30/01/21 - Broughton Hackett, Crowle and Huddington

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Julie Royle's Worcestershire Walks

The first "big" walk I completed in the first lockdown was Crowle, Himbleton and Huddington.  This was on a gorgeous May Day, where the bunting was out in celebration of VE Day.

Now, I am not entirely sure what lockdown we are in, but the first "big walk" since the pubs shut this time around is in a similar area, East of Worcester.  No glorious spring weather either, it was as bleak as rambling gets  The camera spent most of the route hidden away from the sleet, whilst I concentrated on not getting trench foot.

The route starts at a lay-by on the A422, heads up through Crowle on lanes to Netherwood Cottages.  Terra Firma left behind on a slosh to Sale Green and Huddington before the real grief starts in the poorly signposted flooded farmland and through Bow Wood.

A miserable beast of the field, Crowle Church peeking through the New Builds

Old Crowle

When the Floor of Bow wood is a Mud Fest - Look Up

The final part of the walk was meant to be be through Court Farm, but I could take no more mud.  There is a footpath along the A422, which provided safety from everything apart from the log flume splashes of cars speeding through the puddles.

With no pub to report, I will turn the blog into a gear review.

Goretex GTX doesn't really work.

23/01/20 - Dudmaston Woods

Distance - 5.5 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, Feb 2021, Walk 9

Dudmaston Hall sits in land that has been owned by the same family for 875 years and never sold.  There's a C17th Manor House, which this walks never gets close to, sitting on the opposite side of the A442.  Once the pandemic is over, one could have a proper day out.

This is a simple walk completed in sub zero temperatures that has frozen the mud and increased the pleasure tenfold.  Start at the old Sawmills Car Park, through a sheep field and into the woods, where we find three pools.  If we had an ice-breaker, Guide Dog in Training Abi could have a dunk in any of Wall, Seggy and Brim Pools.  No doubt we will be back in the Summer.

Through the Sheep and into...

... The Woods at Dudmaston

At a time when everything is closed and entertainment options are limited, we are delighted to find the Shepherd's Hut Coffee Shop open at the halfway point of the walk, near Heath Farm.  

Not every walk in the countryside can be completed with a skinny flat white, an Americano and a cappuccino.  If I wasn't holding a coffee, I would have brought you a photo of the most joyous that 3/4 of family Mappiman have been all week.

Anything else to report, I hear Blogfans cry?  Well, on the OS Map, there is "Forest Oak" marked in ancient text.  I was expecting something better than a scrawny looking tree in a muddy cow field.

Forest Oak - On the Map

Forest Oak in the Flesh

A little bit of research shows that its the last remaining Oak from the Forest of Morfe (providing my pub link for a previous visit to the Lion O' Morfe, yes, its tenuous but I am getting desperate).

The muddy field is known as Witches Field and the aforementioned Heath Farm Coffee Stop took its name from Heathensditch.

Shropshire providing some spooky blog material. 

16/01/21 - Bromyard and the Frome Valley

Distance - 7 Miles

Walk Inspiration - 100 Walks in Hereford and Worcestershire, Walk 89

Geocaches - 2

Welcome to Bromyard, the Jewel in the Downs, is the message from the signposts as you enter.

Certainly plenty of interest.

The Historical:  A house where Charles I stayed in 1645.

The Essential:  An independent butchers/cheesemongers and bakery.

The Redundant: Some fine looking pubs, including some half timbered C16th coaching houses and a Good Beer Guide back street boozer - the Rose and Lion - that I couldn't even bring myself to "look at what I could have won".

Starting in the town at 9am on a wet Saturday gave plenty of opportunity to explore this fascinating little place.  The reason for the early start?  The Black Country Derby.

Bromyard - A Pub Crawl in Waiting

With Blue Plaque Culture 

This 7 miler is a delight of a walk - that explores the Frome Valley through the sort of agricultural land that Herefordshire provides in abundance.  Lush green, gently sloping hills and when there's no orchards in uniform, there are hop frames.

Two things put an even broader smile on my lock down face.  Plenty of tarmac of farm drives and quiet country lanes and after a start through the miasma of low cloud, the sun burnt it away to provide gorgeous blues skies.

Grey Skies but no mud

Until the Sun burnt it all away

Always nice to return to a town and with nothing else to spend my money on, I return home a glorious hero with a £14 four item cheeseboard and three jam doughnuts.

Refreshments to make  a 2-3 away win at the Molineux even sweeter.

Boing Boing! - I think I can get through Lockdown 3.

09/01/2021 - Oliver's Mound and Shrawley Brook from the Lenchford

Distance - 4.5 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration

The first in a hopefully short series of "Walks from Closed Pubs".  We've been here before but sometimes, things get lost over time and it is important to record them for when future generations look back on this madness.

