Saturday 10th February’24. DH, PC, DL, CH & Scrumpy
It was just the four of us from Wincanton today who made the 30 minute trip up to the outskirts of Frome, in search of a good show of snowdrops. We arrived at the former Frome golf course, now home to Frome football club just after 9.00 and once booted up set off with the sun shining bright in a westerly direction out of the car park along a muddy gravel track. We passed by a cluster of 20 foot and 40 foot containers which begged the question as to what may be inside so many locked boxes in the middle of the countryside. We kept to the edge of the fields to keep out of the muddy fields as much as possible and with a few twists and turns we were soon following signs for Whatley and dropping down towards the valley. We had a good look for the Hydraulic ram marked on the OS map without any success and passing through an old gate turned right along a small track which took us along an old wall and right down to the bridge over the river. There had been a lot of rain in the last 48 hours and the river was in full flow as we paused on top of the bridge to look at the water rushing downstream.
At the far side of the bridge a short steep path took us down to the waters edge where we glanced back at the bridge and marvelled at its height and weight it must be holding up considering the amount of stone in it. At some point an extra support has been added to the arch although it doesn’t appear to impede the flow of water at all. As we agreed to make our way upstream it was even dent we were in a valley bottom which doesn’t see much sun throughout the year as there was moss growing on many of the otherwise bare branches of many of the trees. The path was full of exposed roots and very slippery and great care had to be taken to stay upright whilst looking around at the patches of snowdrops poking through the undergrowth. The water has clearly eroded many parts of the bank in recent months and large trees had fallen across the river and footpath.
As we made our way further up one such moss covered tree was totally blocking our progress. There was no option but to work our way through the fallen branches and Dereyk offered to take the lead. Albus initially though about going under the fallen branches but at the last minute hopped up onto the largest bough where he very kindly posed for his photo to be taken, before following his boss to the other side. It was certainly a tight squeeze and a low limbo to get through the small gaps, but we all made it through safely as the pathway widened out a bit. There were many clumps of snowdrops all around, right on the river banks, in the boggy low ground and in the banks on both sides of the valley. This week is the start of the Snowdrop Festival week in nearby Shepton Mallet where they remember the work of James Allen, the first person to breed Snowdrops from the wild, who was born in the town. Allen is credited with breeding over 100 variants of snowdrops, although there are now thought to be over 1000 throughout the world. We of course couldn’t tell one from the other although certainly in the lower reaches they all appeared very similar. As we progressed upstream they did seem to get a bit bigger, although that might be that they were getting more sun in the less wooded areas. We continued to see many branches of trees with ferns growing from them and stopped to take quite a few photos, especially of the one overhanging the river. Using the ‘look up’ option on the iPhone I could see immediately that they were of the polypodies genus of ferns, a widespread variety which is especially common in the tropics. There were also some wonderfully bright red small fungi on some of the logs on the ground, which could possibly be a variety of Scarlett Elf Cup. It certainly felt like we were in a lost forest at some points today.
We continued up the valley and into a large open area complete with some cross-country horse jumps. we paused for a while to take more photos and as we were half way in time, not so in distance Dereyk brought out a few of the trusty lollies for us all. with sticks hanging out of mouths we exited the woods by a lovely mill cottage and made our way up a driveway towards Nunney. Shortly before the village we took a left turn past the former dairy along a road which soon turned into a track. As it wounds its way around a small hilltop and whilst we were dodging a few puddles across the path Dereyk suddenly paused and let out a short question. "Anyone seen my stick"? We all paused in some shock before realising that Dereyk in his haste to take photos of Albus with another dog down by the horse jumps, must have, with lollies in his other hand, planted his stick into the ground. of course that was 10 minutes previously and a far way to turn around for, so rather reluctantly he decided that we should press on and he would return to look for it at a later point.
As we levelled out and looked ahead we could see a large area at the end of the path which was totally flooded, so conveniently we popped out through a gateway into the adjoining field to avoid the water. The fields were still extremely wet from recent rains and in the numerous bare patches of ground there were the remains of worms, large and small, who had most likely died due to the lack of oxygen in the sodden ground. Albus was getting his second wind as we made our way through the fields as he constanly get running ahead after two welly clad ladies going the same direction as us. Not that we we walking quickly, but we did manage to catch them up at one gateway and it transpires that they had just stared at Nunney were doing a recce for a future walk for Castle Cary ramblers, which would take them through Vallis Vale, Great Elm and then eventually back up the Nunney brook. Thinking this might be an opportunity for someone to find Dereyks' stick, he passed on his phone number to the two ladies. We didnt ask if they knew Trevor for fear of any backlash they might have had over council issues.
Taking a long diagonal through a muddy field we were soon back on the track we had departed on some 2 hours earlier Using the long grass to clean off our boots as we approached the finish we were soon back at the car and after changing footwear headed into the cafe. Todays walk was just short of 4 miles although with it being so slippery underfoot it certainly felt like more. It was good to see that the cafe was quite busy especially as there were no games being played, but we soon placed our orders and sat back to think through options for getting Dereyk and his stick reunited. Once our drinks and breakfasts were served (and what good value they were this week), we consumed them quite quickly and having paid headed back to the car, as we had decided that the sooner Dereyk retraced his steps to the open area, the better the chance was that his trusty stick would be found. So a quick drive into Nunney and I parked up outside a large house, admittedly by a no parking sign so that I could drop Dereyk & Chris off to pop back down the track. No sooner did they have their boots on and ready to head off than the lady of the house came out of the gate clearly ready to have an argument about her parking space, having seen us on her CCTV which was pointing directly at us. Thankfully a bit of smooth talking allowed us to stay there for a few minutes. No sooner had Pete and myself contemplated taking a quick doze, who should return back up the track, joyfully waving his stick around, but Dereyk. Thankfully, as walking folks are generally pretty kind and considerate, someone had seen it and placed it by a gateway ready to be found. We were all delighted that it had been re-united with its sentimental owner so quickly and it certainly made the journey hope far more joyous than it might have been otherwise.
With thanks to Chris for the suggested blog title this week.
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