30/05/20 - Purton's Ship Graveyard

Distance - 10.6 Miles
Walk Inspiration
Geocaches - 18
Drink - Hawkshead Gold on a rock at Oakhunger

The back end of May and the Severn Estuary is a close to the seaside as I have managed to achieve in this oddest of years.

What the the Lammastide Inn lacks in being open to the public, it makes up for with a Geocache in the car park. Once again, I've had to come prepared for post walk refreshment - and with the thermometer nudging 25 degrees - an ice cold beer was needed.

One for another day - Lammastide Inn

Purton is due North, reached by a mile and a half of green lanes and surprisingly lush farmer's fields (spring onions poking through the baked earth?). The views are extensive - the estuary, the forest of dean and the Cotswold Hills all visible from the high ground.

Views under blue skies

Purton probably owes is existence to the Sharpness - Gloucester Canal - built to provide straighter sailing than the winding Severn can offer. An eclectic collection of buildings and the wide canal is picked up to take me to the ghost boats.

Its a narrow strip of land between the estuary and the canal and to protect the earth, a collection of boats - some wooden, some concrete, were rammed into the mud for protection. They are all labelled up and some more obvious than others. How effective this approach to fighting erosion remains unknown.

Banks are still here - so it must be doing some good

Wooden ones not fairing quite so well

And this isn't the only thing of interest along this stretch.  A geocache at the stone buttress of a former railway bridge tells me a story of two tankers colliding in 1960, blowing up and destroying one of the bridge spans.

Amazingly, the hulk of the tankers can still be seen at low tide - and I'd timed it perfectly. Even if I was without the correct lens to take a decent photo.

Geocache and disaster story ahead

To get across the canal requires walking to Sharpness Point and then navigating the swing bridges across the cement works. Industrial decrepitude at its finest

End of the (canal) line

At the point, I could have headed back east to the pub - but that would have only been a 6 mile long.  Instead, I can add a 4 mile loop of Geocaches onto the day.  The walking was along the estuary and then back inland, following a muddy tidal creek.

All I needed was a shady spot for lunch - and a huge rock under a willow tree provided a perfect location.  The freezer pack did its job of keeping a Hawkshead Gold at perfect temperature. The two pairs of dog walkers either admired my preparation or took me for a posher than average tramp.

Either way, I couldn't have been happier.

Dining in style