Walk: 4 miles and 700ft of ascent
Today's walk was very much cut short as a result of the weather; no it wasn't poor weather when we were out walking, but the heavy rain on and off over the last couple of days had done it's damage.
Some time last year we had watched a programme called something like 'Walks with a View', where Julia Bradbury did exactly as it said in the title. And by luck would have it one of her walks was in this area, and on that walk she went down a track called Hell Lane. So, we left the car at the cottage and set off in search of Hell Lane.
The route took us out of Chideok past the remains of an old castle that was demolished by the parliamentarian forces in the English Civil War in 1645. All that remains is the moat that surrounded the small castle, so it was well and truly demolished! After another mile or so around a Maize field and then across some grazing land we picked up Hell's Lane just to the east of North Chideok.
It's not your common or garden lane, in fact it's an old sunken lane called a Holloway, and dates back many hundreds of years. In fact, some of these lanes hark back to the iron age. Our map suggested that this lane is a challenge when it's wet, and it sure was. Rutted and muddy in sections, but we managed to survive it.
After about a mile we took a detour up Colmers Hill which rises 417ft above the nearby village of Symondsbury, the views alone were worth the walk up. Better on nice days I would imagine, but we were having to make do with grey skies and flat colours across the vista. Another 15 minutes or so after coming down the hill and we stopped off at the Ilchester Arms. We had planned just to have a drink as we had packed some sandwiches, but we were tempted by the variety of the menu and weren't disappointed with our meals. I had faggots with mashed potato and peas, and Donna had an enormous cauilflower cheese with bread, salad and a side order of chips. So much in fact that I made myself a second meal out of half of Donna's food!
As we had finished our meal we spoke to another couple who funnily enough we from Sheffield, and they were doing a similar walk but in the opposite direction. They warned us about a section of path uphill that was very muddy and slippy, so we considered our options and decided to give it a go. But, 30 minutes later we were coming back down the hill as it was simply impossible to get up it. No grip, nothing to hold, and thorn bushes at both sides.
We checked the map and we either had an option to return the way we came, or walk about 1/2 mile along the VERY busy A35 to pick up another path. Neither were appealing, so, our luck was in as there was a bus stop beside the road to we waited 10 minutes and got the X51 back to Chideok.
Ok we had lost a large portion of our planned walk, but not the end of the world.
Today's walk was very much cut short as a result of the weather; no it wasn't poor weather when we were out walking, but the heavy rain on and off over the last couple of days had done it's damage.
Some time last year we had watched a programme called something like 'Walks with a View', where Julia Bradbury did exactly as it said in the title. And by luck would have it one of her walks was in this area, and on that walk she went down a track called Hell Lane. So, we left the car at the cottage and set off in search of Hell Lane.
The route took us out of Chideok past the remains of an old castle that was demolished by the parliamentarian forces in the English Civil War in 1645. All that remains is the moat that surrounded the small castle, so it was well and truly demolished! After another mile or so around a Maize field and then across some grazing land we picked up Hell's Lane just to the east of North Chideok.
It's not your common or garden lane, in fact it's an old sunken lane called a Holloway, and dates back many hundreds of years. In fact, some of these lanes hark back to the iron age. Our map suggested that this lane is a challenge when it's wet, and it sure was. Rutted and muddy in sections, but we managed to survive it.
After about a mile we took a detour up Colmers Hill which rises 417ft above the nearby village of Symondsbury, the views alone were worth the walk up. Better on nice days I would imagine, but we were having to make do with grey skies and flat colours across the vista. Another 15 minutes or so after coming down the hill and we stopped off at the Ilchester Arms. We had planned just to have a drink as we had packed some sandwiches, but we were tempted by the variety of the menu and weren't disappointed with our meals. I had faggots with mashed potato and peas, and Donna had an enormous cauilflower cheese with bread, salad and a side order of chips. So much in fact that I made myself a second meal out of half of Donna's food!
As we had finished our meal we spoke to another couple who funnily enough we from Sheffield, and they were doing a similar walk but in the opposite direction. They warned us about a section of path uphill that was very muddy and slippy, so we considered our options and decided to give it a go. But, 30 minutes later we were coming back down the hill as it was simply impossible to get up it. No grip, nothing to hold, and thorn bushes at both sides.
We checked the map and we either had an option to return the way we came, or walk about 1/2 mile along the VERY busy A35 to pick up another path. Neither were appealing, so, our luck was in as there was a bus stop beside the road to we waited 10 minutes and got the X51 back to Chideok.
Ok we had lost a large portion of our planned walk, but not the end of the world.
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