Roadtrip; RAF Cranwell Lincolnshire

Friday evening i was heading south on the A1 again to Englandshire!, this time we were off to Lincolnshire and the RAF Cranwell Horse Endurance, Francis was riding the 80km ride on Saturday and so i packed the Surly KramPug in her horsebox to go explore old roads and Bridle paths, clear skies as we motored south the 250 miles...

We arrived as the sun set and by the time i had the Kyham tent up and everything sorted Francis had the corral set up and her horse Aphrodite settled for the night it was time to hit the sack...

Saturday;
A cold frosty start to the day as i crawled out of bed around 6.30am...

Francis was already at the corral seeing to Aphrodite, fed and watered, we then walked the dogs....

It was going to be a stunning day...

2 dogs?;
In front of Mowgli is Harley, a Spaniel rescue dog that Francis has looked after for a few weeks and today went to a new home...

Mowgli has enjoyed the company but i think he will now enjoy all the attention again!...

I was left with Aphrodite while Francis went and got all her paper work sorted...

KramPug ready to go too,  Francis has a nice new French trailer...

Ready to go!...

A County of history in the skies;
Lincolnshire is a flat county and it`s big skies makes it ideal for flying and it is indeed full of aviation history.
It is full of airfields which many have now disappeared since WW2, though many are still operational and have heritage centres.
I wish i had done more research before going, and had more time to explore it`s many airfield and museums once there.
RAF Cranwell collage is a hub to a whole wheel of surrounding disused airfields, and also existing RAF stations like;
 RAF Digby ,
Thorpe camp,
RAF Waddington
Metheringhame Airfield visitor centre
Wickenby Aerodrome Museum
RAF Scampton Museum
Lincolshire Aviation Heritage centre

Time to go for a look around... There would be no rumble of WW2 Avro Lancaster bombers on my ride today around Cranwell. Only the rumble of 29+  Surly Knard tyres as i circled the airbase in search of trails today...
RAF Cranwell is where the future leaders of our RAF are trained...

Plenty to see around the grounds...

I cycled around the Airfield heading for the heritage museum...

Going to be a big sky day today...

Trainer planes, the sky was full of planes around here all day...

The Heritage Centre...

Small museum compared to here at east Fortune but some great stuff to see...

Museums bring to life our past and tell the story of what people have done for our country...
Thousands of young men were trained at Cranwell in Navigation and radio and other essential aircrew jobs and would go on to serve for our country...
A film on youtube;




Back out into the glorious sunshine... Horse Chestnuts in bloom...

A lot of planes overhead...

I soon found some flat and easy but nice trails...

Hidden in a tree these signs we do not see in Scotland, once a public road to all, now restricted to non vehicular traffic...

Told you it is flat here!!!...

 Crossroads of trails., take your pick...

This was a nice Bridleway, a lot like our old lanes in East Lothian...

Flat road to the horizon... typical country road with wide grass verges and Hawthorn hedgerows...

I rode around 40 miles and only about 8 miles off road but it was nice to ride somewhere with a different view to back home.
Back at Cranwell and Francis was pitting having ridden 40km...

Harley liked the smell of my Salmon and Garlic cheese spread roll but was out of range on his lead!....

Francis headed back out and i headed for a local famous historic road...

Cycling in the footsteps of Legionaries...
High Dyke (road) is part of the Roman Empires Ermine Street which ran from London to Lincoln...

A lot of the road was being used for the Endurance ride, here is the map  of the event route...

It was mostly flat and very dry, and very straight in Roman tradition....

The Horse endurance route was marked with 3 orange dots...

I passed some woods with dirt bike tracks...

Some riders approached as i stopped to take a picture of something...

What is a WW2 machine gun pill box doing here at least 80 miles from the coast?...

Easily answered when i saw this, this is a control HQ bunker for a WW2 airfield, it was used during air raids, we have one in East Lothian at RAF Drem...

There must have been a fighter station here in these fields during WW2, fighters would fly from grass runways, Bombers from concrete...

I continued along the Roman road as it briefly turned to tarmac...

And here was my answer; RAF Wellingore

A look over the hedge and there was the perimeter (Peri) track, and some air raid shelters and machine gun pill box...

Here is the airfield as seen from above on Google earth; the hedgerow a 3rd from right of picture is the Roman road...

RAF Hurricanes, Spitfires, Mustangs, Blenheim's and Beaufighters all once flew from here...

I found this 9mm film shot here at the airfield on Youtube;



Small planes still fly over head here today in more peace full times.,.

I cycled on for the next off road section of Ermine Street...

A huge roar overhead and this flew over!,  it is a E3D-3 Sentry (AWACS)...

Must be a big airbase nearby, i kept on spinning the cranks as the tarmac road swung left and we continued arrow straight on the Roman road...

Amazing sky and tree!...

Onto a bright white surface and the track soon came to a set of gates...

This was the home of the AWACS that had just landed...

This is RAF Waddington

Famous as being the WW2 airbase that the famous Avro Lancaster flew its first operational mission with 44 Squadron
Later during the Cold War the base would home the mighty Avro Vulcan, and again in later years during the Falklands War Operation Black Buck was flown from this airbase...


I decided to return on the Roman road and head across to the nearby Navenby and Wellingore as it must be time to stop for some refreshment...

A crossroads and to the east a flat road as far i can see!...

Oak tree out in leaf...

Here in England foot paths often go straight across fields, real weird!, why not just go around the field boundary?...

Here are the footpaths on the map above D (Horse Endurance pitting point)...

And here in real...

I headed around the field and kept legal....

Wellingore is a stunning village. A lot of pan tile Dutch influence like here in East lothian...

But a lot cleaner kept with immaculate gardens this was a ruin here in this picture, and no litter...

I had to Google to find out who lived at This cottage...

Time for a pint of cider :) ...

And after a second a cycle about...

Back to the Roman road...

Being a public road this see`s a lot of 4x4 use judging by these tracks...

looks like a Unimog has been along here!...

Drier and faster going further on ...

What an amazing day...

And an amazing old road to cycle!...

And soon i was back at RAF Cranwell...

Francis had finished her 80km ride in  the warm sunny evening we sat with friends and ate and drunk wine until sunset after 9pm, been a great day and just a small insight to a lot of history around here in Lincolnshire.

Sunday;     

we took a drive around some of the Endurance route on Sunday to pick up water bottles and stuff and i saw some fantastic trails that i avoided being on the endurance route, again more miles of easy but scenic trails...                                                                                                                    

Walked the dogs across this field footpath, again how weird is this!, why not just go around the end rigs with footpaths when they go from one minor road to another? :) ...

Mowgli and Harley enjoyed jumping about in the wheat. A film i uploaded on Flickr...



Soon it was time to head back to pack up and hit the road....

Walked dogs chilled while stuff was loaded up...

Horse and bike on board...

And the long 5 hour drive north, over the border at Berwick and soon home,  great weekend away...

More soon...