Summer Walks
Seeing that my mate Lee has been off work recently, we decided to go on a second walkabout yesterday. So I got out my OS map and plotted us a nice amble that should take in a few local sights and give us some well needed exercise in the sunshine.
We started off at his house with bacon sandwiches and by midday we were on our way.
It was decided that we'd take in Woodchester Lakes, The Mansion, Uley Longbarrow and Coaley Peak before returning to town by a path that was well mapped on the OS which took in some magnificent woodland areas and farms. It should take in about ten miles of walking which we had all afternoon to achieve.
Although neither of us had used this particular route before, I had an inkling of where we were meant to be as I'd already been to the lakes a few years ago by another route, but as soon as we set off Lee insisted we were going the wrong way, although we weren't at that time. Much to our joy and jubilation, we found the entrance without too much trouble.
Once in the park we found our way around quite easily, even encountering a couple of National Trust wardens who asked us if we knew where we were as we were using a path that was not normally used by visitors.
We amble along quite nicely, meeting lots of cows which insisted on letting loose some very loud farts and pissing whenever we came close to them.
Close to the mansion there were quite a few baby moo's about, very cute.
Now onto the mansion, it's meant to be haunted, not that I have ever seen anything there, but many TV productions have been there to try and film the ghostly goings on, I suspect that all of them left empty handed. There are plenty of stories about the place, I'll leave you to look at the link above if you are interested.
It's a very picturesque place in a gothic style, I could quite easily see myself living there if I ever make my billions as I'm sure it would take as much to restore the place and finish off where the workers abandoned the place.
It was as we were walking away from here we heard a spooky noise, where Lee remarked it could be a ghost, I just said it might be from the gliding club up the road, and surely enough a glider soon appeared above the trees and dropped the winch cable which made the noise.
We managed to reach Coaley Peak with only one wrong turn, so all in all getting to the halfway point wasn't that bad. It was all uphill but not too strenuous.
There's the view from Coaley Peak, that picture is made up from three photos I stitched together, so please forgive the seams as I had to do it all by hand.
As we rested there and had some water and ice creams, we were refreshed enough to attempt the return journey, one that looked simple enough.
How wrong can somebody be? Very it seems.
The paths we were taking were not real paths but 'rights of way' through private land and as we all know a few farmers we know they hate people walking on their fields. What we discovered was that all the styles and paths had been left to overgrow, so it was hugely difficult to find the pathway and to get over to the next field because of the nettles and brambles. I think by the time we got back into town we must have been stung about a million times each and half eaten by horseflies.
I can't complain, it was a lot of fun, especially the rope swings in the woods and finally reaching the pub for a well earned celebratory pint.
Hopefully the next walk will take in the area around Horsley, we just need to decide where and when.
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Comments
I really do need to blog again now I'm starting to feel 'normal'.
I'm all for you buying that mansion - its gorgeous plus it's haunted = bonus. Too bad you didn't hear real ghosts, you could have started your own tv show.
The view of Coaley Park is beautiful! I lived in Tenbury Wells for one summer and it looked like that only flatter.