Avoncliff

Click here to see the details of the walk > Garmin Connect.

Another rather cloudy summers day but at least the rain held off until the afternoon. The walk started from Avoncliff and went along the canal before going through the village of Murhill. Then it was back to the canal and along the towpath and returning through Conkwell wood which was quite a hard climb but nice and shady. The wood was full of Hart’s Tongue fern which looked gloriously bright and shiny in the darkness of the wood. The return to Avoncliff was through Avonpark and the the village of Winsley. The distant views of the White Horse were a treat and it was good to see many wild flowers – pyramidal orchids, scabious, hypericum to name but a few.

Hart’s Tongue Fern in the woods and the Westbury White Horse in the distance.

Animal highlights of today’s walk – horses:

The area has many stables which house some very fancy looking horses.

Bradford-on-Avon

A relatively easy walk for the longest day of the year. Although it was the first day of summer, someone forgot to tell the clouds which were present most of the time.  Starting from the station car park in Bradford-on-Avon the walk was along the river towards Avoncliff and back down the canal. The canal was busy with boats and some ducklings and a lot of people were out and about both on foot and bike.

(oops – left the tracker going on the drive home – so ignore the straight line from BoA to Bath – that’s not part of the walk!!)

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ducklings on the river

a handy stop about half way around

Old Sodbury

This very pleasant spring walk started from the Church in Old Sodbury and went along parts of the Cotswold Way, Frome Valley Walkway, Monarch’s Way and back onto the Cotswold Way. On the way we saw masses of wild flowers and an assortment of animals. Walking through the Iron Age Fort was fascinating – trying to imagine what it would have been like to live there. The views were far reaching although the cloud did make them somewhat blurred.

The theme of today’s walk was buttercups

fields of golden buttercups

Animal highlights

A very curious Llama

three friendly donkeys

Baby cows

Question for today – can you identify this crop?

wheat or barley?

Kingscote

Somewhat further afield then usual but it was well worth the drive. The walk took us from Kingscote through lovely wooded valleys and the Ozleworth estate. The signs of spring were everywhere – baby lambs, trees coming into leaf and wild flowers in abundance. It was a truly lovely spring time walk.

Question for today – can you identify this flower?

**UPDATE** A handy botanist has been able to identify this plant as a ‘butterbur’

Dyrham and Doynton

Rain on the way but the skies cleared and the circular walk from Dyrham via Doynton took us through open fields giving spectacular views across Bristol and it was just possible to see Wales in the distance. Varied landscapes of open fields and shaded paths with plants and trees starting to wake up. Very muddy in places but a most enjoyable early spring ramble.

click here to see the GPS map

The theme of today’s walk was MUD!

Today’s animal highlight was Llamas (Alpacas?)

Box

The Garmin watch is not playing at the moment but luckily I had this back-up http://walkmeter.com/8545f681394d9fe0/Walk-20150208-1030

Today’s walk started in Box at the Box Rock Circus – a funny little mini stonehenge.

It was a really gorgeous day for walking, even though it’s still cold enough to have to scrape ice off the car in the morning there are signs of spring all over the place, snowdrops, wild primroses even a very optimistic daffodil:

The walk is nice and varied – some bits through fields, some through woods.  There are some lovely views at the high points:

Widcombe area of Bath

This is a short easy walk to do if you want to explore nearer to town.  There are some lovely views at certain spots and various buildings of historical interest.  The whole route is on either roads or pavements so no danger of mud etc.  If you fancy a stroll and don’t want to travel too far this is perfect.  If you like a good garden centre then at the bottom of Forefield Rise turn right and you will find Prior Park Garden Centre – a fantastic place with an amazing deli shop.

This is the route of the Saturday morning Bath Skyline parkrun but it’s also really popular with walkers.  Like most of the Skyline routes it has some great views of the city below.  It meanders through ‘Fairy Wood’ and ‘Long Wood’ and can get pretty muddy during wet weather.  There is one set of  steep stone steps but other than that it’s fairly flat and easy.  The route is a pretty accurate 5k having been measured for parkrun.

This is a really varied route – through woods, bridle paths, country lanes. It’s quite hilly so there would usually be good views but today the weather was dank and foggy so we couldn’t see very far. For the first half mile we were joined by a sweet little black kitten who seemed to think we were headed somewhere interesting. There wasn’t much else in the way of ‘wild’ life – probably all sheltering from the cold.
After we finished walking we popped in to the lovely farm shop where everything looked delicious on account of being hungry after the walk – came away with some blackcurrant shortbread which lasted about 5 minutes after getting home.

Newton St Loe – the first ramble of 2015.

Charmy Down