Kings Cliffe Walk 8 October 2023 in pictures and words

Pictures from Jackie Markley.  Undercover investigations and tree interrogations by Sir Hardly Anyone.

According to Wikipedia, Kings Cliffe is  built of local stone and collyweston roofing, and is generally regarded as one of the prettiest villages in East Northants.

And indeed one can see the attraction from these scenes of rural bliss as the whispy clouds whisper their way across the bluest of skies and our walkers walk onwards.   

But of course ahead all is not the same as it was at the start, for soon we find ourselves among the ancient trees from days of yore, wherein may lurk all sorts of adventures, as we enter Yggdrasil, the home of the “Tree of the Worlds” also known as “The Tree of Rebirth and Healing”.  For here we are on the very edge of fabled Lincolnshire!!!

Indeed to come into contact with the tree means regeneration or rebirth and indeed much has been the commentary since, on how several of our more venerable members are indeed now seemingly getting younger and younger by the day. 

In fact it is rumoured that it will not be long before several of our most venerated members will have to leave Peterborough Ramblers on the ground that they are not old enough to continue.

Now of course we all know that things are different elsewhere.  For in darkest Hampshire, magic rituals still take place where a naked child was passed through the split trunk of an ash tree as a cure for broken or weak limbs.

It was said that if the parts stayed together the child was cured, but if the gap remained, the ritual would not be effective.  However this process was outlawed by the Council last year, much to the applause of right-minded people, but even so on this walk signs were seen of the process still being undertaken.  For here we not only see a ladder used for climbing up a tree but also above it a rocket launcher ready to dissuade those attempting to walk this way without the permission of our Glorious Leader and the appropriate sub-committee.

But this modern technology reminded us all of what was to come and beyond indeed it was found.  Here we see the remains of a nuclear bunker from before the first Cambridgeshire insurrection of which it has most often been said.

It is indeed most wonderous that we can not only delve into our region’s ancient history in terms of the ways in which the ancient inhabitants of this fabled land would build walls in the middle of nowhere for absolutely no purpose whatsoever save to tell the trees that it is humankind who now controls the land and not the ancient woodlands.

Indeed we see here the pointlessness of the feud, and it rekindles one’s thoughts that if only the trees and the bricks could have settled their differences in the dim and distant, life would have been so much better.

PS if reading this on your phone you can make the pictures bigger by placing two fingers on the picture and moving them apart.   I only just realised this and think it’s rather clever!