The rain stopped at about midnight and I was thankfully able to get some sleep after that. In the morning it was cold and my sleeping bag was starting to get worn now making it less of a protective layer. It was sunny but everything was still soaked from the day before so I opted for shorts over wet trousers and set off before 9. Out of the reserve I was immediately back on road walking through Saltfleet. Out the other side I got onto path though behind the dunes towards Mablethorpe. There was one stage where the path disappeared and I had to go through long grass and spiky bushes but otherwise it was ok. The last stage to Mablethorpe was on the beach where I saw the apparently famous sand train as well as quite a few people out enjoying the sunshine.
When I got there I came up to the promenade along to Sutton on Sea and continued on out. I was going to come onto the roads at some point but a woman asked how far Sutton was and said she had come along the beach from Anderby Creek. There was a cycle way to start but it became more and more sand covered until it disappeared and I just walked the beach. Down a fair way I came across a heavy duty construction vehicle carrying massive pipes along the beach in the direction I was going. At Chapel St Leonards I returned to promenade again where the flies that had been mildly annoying all day became almost unbearable. The seaweed covered promenades were packed with them and they were getting in my hair, eyes and nose. Getting nearer to Skegness beach pubs started popping up, still doing a fairly good trade, and there were a lot of holiday villages as well. I got to Skegness at 5 and found the B&B I had booked which was a carbon copy of many of the seaside budget hotels I had been in this year.
The entertainment next door of a dodgy Elvis impersonator wasn’t too loud once the window was shut and the TV volume was turned well up. Unfortunately I made the mistake of watching the Matrix until 1am like the idiot I am. I was obviously tired in the morning as I packed up and went down for breakfast. The sun of the previous day was long gone and it was back to the grim days of before although not too rainy to start with. I walked out through Skegness onto the road along to Gibraltar Point 3 miles down the coast. There was path for the last part when I got to the nature reserve and I headed towards the bridge marked on the map. Unfortunately when I got to it there were 2 fences I would have had to climb over before getting onto it then once on there was yet another, very spiky, fence. It looked like I would have to walk all the way back to Skegness and take the inland route south and that is exactly what I ended up doing. I probably came inland about half a mile short of where I had started so at least I wasn’t completely starting again from scratch. I came in through a caravan park to the A52 as the rain and wind picked up quite a bit adding to my less than impressed mood. I got abuse from a few cars as well because there was no footpath in between towns.
At Wrangle, I took smaller roads gradually leading closer to the coast and it was absolutely lashing it down with rain now. The landscape was absolutely flat, full of cabbages and just bleak. The tractors zooming around were the only other people about with their trailers and crop pickers. The roads were covered in water but thankfully any cars that did pass were nice enough not to spray me, although I was absolutely soaked anyway. I got to Freiston Shore at 5 and ordered a taxi to pick me up from there whilst waiting in the cold and rain. When the taxi arrived I had to strip off my waterproof layers before I was allowed in so I didn’t get the seat soaked as well, which was fair enough. He was a nice bloke and knocked off a couple of quid from the fare as he dropped me off at the Y not guest house in Boston. My parents were coming up the following day so I had booked the guest house in advance so I was somewhere they could find me in the morning. The room was massive and there was a shared kitchen so I was able to cook my own dinner rather than shell out for a take away.
As I ate my breakfast in the morning the owner was quite chatty, she had recently had to have surgery on her shoulder because of slipping on ice last winter pushing a taxi. Mum and dad arrived and the weather was better again thankfully. We drove down to Freiston shore and set off along the path on the sea wall once more. That path took us to an open prison and into it which was an odd experience. We were on the levee where there was a flock of sheep fenced in by a flimsy electric fence, most of which skirted round us and ran away but 2 kept running ahead until they hit the wooden fence in front. Being sheep and therefore stupid they ran at the electric fence, got shocked a few times but then broke through which annoyed one of the inmates a little bit. Thankfully the guy just gave some gob and didn’t do anything else, apparently it was our fault they had put up an ineffective fence. After that it was levee walking all the way to the river and then more to go up the river into Boston. We got onto roads through the town over 2 bridges before getting back onto the mind numbing paths on levees.
Once out of the built up bit we stopped for lunch on the other side of the river. Soon after lunch there was a huge landfill to walk in front of where there was a herd of horses which didn’t like Allie (our dog) but were quite friendly to me. There was constant levee walking with flat and boring landscape around us as we walked the front and up a second river to Fosdyke Bridge. My parents stopped there to get a taxi back to the car whilst I walked on with Allie. I stopped a little way along to tie my laces and an Alsatian came out of nowhere running at us and barking before turning around and running back to the bridge. It was still dull and I didn’t feel like I was making very good progress but then it’s hard to tell when the view barely changes. As the sun went down I actually started running for a bit before thinking better of it seeing as I wasn’t completely sure how far the point where the road met the coast would be. The advantage of the approaching dusk is that a few barn owls started appearing flying around the fields and marshes. I met up with the car before it got too dark and we drove to the pub my mum and dad had booked for the night, a pub which for one night only wasn’t serving food. There was a curry house down the road though that turned out to be really good, if a bit slow.
Nomad's Land 
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