22nd January RW,TO,PC,PC,BS,DH plus Scrumpy,Bill & Sully
As our most recent experiences had been slogging through mud, we aimed for dry ground up on the ridge of Kingsettle Hill where stands King Alfred’s Tower. We have walked here before and found the tracks mainly firm and dry. In the absence of Red Leader I had planned a walk into Kingswood Warren and at the last minute Dave contacted me and arranged to take a short walk to join us from the opposite direction by entering the woods from Druly Hill. The woods here are the northern extension of the Stourhead Estate, mainly on a hillside with conifers on the slopes and lower level and veteran beech trees above.
We assembled our team in the car park at Alfred’s Tower and admired an excited pack of five cocker spaniels as they disembarked from a car with their owners….frenetically wagging their tails and desperate to set off into the woods and retrieve some game birds. Beautiful dogs. The car park was otherwise relatively quiet except for the chap setting up his caravan to sell coffees , refreshments and even ice cream to walkers.
We set off across the level area of cleared scrub and then curved gently downwards round the hillside with the Tower to our left. There is quite a lot of new planting going on hereabouts and the view down towards the Brue valley is fairly open. We were trying to spot the new-build Beeney residence which is likely to be a blot on the landscape but no one could definitively identify it. We soon reached a turning point close to the road and veered sharply to the right and continued our gentle descent with open field to our right and below.
The weather was cold and very still without much hope of sunshine but these conditions were very calming and our gentle chat no doubt carried through the trees mingling with some birdsong and the occasional scrawk of a pheasant. A discussion point arose as to the most populous bird in the uk, with speculation ranging from the wren to the invasive parakeet until we settled on the pheasant as released in millions each year for sporting purposes and seen in any woods or farmland you ever walk in.
We forked left onto the lower arc of the trail as arranged with Dave and were just beginning to speculate if he would appear shortly when a single shot rang out. Had Dave been picked off by a crackshot game keeper? There followed a barrage of shooting from way above us in the woodland so we began to reconsider whether pheasants were likely to be quite so populous by the end of the morning.
The track began to sweep gently upwards again and in the distance a familiar figure came into view –the unmistakable Sully! Scrumpy finally recognised him and raced off to be reunited with her old partner in exploration. Dave had family backup with him and it was great to see all three of his grandchildren…one of whom showed a combination of sharp memory with character assessment by identifying Trevor as ‘Mister Grumpy’ from one of our previous walks. Charlotte, Paul and family cheerily walked on and we took Dave with us as we headed back to the broken monument marking the source of the Brue (see previous blog).
We now took a right turn which meant we would regain lost height and get back to the cars. Dave turned back to his own car and a swift journey to the Old Red Lion where we were going to rendezvous for breakfast. The shooting had stopped at last and we soon heard the approaching SUVs with their cargo of bird-murderers and victims. After they had passed, we came upon evidence of their pheasant rearing pens and so forth…rather an eerie resemblance to the massive birdcage containing pterodactyls in Jurassic Park three…
We turned off the main track with a steepish ascent which raised heart rates a tad but chopped a good length off the overall walk and we stepped out of the woodland into an open stretch of farmland with the road ahead and our car park to the right. The ground was firm enough and we stepped lively for there was a time target of 11ish for breakfast. Back at the car park we found a whole host of walking families had turned up and the guy in the van was doing a brisk trade in Caramel Lattes etc to people in yellow wellies and over educated voices.
The principal reason for selecting this location now came into focus – breakfast at one of our top two venues: the Old Red Lion. We packed up quickly and dashed to the pub where we were not disappointed by the full English with unlimited tea and toast with marmalade for those who like it (!)Dave was already there sitting by the log-burner. All agreed this is now a firm favourite for the post-match eating and so another convivial morning passed and the world put to rights by the people who really should be in charge.
