Saturday 28th October ‘23. DH, RW, TO, PCL, JB, CH & Scrumpy
After a very wet week I was trying to be kind to todays walkers by selecting a route which would keep us mainly on forest tracks and made up pathways, and avoiding lots of wet muddy ground. The chosen location also had to be away from flooded rivers and low ground and so after a bit of thought I decided that a walk around the lake and through the woods at Shearwater should provide us with a non claggy route. With a warning issued not to park on the roadside due to 24/7 clearway restrictions, we arrived at the car park opposite the entrance and we’re ready to set off just after 9.00. The weather was good with some early morning mist but already we could see the sunlight shining on the water as we headed off to cross the dam end of the lake. But before we even turned onto the roadway leading over the dam wall it was obvious that there were large ground works taking place with a string of Harris fences lining both sides of the road and big red Road Closed and Footpath Closed signs at the gate. Dam it! This was a major blow to todays route as the path across the dam would enable us to get to the woods on the far side quickly and easily.
Thankfully there was sufficient mobile signal to load up the OS map on the phone and quickly come up with an alternative route. This involved a short walk along the road towards Crockerton before turning left down a steep hill, over the river and outlet from the dam before climbing back up the other side. A local gentleman on hearing us coming down the hill, stood to one side with his Scottish terrier and let out some witty comment, the likes of which we have heard many a time, along the lines of ‘here comes Compo and Cleggy and the rest of the Last of the Summer Wine bunch’. With much muttering and groaning we followed the road right and along for 200 metres or so before heading left up a tight bridleway and up into the woods. There was more groaning as a low fallen tree was obstructing the path and we had to bend low to get under it safely. As the path climbed, the early morning sun shone down on our backs and the view across the fields and into the trees changing into their autumnal colours was pretty good. A kids rope swing presented an ideal opportunity for Trevor to do his best ‘swinging’ on but he opted to play safe this time. Having to quickly adapt the route as we went, we stopped for a breather at the top of the climb then turned left, through an area of boggy ground before our track opened up with mature mixed woodland on both sides. Rhododendron flowers we starting to appear on some of the bushes and small splashes of purple and yellow stood out amongst the green background . Surely it’s a bit early for them to be flowering but with the warm autumn and no frosts as yet, they were no doubt as confused about the seasons as we are these days.
The track continued to climb gently as it contoured around the hill with large ares of open ground exposed from the felling of trees in recent years allowing the warm autumnal sunshine to reach new trees as they begin their growth. We dropped down to a lower track and with vehicles visible through the trees knew that we had reached the road up from Crokerton. We turned left and before long noticed the wire fence that was separating us from the great expanse of the Longleat Centre Parcs ‘village’, taking up more space in the forest than the average town! Although the fence ran through the trees at times it came close to the track and with the coils of razor wire on the top felt more akin to being alongside a top secret or military establishment, not a place of fun and adventure.
We continued alongside the fence for around half a mile and for the latter stage was accompanied by a lady walking a male version of Scrumpy with a bright red ball in its mouth and wearing a blue collar, not a patch on Scrumpy’s red one with seasonal poppy bow tie accompaniment. At a large set of gates, a chained occasional entry or exit point of the village we turned left down the tarmac roadway which originally ran all the way through this section of wood from the lake right up to the main road outside the Longleat main entrance gates. Just a bit further down we joined the branch of the former road which exited the woods at Heavens Gate, a popular location for talking a walk through the rhododendrons in spring to a wonderful viewpoint looking down onto Longleat house and the safari park.
Whilst walking down the road I was explaining to Chris about all the time I spent in my 20s and 30s running through the woods with map in hand in pursuit of my hobby of ‘cunning running’ better known as orienteering, and how on such a map the density of trees and vegetation is represented by colours ranging from dark green for impenetrable areas through lighter shades of green as visibility and run-ability improved, to white for areas of trees with great visibility and little or no undergrowth to impede the way. For those who have not seen an ‘O’ map before, below is a portion of the one used for the British Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships 2012 of the area we walked to day. Although it is over 10 years old and young vegetation will have grown whilst other areas may have been felled and cleared it is still pretty accurate today. It is drawn at a scale of 1:15000 with just 5 metres between contours and uses just 5 colours to represent in great detail the ground and its features. The route between the checkpoints or controls is marked by straight lines and if you look closely you can see that the rider has highlighted the actual route taken in a light lilac colour.
It didn’t take us long to get back down to the lake and follow the road around the northern edge of it. I was talking to John about sailing at this point as we both used to do a bit of it, and he recalled an occasion when he accidentally ’lost’ a crew member over the side and into the algae bloom which unfortunately is a regular feature of this lake. Thankfully the crew member surfaced unharmed and it reminded me of the couple of occasions when Richard and myself have capsized my boat down at Sutton Bingham sailing club. With the sun shining on the water and a gentle but patchy breeze evident with slight ripples on the surface we paused for the weekly selfie, although with both Dereyk and Adrian busy elsewhere this week there were no lollies on offer. Getting back to the dam end of the lake we passed by a few sailing dinghies no doubt unused for a few weeks whilst the works continue and tried to find a short cut back to the cafe. Unfortunately the outflow from the lake was too wide to jump and so we exited the wood onto the road to the east side and retraced our steps back to the car park and cafe. We had managed to walk 3.7 miles in 100 minutes and thankfully not got too dirty and we were now certainly ready for some breakfast.
We opted for a large table in the corner of the cafe and after a bit of shuffling of chairs and squeezing 3 onto a bench designed for 2, we then had to go up to order our options. Small individual pots of tea were soon being delivered to the table and despite some good advice from Trevor, each pot was accompanied by its own small jug of milk. The table was quickly filling up but with a bit of rejigging there was enough space for the hot plates of breakfast when they arrived. All in all a good quantity of tasty food, even the hash browns and the beans received favourable comments. Whilst we were dining, the first of the days forecast rain started to fall although thankfully it was dry again by the time we had paid up and made our way back to the cars.
Not quite the route planned but a good walk through some lovely forest with a fine display of autumnal colours in the trees, and we didn’t get wet!
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