8th Feb ‘25. DH, PCL, AC, DL, CH, JB, JS, Ralph & Albus
We’re into February already but there’s no sign of the cold, damp, grey days ending for the time being, so as we met on top of Ham Hill this morning, there was zero chance of seeing anything from the pub car park. All three of the cars had arrived around the same time, (even after Adrian’s little excursion around the lanes of Sparkford), and once we were all good to go we set off across the front of the pub. It was good to have my grandson Ralph join us again, and he was quick to reacquaint himself with his pal from last time, JB. However having walked less than 50 steps there was a sudden realisation that both Adrian and Dereyk had left their sticks in the cars. Thankfully they had realised soon enough and once reunited we set off again and headed out eastwards along a gravel track. The news that Adrian, after being on the market for the last twelve months has at long last managed to find a buyer for their house, and put in an offer on a new property on the far side of the Mendips in Congresbury, slowly spread around the group. Mixed with the good news for Adrian and Ruth there was a real feeling of disappointment that we won’t be seeing as much of him in future. Although I’m sure we’ll do our best to meet up mid way as often as possible.
As we stepped out onto the open fields of Strounds West, the wind was blowing into our faces and it really was quite chilly. We made our way around the southern edge of Strouds East and into The Warren and past a large number of fresh large mole hills. There were a good few others people and dogs out for an early morning walk as we exited through a gate, over the road and into Butchers Field. We walked parallel to the road down to the bottom left corner where we paused to look out over the beautiful valley of Witcombe. We first came this way back in February 2023, so rather than repeat all about the medieval village, the re-wilding of the stream and the other things we came across today, here’s the link to the 2023 blog entitled Happy Valley - Somerset Style
Ralph immediately saw his chance to be the first down the steep slope towards the track at the bottom of the valley, despite being told we wouldn’t be following him, but unlike last time I had planned to walk around the top above the strip lynchets, rather than drop straight into the valley, before descending alongside the wood on the far side. Ralph stopped his decent less than half way down and initially starting walking parallel to us all on the top, but feeling quite lonely he made his way back up again to rejoin us, where JB was waiting to take him under his wing. We paused quite a few times just to admire the view and watch a buzzard and then on reaching the wood line the decent alongside the fence was further slowed by slippery ground (I missed Adrian’s little slip) and fallen trees to negotiate.
It was nice to be out of the wind as we slowly dropped down the valley side. Below is the new ponds in the valley were clear to see although they didn’t appear to be holding too much water in them today. By the time we reached the bottom, having stopped once more to discuss the large grass covered mounds which covered the hillside (did we ever get a definitive answer as to what caused them?) , we were already past our half way mark in both time and distance.
We made our way along the bottom road, past the Tinkers Bubble site before stopping at the road junction with the stream cascading over the rocks as it drops out of the woods. There was a brief discussion about the onward water flow from this area, and I can confirm that these waters flow down to join the River Parrett as it passes by Norton Sub Hamdon before flowing north to the Bristol Channel.
The waterfall was the obvious backdrop for this weeks groupie and with some encouragement Ralph paddled through the outflow to have his own photo taken standing on the rocks. We pushed on down the lane further and paused again to view the waterwheel in the old mill of Little Norton. This was also an ideal opportunity for Dereyk to enlist the help of Ralph in this weeks distribution of lollies, and JB took the chance to ‘reward’ him with a few extra ones in his pocket without Dereyk seeing.
As with all things that go downhill, we now had to contemplate regaining the 100 metres back up to Ham Hill in time for breakfast. We set off at a steady pace, with lollies in mouths up the appropriately named Ham Hill Road. Last time we branched off into the woods and took a steep path straight up, but this time I opted to stay on the road which initially was a pretty gentle climb. As the road eventually became quite a bit steeper it also became very narrow, which was not the best time for a car to try and get past us going up the hill also. We eventually found a spot just about wide enough for us to breath in and let it through. With Adrian and the two Johns storming ahead, Ralph was slowing down as his legs were aching, but the challenge of a race to the top, which thankfully Chris signed up to rather than Grandad, and it soon had him moving and the pair of them put some distance between themselves and us slower ones bringing up the rear.
Once on top, and with no chance of any view across the west we crossed back into the park and made our way around to the Prince of Wales pub, in perfect time for our 1045 booking. We had completed 2.9 miles in just over 90 minutes and once inside, coats were removed and we all sat down to contemplate our breakfast choices, apart from Adrian who had already sorted out his own coffee at the bar. The cheerful young waitress soon took our orders, returned with our drinks and it wasn’t too long to wait for our platefuls to be delivered. It was full English, including triangular black pudding for most with a veggie option for JB and a bacon & sausage roll for Ralph. I must personally thank JB for looking after Ralph throughout the walk and especially administering the tomato ketchup and cutting up the roll at the table, A quick mention also of Albus who had a quiet lonesome walk today with almost all of it off of his lead. All in all another good morning despite the lack of views, leaving plenty of time to get back home and sorted before the French game at Twickenham (I’m not calling it by the sponsors name). Ralph was shattered and fell asleep within 5 minutes and didn’t wake for at least 10 minutes after getting home. Thank you all for making him welcome again.