An egg-celent day

Sat 26 Sep ‘26. DH, RW, PC, DL, JB, CH, JS, Scrumpy, Albus & Ozzy

Initial plans for today was to go into the woods at Gare Hill followed by breakfast at the Old Red Lion as I would have my eldest daughters dog Ozzy with me, but with Ann the head chef being on holiday in Holland, we decided to leave it for another day. So at the last minute, I decided it was about time we revisited nearby Long Knoll, another five miler and of course a very steep climb up to the trig point.

We met in the old bus stop lay-by at Norton Ferris at 0830 and once all sorted, we headed out on the track going westwards between Kilmington to our left and Long Knoll clearly visible to our right. As soon as we were far enough away from the road, all the dogs were let off and although three year old, Cocker Spaniel Ozzy has not been on any of our walks before, he was no trouble with our two regulars and in fact just headed off to do his own thing. He is a typical crazy Cocker and loves to run in and out of the hedges and into open fields, totally disappearing from time to time.

We made good time along the track, mainly walking in pairs with much discussion about the delights of last weeks walk. Reaching Long Knoll Barns we saw the business sign for Bruce Monro, best known for immersive large-scale light-based installations. Soon after we turned right we could see the steep climb looming large in front of us. Ozzy, unaware of the climb in front of him, was still darting around like mad and managed to give chase to a muntjac which darted out of some long grass. Thankfully he gave up before getting too far away. Once we had crossed through a couple of tight gaps in the hedges and over a half down fence, we started the steady climb from a height of around 230 metres asl. The majority decided to take the direct route up alongside a small fence whilst others took a zigzag route, although bot options needed at least one rest stop on the way to the summit. Regrouping around the trig pillar at a height of 288 metres, we slowly got our breath back as we took in the 360 degree views.

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Long Knoll is an 85 acres SSSI noted for its rich chalk-loving flora, including orchids, glaucous sedge, and autumn gentian. Standing high above the surrounding countryside it is actually classified as a Marilyn, as it has a topographic prominence greater than 150m. The name was coined as a punning contrast to the Munro classification of Scottish mountains above 3,000 ft (914.4 m). As of July 2023, there were 2,010 recorded Marilyns in the British Isles although only 174 are in England.

We took the opportunity to take this weeks group photo and Deryck decided that Albus needed his own photo for the family scrapbook on top of the trig pillar. After we had recovered our breath and the pulse rates were nearing normal, we set of eastwards along the ridgeline. Unfortunately there were a few cows on the hill so the dogs were put back onto leads, which Ozzy fails to understand why he is no longer free to chase around and hence pulls on his lead all the time. Thankfully to give my arm a rest, he was left of for a bit once we were past all the birds but put back on again as we descended the hill and approached the road. The B3092 is a very fast road at this point, but we made our way safely down the edge and turned up the track which runs along the base of Little Knoll.

JS had very kindly taken over being dragged along by Ozzy as we upped the pace a bit along a good wide farm track heading towards the White Sheet hills. As we approached Rodmead Farm, a very large black bull laid in an adjacent field, keeping a close eye on us. we certainly didn't fancy disturbing him and were grateful that our next path was in the field at the far side of his, with a good solid fence in between. At gaps in the hedges we could see Long Knoll from a better distance and I'm sure if it was in any other country it would have a legend of a sleeping giant or something similar, as it looks very similar to something laying down. We were now approaching the two hour mark and still had a good mile back to the cars, so again we stepped on the gas along a small farm road right back in Norton Ferris. arriving back two and a half hours since we left, after a good 5.4 miles.

I had booked a later table at the Hillbrush cafe and we arrived in good time to find out table ready for us. the menu has changed a bit since our last visit, and although our veggies were hoping for Shakshuka, a new option certainly aroused their curiosity. There was a bit of discussion about Bhurji Eggs and Rich finally asked the waitress for more information, which she kindly came back with swiftly. Effectively a simple scrambled egg dish from the Indian subcontinent. Whilst everyone else waited for their cooked breakfasts or simpler options, including a simple mushroom and scrambled eggs for myself and a breakfast roll for Deryck, there was time for the dogs to get a good drink from the row of five water bowls.

You could smell the curry as soon as the Bhurji eggs were delivered, and they did look good. Dereyk however keen to get stuck into his egg and bacon roll, took a great big bite and found out that the eggs was a good bright yellow and runny - as it covered his white t-shirt and dribbled down his chin! what would Maureen say? All in all a very tasty and successful breakfast and with the comment from our wordly travelled culinary correspondent that it was probably in his top 10 of best ever breakfasts, that's quite a compliment.