South West Holiday - Bristol

Wednesday 5th August
We had a bit of a tour of the South West this year.

The weather was awful when we left home but we had a good journey,and arrived on site at about 2. It was dreadfully muddy and we had to be towed onto the site. Not a good start! We are staying with the Avon and Bristol DA for the Balloon rally. It was not a brilliant site being on a slope and sandwiched between the railway and the Bristol flyover but was a good base for seeing the hot air balloons and visiting the Banksy exhibition which was showing in the city.
Thursday 6th August
We were up earlyish, and after breakfast set off for a walk to the park and ride into Bristol which was good value at £2.50 return for both of us. We got off near the city and after getting a bit lost we found our way to the city museum to see the Banksy exhibition. There was a 3hr queue but it was quite fascinating watching the people in the queue. It turned out to only be a 2 hr wait, but it started to rain so we were soaked by the time we got in. It was very good but some exhibits were quite moving whilst others were clever. His art was placed among the real art as though to mock it. We also saw some of his work on walls of buildings and suspect a tour round the city spotting art would be interesting.

After tea we went up to the Balloon fiesta. Where we took part in the Geocachers Flash Mob event. At 8 pm a cacher blew a whistle and all the cachers converged on the spot. The idea was to blow up a balloon, sign the log, take some photos and then disperse within 15 minutes. There must have been about 200 cachers there and it was a very surreal experience.
We then walked to the arena and watched the night glow. It was very good, about 30 hot air balloons in the centre and burners round the outside, switching on and off to music followed by a firework display. We fought our way through the crowds and got home at about 11.
Friday 7th August
At 7am there was a mass balloon launch with about 100 balloons taking off. After watching the balloons we set off on a walk. We followed a footpath along lanes and through woodland. It was very overgrown in places and we were followed by a herd of cows in one field although they lost interest. We had lunch at the Welford arms, very good value, and then continued our walk. This is where it went wrong, it was not well signposted and there was a locked gate beside the sign.
We climbed over and found the next stile, which we crossed into a field of cows. They followed us across the field and we only just got across the stile. We walked across the next field where the cows also followed us. We got across the busy A38 with difficulty and had trouble finding the path, which had been diverted. We found a path, crossed the field where a herd of young cows chased us. And at the next field larger cows surrounded us snorting. I was terrified by the time we got through the gate. We followed the diversion but still found we were off course. We climbed a gate and walked back to the road and walked further down the road to the lane. This turned into the lane our campsite was on. We got back feeling very stressed and found the gas had run out!
Sunday 9th August
We woke to another mass launch, this time with the wind in a different direction so the balloons were coming much closer, 1 right over the field. The RAF balloon did not get enough height and came down next to the railway. We managed to move the car out of the field which had dried up quite a bit and drove to Weston super mare for the UK 2nd geocaching mega-event held at the Winter Gardens. We met the Web Rat and the Rascal Gaskels, geocachers from our local area and then went to find some lunch - fish and chips eaten on the prom, and then found some caches which had been placed specially for the event. We found about 8 during a very hot walk around the town and then went back for the closing ceremony.We got home in time to see the last mass balloon launch.

Ross-on-Wye, 21st to 28th July

A few highlights from our trip to Ross on Wye.

Tuesday 21st July
We had a leisurely start and left home at about 12. We got to Carthage farm, Foy, Ross on Wye at about 2 having driven for about 3 miles down a single track road -very scary when towing the caravan! We are on the top of the bank overlooking the river, we were advised not to go too close to the river as they were unsure how high it would rise after the recent rain.

Thursday 23rd July
We were up reasonably early (mainly because we had a wagtail tap-dancing on the roof and peering through the skylight) and decided on one of the walks in the Walk this Wye booklet.

We drove to Goodrich where we parked in the castle car park and found the clues for a cache to be found on the walk. We walked down to the village and turned towards the school and followed the footpath behind the school and through a field to St Giles church. We passed through the churchyard and along a grassy path to a road and then into a Herefordshire Nature Reserve which was a small orchard with cider apple and perry pear trees. We realised our path did not go through the orchard so retraced our steps to the road and turned right passing the home of Joshua Cristall a watercolour artist.

We walked along the lane and into a field of alpaca, one of which was particularly interested in us. They had recently been shorn and only sported nice little curly tops on their heads. We crossed two fields and then across a busy road, and then up a steep track and a path into Rocklands wood. This was a lovely ancient woodland with lots of beech mast and hazel nuts on the floor. We looked for deer but did not see any.

