The Walk to Albert Village by the Sea

Date: 18th March 2011
Distance 7.3miles

So called because when we first moved here, over ten years ago now, when we first saw the lake at Albert Village we came upon it quite unexpectedly and it was an awesome sight...it was huge and bright turquoise with stark, barren banks.  And then there was a small village attached with a new housing estate overlooking the water and speed cameras waiting to catch you out and a pub called Mushroom Hall (why)?  I thought we'd driven into another world - a parallel universe where things are slightly off because someone stepped on a butterfly..

Anyway, the water is no longer turquoise but the cameras are still there and Mushroom Hall are still serving pints.

A good walk today with plenty of sunshine and it was truly warm - t-shirt and bare arms weather - marvellous.  A quick trot to Butt Lane, along Boothorpe Lane and up and down Gorsey Lane which deposits the walker 1/4 mile down the road from  Albert Village.  You have to be quick on your feet to avoid being mown down by traffic on this road as it hurtles along but you're soon over and looking down into the huge gaping chasm that is Donington Island which I have mentioned before.  A tunnel takes the trucks under the road and directly into the bowels of the pit where enormous machines help unload and bury the waste - who knows what they're putting in there...  The whole scene reminds me of old episodes of Doctor Who when the good doctor always seemed to end up in quarries, chemical works and other industrial landscapes.  It's grey and foreboding - here come the Cybermen! 

I walked down the zig zag path and onto the lakeside to do a circuit.  There were a few dog walkers and a couple of twitchers with binoculars and cameras aimed at the birds.  There are plenty to see here, the board mentions a selection of duck varieties, Grebe, gulls, Coots, Moorhens, Kingfishers - over sixty bird types to be found on this manmade, unpromising looking stretch of water.  Indeed, I think the lake is beginning to settle into the landscape now - reeds and bullrushes are growing along the banks and the birds look comfortable and settled.  The gulls in particular are on to a good thing.  They feed at the tip across the road and then fly over to the lake to do all the other stuff gulls do.  I managed to get within 5 yards of a Lapwing - I've never been so close to one and they are beautiful.  There are plenty round here but in other parts of the country they are struggling as their habitat disappears.  I also saw a couple of Grebes doing their courtship dance - weaving and bobbing their heads in unison - lovely.

A quick sit down on a convenient bench to take in the scene and have a drink and then I was off to complete the circuit and head off along the Conkers Circuit towards Conkers and Waterside.  A walk by Ashby Canal and then a swift toddle along the main road back to Moira.  Of course I had a cup of tea on arriving home.

a truck driving into the pit

the barren landscape

the Lapwing

Albert Village Lake