This is lock down three.  Again, the guidance is vague.  Derbyshire police have fined two ladies for driving five miles in separate cars as they are "contravening the spirit of the law".  Doubling down, the ladies were also in trouble for carrying takeout coffees, classed by the iffy filth as "constituting a picnic".  But this isn't what I am trying to record.

On this mornings Andrew Marr show, he was interviewing Matt Hancock about the difference between lockdown 3 and lockdown 1.  Andrew Marr stated - and Matt concurred - that in lockdown 1, we were able to exercise for a maximum of 1 hour.

This was simply not true.  In this lockdown and the last 2, there have been no limits on the duration of exercise and it is stated we can travel locally for exercise.  

The issue is, there is no definition of what local means.

It was with slight trepidation that 3 of us from the same household traveled just over 6 miles for a 2 hour walk.  We were delighted to see no humans during the ramble.  Or roadblocks getting there or back.

This walk is from yet another on-line resource - mapometer - as I browse all the Internet can offer for new walk inspiration.  

We start at a pub.  The Lenchford.  Prime position next to the River Severn - a Covid closed caravan park adjacent and famous for its carvery.  In case this is a thing lost to future generations - my son describes carveries as "a Sunday lunch, where you can pick the best bits and have none of the crap".

Son #1 is not a big fan of cabbage or creamed leeks

A short walk back along the road to pick up a path to the River Severn.  Our aim - Oliver's Mound.  A small sandstone outcrop which had a norman castle until the locals robbed it for building material.  Later used as a gun emplacement by Cromwell in the English Civil War.  Of course there's geocaches - a traditional (found) and a FYI multi that I didn't test the patience of the rest of the family with.

Olivers Mound from the River Severn

Which contains a mini waterfall

And a huge lake covered in ice and a green film

A quick stop at Shrawley Church for a lovely little cache housed in an unexpected well and then country lanes to pick up Shrawley Brook.

Shrawley Chruch

Downhill to the Brook

Shrawley Brook provides a "land that time forgot" walking experience.  Deeply sheltered in mini valley of green, the paths are in better condition than you would imagine from what must be a lack of footfall.

Guide Dog in Training Abi gets a free run and a voluntary dunk in a sub zero temperature stream.  She emerges cleaner than our boots which need some serious work before next week's outing.

Guide Dog in Training Abi - A blur of puppy excitement

02/01/21 - Geocaching in Luckington, Wiltshire

Distance - 8.5 Miles

Geocaches - 40

First Cache

First blog of 2021 and I'm off to a fellow Tier 3 county for a big day of finding tupperware in trees.

Alternative entertainment is currently unavailable.

You should be so Luckington - The Old Royal Ship Inn

After an Xmas of slopping around fields of Worcestershire and the burst banks of the River Wye in Herefordshire, this cache trail appealed as it it is largely on tarmac.  This made for easy walking, as I made my way from Luckington to Sherston and finally Alderton.  Sopworth doesn't get a mention, as it doesn't end in 'Ton.

But little to bring you in the way of photos.

I plodded mud free lanes like this....

... to drop TBs off in tubs like this.

I didn't expect the first in person "Happy New Year" from outside of my immediate household to come from a hunt saboteur, but I've given up being surprised about anything.  I could hear and occasionally see the Badminton Hunt from Allengrove Lane - which at times, became a motorway of 4x4s - presumably spectators racing to the next point.  At Giant's Cave Longbarrow - there was one Range Rover - with a posh lady, not 100% dissimilar to Camilla Parker-Bowles, who was watching with intent a Khaki Clad (right up to his face mask) fella with a box around his neck saying "CCTV Recording".  I asked if he was OK and he tried to recruit me to his cause by explaining how he is following the hunt to send signals on where the masking scent should be laid and she is following him to tell the hunt where the hunt saboteurs are.

And some people think that finding boxes is an odd way to spend a morning.

Sabs attacks on Mrs Range Rover got increasingly personal.  I left when he suggested the horses had better teeth.  

I've come prepared with my own supplies - so all I need is a suitable spot for lunch and Alderton's Duck Pond provides massively with a choice of two benches and quite a collection of aquatic birds to keep me entertained.  Like many places in England, you only have to scratch the surface to find something sinister.

My first Untappd Check in of 2021 at a Wiltshire Crime Hot Spot.

Ham Sandwich and McCoys Crisps out of view

The Sign where I live says "Take your unwanted ducks to Hong Kong Garden"

Arrive back into Luckington - having found all but one of my quarry today.   2021 off to a caching start - thanks to dasie19 & Artorius70 for the placement and maintenance.