We emerged into a field beside the river Wye. We spoke to some other walkers, who had seen deer and then we saw a bird of prey come out of the woods which was possibly a goshawk.

We passed under Yat Rock, and saw a heron fly over, and then walked through a field of Hereford cows. At the end of a field I saw 2 deer disappearing down a track. We realised we had missed our path so walked back through the cows to the path. We walked up the long steep path through the woodland onto the top of the hill, seeing several deer, one with a fawn as we went. We walked along to Coppett hill and found "Welli's wander cache", and then on a bit further with lovely views of the Brecon beacons and Goodrich castle. We arrived at the Folly, a ruin of a rabbit warriner, where we sat for a while and then found our 2nd cache, Coppets folly. We passed a trig point and then zig zagged our way off the hill and back to the castle where we had coffee and cake! 11km

Friday 24th July
We were up early, breakfasted and out by 9 so that we could drive to the Severn Bore Inn as a bore was due today. We got there by 9.40 and walked to the river where several people were already waiting. It started to rain and thunder but we were wearing waterproofs so were ok. The bore was due at 10.21 but did not arrive till 10.45. There were about 40 people waiting to see it and 3 surfers. The bore was not as impressive as when we saw it in 2006 as this was a 2* and last time was a 3. But it was still worth seeing. The water level rose by about a metre.

We left after the wave and drove to the Forest of Dean where we parked in the visitor centre. After a light lunch in the café we headed off to follow the Sculpture trail. The trail consists of 17 sculptures of which I can't say I was impressed by any. Especially not the pile of coal dust with wood stuck in it. The Place and Cathedral of the Forest were quite good though. We collected answers to clues on the way round so that we could find 2 geocaches. Unfortunately I did the sums wrong, twice, so we were looking in the wrong place for a while. We found them in the end though. We were lucky to spot a small lizard scampering across the path on the way round.

Sunday 26th July
Heavy rain was forecast for today but it was dry all morning. We went out at 12 and took a very narrow road to Sellack, where we went into the Lough Pool Inn. It was a lovely black and white pub with 2AA stars where we had a sunday roast. It was a bit light on vegetables, but the beef was local hereford and was lovely, beautiful light yorkshire puddings and nice roast potatoes. We had a nice desert too, I had goosberry and white chocolate mousse with tuille biscuit, John had lavender crème brulle with short bread. After coffee we continued our drive and went through Hoarwithy, where we stopped to look at St Catherines church which had been Italianised in 1870. It was beautiful. Lots of columns, mosaic floors, the apse columns were made of cornish and French marble on green marble, and the altar was made of lapiz lazuli and tiger eye.
We then drove on to Dinedor to the hill fort. We drove along a very narrow lane, John was cursing me, the gps pointed up an even narrower hill but we were worried that we might not be able to turn round so I walked up on my own to check. It was very steep and I was puffed by the time I got to the top. There was a small car park at the top so I walked back down to tell John. We parked at the top and found the cache we wanted wasn't the closest! We walked onto the hill fort and solved the clues for Dinedor camp cache and then hunted for High above Hereford. We couldn't find it so walked down to the car to get my stick, for rummaging. We came back, hunted again and was about to give up when I spotted it. It had now started pouring down. We went back to the car and sat for a while, then put on waterproof trousers and headed off through the woods to find the cache. We got back to the car and drove home. It was raining hard but was nice to be able to leave the wet things in the new awning.

Monday 27th July
We had torrential rain all night but it had stopped by the time we got up. After breakfast we drove to Symond Yatt East and after driving across a single track bridge and a very narrow lane, we parked at Symond Yatt. After wandering around trying to make sense of the map we realised we were parked in the wrong place and should have been at Yatt rock. We followed the footpath up to the top of the rock, very steep and wet, got caught in a rain shower and eventually found our way to the start of the walk. We treated ourselves to an icecream and went to see the view from the rock.

We looked down on where we walked the other day. The RSPB were at the top showing the peregrine falcons. After seeing them we walked down the road we had just walked up and headed off along a lane to Welsh Bicknor. It was steep and slippery and down wooden steps and stone steps to the river Wye. We were caught in another shower here but soon continued walking up the hill again, round huge boulders and ruined houses to a road. We walked across a field to the river on the other side of the Yatt. We stopped at the Saracens head for lunch, hot smoked salmon sandwiches and then walking along the river and through the woods to a rope bridge at The Biblings. There was a troop of scouts waiting to cross and they had to go across in groups of 6. We had to have a go once they had all gone, it was very bouncy.

