easier for him to stay in Boston and catch a direct train to Nottingham
rather than accompanying the rest of us to Spalding. John and Ben get a train
from there to catch their connections at Peterborough, whilst Gary gets a train
north to join Sally for a couple of days in Lincoln.
Postscript: After we left Wainfleet,
heavy rain continued to fall leading to the town being flooded a couple of days
later. Roads were impassable, the rail line from Boston was closed and a state
of emergency was declared.
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