Saturday 23rd March '24 DH, RW, TO, PCL, PC, AC, DL, Ralph, Scumpy, Albus & Maisie
It was originally hoped that this weekend we would be heading to the coast with our good ladies for our Easter walk, but unfortunately it would have been with quite a few missing, so has been postponed until the end of April. As such I organised this weeks walk for a smaller group and with spaces available invited my favourite grandson along for his first walk with the ‘walking dead’. He was super excited and had been counting down his sleeps since first being told. Initially the breakfast table was booked for six but with two late additions there were eight of us who met at the Ranch car park at 9.00 ready for a potentially wet walk, having driven down in wet conditions.
Having popped in to the cafe to up the numbers whilst we waited for the newly silenced Bruton car to arrive, we set off on a well used path by the side of the reclamation yard wall. This has previously been used for the leg back into Martock, and is a good level walk along the edges of fields, but today once we had reached the track running parallel to the main road by Yandles, we turned right instead of the usual left. The map shows the track as being quite significant but in reality it turned into a muddy path no more than one person wide at times. At every junction, Ralph who was up with the lead bunch shouted back to me “which way grandad”? And my stock answer for at least the next half mile would be ‘straight ahead Ralph’.
Eventually the path turned back into a wider track and emerged out into an old residential backroad lined with traditional Ham stone buildings of various sizes. One of the properties on the right, Bower Hinton Farm, had a blue plaque on the wall, explains some of its history and firmer use, which Ralph was happy to pose alongside. Pete subsequently discovered a bit more about the early aviator Graham Gilmour who kept his aircraft at the farm. We continued the gentle climb to this weeks high point on Hallett’s Hill before a step descent led us past a small lake as we headed towards the traffic thundering past on the A303. A white item on the water attracted my attention , although Ralph was not convinced when I said there it was a swan. Maybe it’s time I went back to Specsavers for as we got closer it turned out to be a plastic tub acting as a homemade buoy.
We stopped in the bottom near a small bench and a post with a couple of waymarkers on it for this weeks issue of lollies. It was only the week before that I had been talking to John about some of the navigational mistakes (learning opportunities) that the kids on the DofE expeditions often make, one of which was to stop on a track junction, as opposed to setting off down the new path for 20-30 metres before testing to ensure there was no confusion in which direction to head when getting going again. When it came for us to set off again, I had missed how acute we should have turned for our new path and although unconvinced throughout, took a route which lead us to the River Parrett with no crossing point. We retraced our steps and eventually heading along the path through low hanging trees which would take us parallel ish to the river. Maybe it’s time I redid my Bronze award!
The track was generally good considering we had had another wet week but at one point the track became a wide muddy expanse with no obvious route through it. Richard nimbly got to the other side and picked up a large branch which he threw into the mud to make a makeshift crossing, just missing Trevor as it landed with a great thud. Whilst it was not exactly a bridge, it did provide a solid base to shimmy across. There was much help being offered and taken and certainly without it both Adrian and Ralph would have emerged the other side a lot dirtier. Albus clearly didn’t understand what the fuss was all about as he stood knee deep it the middle of it all watching with amusement at the unfolding antics. A couple of high stiles caused even more drama before we made it into a nice grassy field and an opportunity to clean off our boots. A small bridge then lead us across the river as we headed back round towards the Parrett works with the large chimney occasionally visible through the trees.
We passed a small man made lake on our left and with dogs back on leads entered a field with a couple of loose horses in it. The skies were darkening ahead of us and it looked inevitable that we were going to get very wet pretty soon. The going through the holes made by the horses hoofs was a bit tricky and the small path alongside a barbed wire fence by their barn and a deep filled ditch was equally challenging. A couple of industrial type gate crossing lead us out onto the road just as the rain started.
Thankfully with brighter skies behind the storm approaching quickly it didn’t rain for too long as we made our way along the edge of the road. Ralph was certainly happy splashing along in the roadside puddles as we made good time back into the hamlet which I didn’t realise before is actually called Parrett Works. With time keeping on military precision we arrived back at the cafe at exactly 11.00, only to be told that our table was not ready for us yet as they were running a bit behind this morning. We took the opportunity to go back to the cars and change out of our boots, and get Ralph out of his all-in-one and wellies. He was really pleased with himself that he had completed the ‘men’s walk’
After about 10 minutes we made our way back in and managed to squeeze the eight of us onto a table designed for six and placed our orders. Drinks were quickly delivered but similar to the preceding week, the wait for breakfast was far longer than it should have been really. When it did eventually arrive, by which time we have pinched another table to give ourselves a bit more room, the quality was pretty good.Ralph certainly enjoyed his scrambled egg on toast. He certainly enjoyed chatting with everyone and I’m sure will be pestering me to come on another one soon. Once we had finished and paid up we headed for home and not surprisingly there was s mall boy fast asleep in the back on the car by the time we got to the A303. Subsequent photos from the other car on the return journey showed that Scrumpy was also a bit tired and needed a comfy body to cuddle up to.
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