We realised we had gone wrong so walked back and headed up the correct path. We were going to see the Suck stone but decided it was too much of a diversion so followed the path round and eventually got back to the top of Symond's Yat. We were very tired and had to walk down a very steep path to get back to the river and the car park. We had walked 14.4 km.

Catching up

We have been very busy lately, away on several holidays, trips to Kent and also trying to make some headway in the garden - a hopeless task, which means I haven't blogged for a while.
I will now make some attempt to catch up with details of some of our walks.
Wednesday 15th July
A local geocacher had laid out a series of 18 geocaches on a walk around South Ashby so when the rain had eased we set off for a walk.We parked at Packington and set off along the road and across a stile into a field. We found the Brookside cache quickly and moved across the field. After finding a sneakily hidden cache near a footpath sign we continued across fields and along the path to Normanton le Heath. We walked past the pretty church, finding another cache, and then took the path through some very overgrown fields. One of the advantages of caching is that it encourages people to use the footpaths, and when these have become overgrown, they do tend to have ways pushed through them. This was the case with the next cache. The path was very overgrown but a few cachers had been through recently and so there was the beginning of a path through. We battled our way through and found the next cache, the path now emerging onto a lane. We followed the lane and this was where our luck ran out with the next 2 caches unfound. The skies were now beginning to look very heavy so we followed the road back into Packington having walked 9km and finding 8 of the 18 caches.
Saturday 18th July
We set out today to do the second half of the South Ashby walk. We parked in the same place at Packington and waited for a shower to stop and then walked back down the lane to try to find the cache that we had missed on Wednesday. John found it tucked in a hole almost immediately this time. We walked back up the lane to do "Stylish" cache, but although we hunted for ages we still could not find it. We eventually abandoned it and walked across a field and over a stile, to cross a field of corn. We diverted here to go into Sunnyside, a National forest wood to find another cache. We had to walk through very long reeds and although we could see where cachers had been before we could not find it.
We walked back to the footpath and crossed onto the road where we searched for "North Pole South Pole". This again took ages and just as we were about to give up I found it, tucked inside a gate post. From here we folowed the footpath across fields and walked parellel with the A42. Here we found "Hitch hiking", though I don't know why it was called that. We crossed the A42 and walked towards Ashby but diverted along Packington Lane and along the back of the school and quickly found "No way out". After this we walked down the road towards Packington finding "Foot high", on top of a footpath finger post. We walked through Mill Farm where they are converting barns and followed the footpath signs, unfortunately the path is not walked much and it was deep with thistles, brambles and nettles. We battled through and emerged onto a bridge where we sat to eat a biscuit. Two rams came over to see what we were doing although when it was clear they were not going to get any treats they waked away. We walked across the field and stopped to find "Stoned", a clever hide in a tree and then left the field and the rams. We crossed the A42, again, which was very brambly, and did the last cache. We then walked down the bridleway and back to the car. We had walked 9.5km and another 7 caches.

