11th January ‘25. DH, PC, PCL, DL, JB, CH, JS
Following on from a cold and snowy week I deceived that a trip up to the north of our operating area would give us the best chance to walk through some of the white stuff this week, so opted to complete the Tunnel too far walk which we had to cut short last March. There was a full house of current walkers from Wincanton this week but only one from our northern group, and with the preferred cafe stopping serving breakfasts by 11.00, it was an earlier start than usual for us all. The sun had just risen for another day after a chilly night (-18C in Scotland) and was illuminating the sky in some great shades of red and shades, so I was hopeful for some good visibility today. As we dropped down past the dormant blue house in Cary and into Ansford it looked like there was still a good white covering on the Mendip hilltops ahead of us.
Our RV (rendezvous) was at the bottom of Bowlish at 0830 and once all three cars were parked up (avoiding the bus stop), we were booted up and ready for the off by 0835. Phil and John S were introduced as we headed over the main Wells Road and started the steady climb out of Bowlish, a perfect way to get the blood pumping and some heat into our bodies. It actually didn’t feel anywhere near as cold as I had expected it to be, but we all had plenty of layers on and were soon raising the body temperature as we made the steady climb up the valley side. The north facing roof tops still had a few inches of snow on them and the higher we climbed the hedgerows and eventually the centre of the road were also turning white, or an icy shade of grey in places.
By the time we reached the top of the climb, we were a good 50 metres above the valley and the view to the south west, towards Croscombe and Wells was opening up nicely and the sun was breaking through the thin bits of cloud in an otherwise bright blue sky.
We made our way through Ham Western Farm and paused to take an early groupie, with the tip of Glastonbury Tor visible in the far distance. Directly ahead of us the Wells transmitter mast on Pen Hill was surrounded by snow covered fields and as we slowly dropped down towards Ham Woods and into a north facing field, we started walking through more patches of crisp ice covered snow.
As we entered the top of the wooded valley the temperature dropped a couple of degrees as the sun was obscured by the trees and with as the ground had not been in the sunlight at all since the snow had fallen, the track down to the valley bottom was covered side to side. Since we climbed out of the valley along this path last year it has been considerable widened and cleared of trees and a good few new trees have been planted in their place.
We made it down to the valley bottom and turned right heading gently uphill. Some areas of this hillside had also been cleared of trees recently but there were also a good number which appeared to have been blown down in the recent storms and were still waiting like fallen matchsticks to be untangled.
There was no sunlight reaching into the valley so thankfully the track was still pretty frozen and easy walking. Clearly, looking at all the footprints, a lot of people had been through since the snowfall although we were still to come across any other walkers at this point. As the main track bent around to the right we took a smaller pathway on the left, through the shelter or classroom of a small forest school and passing under fallen trees and treading careful by the side of a small stream, made our way towards the towering viaduct which was slowly becoming visible through the trees.
AST time we dropped down beneath the arches we exited the area through the old quarry workings, but today, for the sake of those new to the area, we made the steep and slippery climb up By the left bank to the top, and the old track bed. A new seat has been erected just short of the top, or which I rested briefly to explain to John S the two different ages of the viaduct, seen clearly underneath by the different stone and brick construction.
On top, the full width of the track was covered in snow and in the distance more areas of surrounding fields were equally white. Although the sun was now a bit higher and generating a small amount of warmth and the cloud was slowly increasing, we were all certainly glowing internally after the climb. We had better time than I expected to this point so we spent a few minutes looking over the sides before heading off down the line towards Shepton. There was some discussion about the route of the old S&D line and as we reached the Windsor Tunnel the use of the adjacent tunnel, but rather than repeat what I have written previously there is more information on the blog from Summer ‘23 when Richard, Adrian and myself came this way here.
We may our way through the tunnel and at the far end stopped for the distribution of Dereyks lollies and whilst most of us stood quietly trying to get past the pesky child friendly wrapper, we looked aroundas at the surrounding hills and rocks and a couple of trees which had recently fallen down towards the tunnel enterance. John S in his best ‘20 miles south of Glasgow’ accent started to tell of the peril that might overcome us all were the rocks and trees to collapse on us.
As we have been linked to many old men comedy groups including both Last of the Summer Wine and Dads Army in the past - I’d like to introduce to the group - Fraser! We’re doomed!
Rather than walk back down the remaining stretch of trackbed we took a path into a former maize field and followed the hedge line around two sides of the field before exiting onto a minor road, only to take another path almost immediately which lead us between stock fencing towards Shepton. At the edge of the town cemetry we descended a very steep grassy hill to get down to a small path along which we have walked many times in the past. John B stopped to say hello to the three alpacas, like he does, and then it was just a short walk past Old Bowlish House and back to the cars. We had made good time throughout and as such completed the three and a half miles in just one hour thirty five minutes, at an average speed of over 2.1 mph.
Breakfast today was in the Hive on Sheptin High Street so we all parked in the Tesco car park and walked down to it. Dereyk immediately popped next door to the bakery to pick up a couple of loafs and some custard slices, whilst the rest of us went in. We were around fifteen minutes early and two ladies were sat at our reserved table and although we could easily have sat elsewhere the waitress decided to move them across to a smaller table to allow us in. I felt guilty but they didn’t seem too concerned thankfully. There was a good range of breakfast today, The three on the bench seats went with the standard English whilst three on the chairs went for veggie, pancakes and eggs royals, whilst JS went easy with just a cinnamon bun to go with his coffee. All was served pretty sharply although we soon ran out of room on the tables. Not only is the Hive a cafe but it’s also a haberdashery store and they have previously been in the news for displaying risqué knitted dolls in the window. As it’s all done for the benefit of the Air Ambulance charity, this year they have brought them back out in a snowy scene, appropriately named ‘On the piste’. We might have avoided the severe cold today but these would certainly have been woolly Brass Monkies for sure!
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