Elsie Mo weekend

Saturday we were hoping to find some sloes and blackberries along an old greenlane haunt of ours at Glatton, near Peterborough, but they weren't yet ripe enough to pick. On our way home, a group of four greenlaners stopped for a lengthy "off-road/Landrover" chat and we discovered that a lane or two near Oundle are positively teaming with ready to harvest sloes - perfect for our day out on the Sunday.

Sunday, we headed off to Rockingham Castle initially to join other off-roaders hoping to do a Landrover Experience day - kind of treasure hunt along the greenlanes ending up at a quarry for off-roading. The day was £40 and upon arrival, we decided it wasn't worth paying as had our own map and could easily find the greenlanes ourselves and then head to Tixover quarry (which was open that day) for a couple of hours of off-roading (which turned out to be a brilliant idea as they only charged us a £10 entry rather than £25!).

We didn't have a very good start, however. Katie did a fabulous map reading stint to our first lane which, together with the second lane of our choosing, had been shut by the council (we should have done our homework first and checked this out of course). We found the Nene Way at Islip (SP988793) and stopped off by the River Nene for lunch. The sheep took quite an interest in us (and our food) initially, but the fear factor soon kicked in and they headed off towards the other side of the river!


We discovered our fat, ripe sloes (and some fat, ripe blackberries) on a lane from Lowick (SP988810). A lovely, long and bumpy drive with frequent harvesting stops! A family out picking elderberries passed on a sloe tip - freeze them until October. Apparently sloes aren't supposed to be picked until the first frosts, but this year, being ready much too early, it's necessary to mimick the frosts by freezing them. Have taken their advice; two full bags of sloes are now deep frozen.

Our final two lanes started at Bearshank Wood (SP998859) - two short lanes that ended up at Lower Benefield from which we took the A427 and then A43 up to Tixover Grange and had a fun couple of hours off-roading in the disused quarry. Ben wasn't so keen on the ups and downs of it all (sadly he must have picked up my fears) so we hopped out and took photos instead. Paul and Katie really enjoyed driving through the water, although they were being far more careful than some that ended up completely covered in mud with water pouring out of their cab! After Elsie Mo's third dip however, she decided enough was enough and cut her engine! Paul had to request a tow to higher ground where she then sprung back into life!



At this point we decided to call it a day. It was hot and sitting on plastic coated seats becomes alittle too much after a number of hours! Harvester for tea, cuppa at Paul's parent's home, home and bed.

Excellent weekend!