Ivanhoe Way - Nailstone to Shackerstone

Saturday 4th July
It was still warm with showers threatened but we decided to do the last stage of our Ivanhoe Way walk. We drove to Nailstone and parked outside the Black Bull. We walked along the very narrow lane out of the village and crossed the A447 into fields with very clear footpaths through oilseed rape, broad beans and barley. We emerged onto the road leading to Odstone and followed the road round to Odstone Hall where we came across a sign saying “road closed due to flooding”. We debated a bit but decided the footpath was still open so continued through. As it was, the path was a bit wet in places but we have walked in much worse and you wouldn't have got a vehicle through even without the flooding!
As we were walking along here a group of horse riders passed us, then another, and then another. We decided we were in the middle of an organised trek. We stopped and watched the riders for a while and then battled our way along the footpath which went through oil seed rape which had collapsed over the path, it was a struggle to get through and when we got to the end we met the riders again who had diverted round the farm.
We emerged into Shackerstone and thus ended the Ivanhoe Way which we had started in November last year. We had a celebratory lunch in the Rising Sun and then set off for the return journey.
We followed the path beside the canal for a little while, and then headed across meadows towards Tivey's farm. This was where things began to get difficult. We had trouble finding the footpath and then when we did the stile was obstructed by a large pile of building rubble which we had to climb over, we then could not find where the path went but when we found the sign the farmer had conveniently dumped a very large, fresh pile of cow slurry just I front of the stile (or it was a very large cow)! We managed to negotiate this safely and then again found there was no indication of where the path went, so we walked around the side of the field - the wrong side I suspect and eventually found a way out onto the lane.
We managed to follow the path clearly for a while, still meeting horse trekkers, their route left ours a bit further along this path.
We crossed the road at Odstone and followed the path, but here we had problems as the farmer had divided his fields up with electric fencing and wire barriers, completely obstructing the access to the footpath. We managed to get over one fence and walked up the track to the farm where we were able to rejoin the footpath, but at various intervals he had placed electric fences across the path. We met two walkers coming from the other direction that were lost and said they had been unable to find the path as the signs were hidden and the path blocked with fences. We managed to eventually get through to the A447 at Ibstock, but not without having to climb over two more wire fences and cross a field with cows and a very large bull.
We crossed the road and walked behind the church yard to emerge on a lane at Belchers bar. We were unsure of our way here, but a man in his garden pointed out the path. We crossed into the fields and were a bit nervous to see cows at the bottom of the field near the stile. After all the reports of stampeding cows over the last few weeks we were a bit worried, especially when we saw that one cow had some very young calves. We walked around the cows and although they seemed interested they did not move. We crossed into an area of National Forest plantation which also did not seem to have a clear path through but eventually emerged near to the church in Nailstone. It was very warm when we got back to the car and we had walked 13.8km - although it had seemed like more.

