Saturday 29th September - Mynydd Machen

A 'strenuous but extremely rewarding' walk in the Welsh Hills, 11 miles on a beautiful September day.  The weather was changeable, and often breezy, but much of the six hours this walk took us was under a bright blue sky, and we were often warmed by the sun.

This is definitely a contender for the best Geoff Mullett walk we have done - so far - with wonderful distant scenic views, from hills and valleys, to towns, roads, rail, and more distantly the Severn Estuary with the two bridges.

 There was a 'Rural Market' in the car park in Machen which gave us an excuse to delay the start of climbing whilst we bought some spicy tomato chutney, and some blue cheese.

 Views starting to open up after in tough initial climb.  Much of the treescape during with walk was in spectacular Technicolor, with autumn starting to affect the deciduous trees...

 ... and bright yellows (which this picture does not do justice to), oranges and reds emerging.

 When Margie went to investigate these huge fungal growths, she found that the shape was wood, where the tree trunk was distorted, and the fungus had wrapped itself around.

 We sat by the side of this lovely path for a coffee break

 Changing scenic views as we approached the furthest point of the walk

 It was around this point where we had to stand aside for two offroad motorbikes being driven with great brio up the spoil tips, followed a minute later by a van bouncing along the rough track towards us.  They asked us if we had seen two bikes... we thought at the time that they were police, but on reflection they were more likely wardens or rangers.

 Old spoil tips formed some of the landscape

 This lovely wall went on for what seeed like miles

 Some lovely Charolais cattle, unusually in mixed fields with sheep.

 Quite a lot of walking through larch plantations, soft paths which were great to walk on, but we were sorry not to be in the sun more on parts of this walk.

 On the ex-railway cycle path, several of these streams flowed down the steep hill (which this photo does not really show) and under the path.

 A rather wonderful wooden sculpure by some very smart road barriers

 On the ascent to Mynydd Machen the hills opposite were rather denuded, but some great colours in the sun.

 The absolutely gorgeous track up to the summit... the hard work has been done and there is a gentle ascent for the last section.

 The trig point shares the hill top with an installation of aerials.

There was a spooky, enchanted light in the woodland... here we are on the final (and pleasingly gradual) descent back to Machen.  We completed this walk feeling good - our fitness over the past few weeks, (since the epic Uphill to Loxton slog) has improved greatly.  Bring on the Caerphiilly Summits!

Saturday 22nd September - Slaughterford

 8.75 miles from Geoff book 2.  Picked a sunny September saturday, and we really enjoyed most of this.  Overall, attractive rural settings, some good valley views, and rural landscapes.  Much of the walking was pleasant, with just about the right amount of 'undulation' to make us feel excercised but not knackered.  The only real drawback was that in quite a few fields, especially around the midway point, cattle had made the ground very lumpy and difficult to walk on.  In the context of the overall walk it wasn't enough to spoil it, but we might not do this again for a while.

This picture was taken inside the church at Slaughterford at EXACTLY the moment that Margie found Jesus.

 The church at Slaughterford and...

 ...the very picturesque cottages

 Rudloe Manor was highly significant as a secret RAF communications base during the war.  Didn't know it would still be 'under wraps' phwar phwar.

 Lots of fields with cows on this walk.  Black and white ones.  Brown ones.  Black ones...

Totally random dumped classical statue en route.

Sunday 9th September 2012 - Westonbirt and Highgrove

Part of the recuperation programme for last weeks overdoing it epic was 8.5 miles of "fairly level terrain" from Geoff book 2.  Turned out to be one of the best walks we've done for ages, mostly pleasant countryside, easy walking, good surfaces, some variety, but.... 56 bloody stiles.

Lots of these were quite easy, about a third of them were stone stiles (always at least interesting) but quite a few were steep wooden efforts which we both found challenging.  This proviso is not to detract from a thoroughly pleasant day's walking in changeable but always dry weather...

A pretty bridge into a field in the first part of the walk.  We were repeatedly struck by scale on this walk, huge open spaces, parks, paddocks,  fields...

This spoke volumes about the great wealth that we often notice on walks in Gloucestershire, especially the Cotswolds...

We were supposed to see views of Highgrove from this walk,  but perhaps because of the time of year this did not really happen.  Several other rather wonderful stately houses though.

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And some very attentive sheep....

Despite some minor reservations, this is definitely a walk to repeat, and the pint of cider in Shipton Moyne at the excellent and well-named 'Cat and Custard Pot' made this an absolute winner.

Sunday 2nd September 2012 - The West Mendip Way

Subtitled 'Uphill to Loxton', not a geographical clue as both places are pretty much at sea level.  We planned to do only a section of this 12-mile, yes 12-mile, walk, but got a bit carried away by bravado and a sense of adventure somewhere around mile 3, which was the only really practical short-cut spot.

 The walk had been exceptionally scenic and pleasant up to this point, and we were now on a gently ascending, very quite road were lovely views of the levels to Weston, and over to Brean Down were unfolding.  So on this very bench the decision was made to press on...

Apart from the scenic views, there were some interesting houses; some rather gross...

 ... and some rather rural...

From near the top of the lane we could see down the valley to the M5

and even Crooks Peak

There followed a descent to the small village of Loxton, where we were clearly both feeling quite knackered, and a bit daunted by the thought of a 6-mile walk home, that being normally a fairly respectable walking distance for us anyway.  We were encouraged by the knowledge that the return journey should be fairly flat, all along the levels.  This was true, but unfortunately didn't mean that it would be pleasant.  A lengthy walk along a moderately busy road (no pavement) ended by a trout farm where a footpath took us across a heavily overgrown meadow, (knackering), very overgrown stiles and bridges (nettles, brambles, etc) and rather boring field edges.  We reached a farm where an unexpected (ie not known by Geoff) footpath diversion took us up a hill where at least we had some pleasant walking (having been reassured about our route by a dogwalker) before descending to Breadon Bridge where we rejoined our intended route.  We then had a very rough and decayed footpath along the river Axe to follow, where we opted instead to walk between maize plants in a huge field, had to climb a fence to get access to a bridge passing a caravan site, and had to battle more hostile undergrowth to find our track.

By now both feeling rather footsore (there had been a rest in some long grass that we both found hard to end) we followed a quiet lane (ignoring a diversion into some fields on the original plan that was clearly going to be murder), and turned onto a track which was clearly our last section, heading for Uphill and 'good car'.  A good many large swans...

and a horse whose mummy might have been a Freisian cow...

were seen. Shortly after this we were on a causeway across the flood meadow, and arrived, absolutely shattered, back at the car.  A postscript:  home to utterly wonderful steak and kidney pie gifted by David and Athene and kept in the freezer for an occasion such as this.

Tuesday 5th June 2012 - Priors Wood

Walking in the rain with the Landers family, all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or at least trips on a path and ends up off work for three months...