Flamborough Head, 23rd June to 30th June 2009

After a hectic few weeks we decided a break was called for. We hitched up the caravan and left home at about 11 and had a steady journey to Flamborough. Just before we arrived a stone was thrown at the car window which caused a big chip - a good start to the holiday. We finally arrived at about 2.30. The temporary holiday site is a nice flat field beside a farm and is run by South Lincs da (£7 per night). It was lovely and sunny and we sat out and read before having an early tea. After washing up we went for a walk and headed towards the cliffs. There was a footpath beside the farm and we walked beside fields of broad beans to the cliffs and turned left towards South landing. We walked along the top and then down the steep steps towards the beach and then followed the path inland finding the clues for a multi-cache. We found the cache spot but could not find the cache after an extensive search, it had been a nice walk though. We walked back along the cliff top and got back at about 9.
The weather was mixed over the next few days so we relaxed and did a few small walks exploring the local area.
Thursday 25th June
We drove to Bempton, only a few miles away and parked near the church. We walked to the duck pond where there were lots of ducks- one mallard had 16 ducklings. We found Bempton ducks cache and then walked across a field to Bempton sheep cache. It was a bit thistley and John had shorts and sandals on so after finding the cache we walked back round the road. We then drove to Bempton cliffs RSPB nature reserve and parked. We had a very nice organic roll for lunch and then walked along the cliffs towards the gannet colony where it was fascinating to see the birds, with thier chicks clinging to the cliffs. We also saw a few puffins here, which I had always wanted to see. We walked back and along the cliffs in the other direction where we saw lots more puffins, kittiwakes with young, razorbills and guillimots. It was a lovely day. We then found the clues for Bempton seabird colony cache and found the cache just before we left for home.
Sunday 28th June
After our chores we set off for a walk. It was warm and not too cloudy but we carried fleeces and waterproofs, just in case. We walked towards Flamborough, passing through the churchyard, where we had to wait for members of the congregation to clear the path. The vicar waved at us in a friendly way as we went past. We followed the road all the way to North landing, enjoying all the pretty gardens. At North landing we had good views of the caves which had been used by smugglers to store their contraband. We collected a clue for a cache we were going to do later and then started to walk round the cliffs. We stopped several times to watch the birds on the cliffs. We saw more puffins and guillimots, and further round kittiwakes with their fluffy chicks. We continued heading toward the Head and passed a heathland area with lots of pyramidal orchids in flower. When we got to Flamborough Head we stopped to look for a cache but the area was very overgrown so we did not find it, but we continued to find the clues for another cache. I did spot a frog though. We had lunch at the uninspiring pub near the lighthouse, a sausage baguette and very greasy chips and then went to find the cache that we had collected the clues for. There were some people sitting on the bench that we needed to search so we admired the view for a while. We saw a kestrel dive and catch a small mammal, and then chased by a kittiwake which caused the kestrel to drop his lunch. After the men moved from the bench we went and searched for the cache but were unsuccessful, again. We continued our walk round the head, passing the lighthouse and the radio transmitter station. The tramsmitter station sounds a fog horn every 90 seconds, which we can hear from our caravan site, but which is quite deafening when standing under it. The South side of the head was not as interesting as the north. The cliffs were not so visible so we could not see the birds, but there were lots of butterflies along the route. There were also several inlets which meant descending steep flights of steps only to climb back up again on the other side. We got back to the caravan at about 5.30, having walked 12km
Monday 29th June
We got up early and as it was our last day we didn't want to have a long walk so decided on a a geocachey day.
We drove along Woldgate parked along the road, and walked along the bridleway to Carnaby temple which was a folly built in the 18th century. We hunted for a cache for a while but were unsuccessful as everywhere was so overgrown. We then drove on to see Rodston monolith. This was an impressive stone in the churchyard, at 8 metres tall it is the tallest standing stone in the country. We followed the clues and had a walk around the area finding 2 caches and then after lunch in the pub we drove onto Burton Agnes. This cache had us fighting our way across a field of oil-seed rape. The flowers had gone but the seed pods were developing and the plants had collapsed across the footpath so it was quite a struggle, we searched for a while and eventually found the cache. We realized that this was part of a series of caches so we took the co-ordinates and went back to the car. When we got there a 1954 Ferguson tractor was parked in front. It had been beautifully renovated and the owner chatted to us for a while. Our next nearest cache was at Harpham about 2 km away so we drove and parked in the village and after finding the footpath walked across the field and quickly found the cache. It was another part of the series so after taking the co-ordinates we decided we had to do the next two. We drove a short distance to Bracey bridge, a picnic area off the main road and set off to find the next cache, this took quite a while as the satellite reception was very poor in the woods but we eventually found the cache and the last set of clues, which led us to the village of Kilham. We parked near the school and set off across another footpath over a field of oil seed rape. It was really hard work across this field and as we approached the cache area we noticed men on a crane working in sight of the cache. Luckily we were on the other side of the hedge and after quite a hunt in all the nettles and thistles, and scrambling under the hedge, I found the cache. We found a much nicer path back to the car, which went past the village pond, complete with ducks. We drove through to Bridlington after this and had a nice walk along the prom and had fish and chips sitting watching the waves. Considering most of our day had been spent in the car, we were surprised to find that we had walked over 12 km.

Japanese lady

This is a slight change from the usual walking related blogs, but I had to display my recently completed embroidery.

The Japanese lady cross-stitch was started by my mum shortly before she died in 2005.

I have been working on it since then and finally completed it in March 2009 - mum would have been a lot quicker than me!

I hope you enjoy the picture.

Ivanhoe Way; Bagworth to Nailstone

Saturday May 23rd
We had had several attempts at doing this section of the walk but for vaious reasons we had not succeeded getting beyuond the parking spot. There are no photos today as I couldn't find the camera.
It was a nice day so we decided on another attempt. We drove to Bagworth and parked opposite the very uninspiring church - it is just a concrete box with a concrete tower!
We left Bagworth along the bridal way and followed a field hedge with a view of Nailstone church spire in the distance. We descended a shallow valley and crossed a stream at the bottom and then approached Nailstone village. We walked round to see if the Nut and Squirrel pub was open. When we did this section when doing the Leicestershire Round the pub was closed but we were pleased to see that it was open today. We spoke to the landlady and she said that she had taken over and opened the pub on Bank Holiday Monday -just two weeks ago. She didn't do meals but did do cobs, so we had these for lunch. It was very hot by now.
after lunch we left Nailstone by walking through the churchyard and heading across fields towards Barlestone. We had to divert round the village as the footpath took a strange route and whilst crossing the fields we were surrounded by about 6 horses - We have since found that the collective noun for a horses is a harrass and we were certainly harrassed by them. We persuaded them to let us pass and headed around the fishing lake in the next field.
We walked beside the stream for a while and then walked across Bagworth Heath, through all the new forest plantations back to the car in Bagworth.
When I got home the camera was on the breakfast table!