Chewton Mendip Walk
Wednesday 1st November – Chewton Mendip
Walk Leaders: Patsy & Lynn
Description
An undulating 5.3 mile walk in the Mendip Hills starting from the Waldegrave Arms in Chewton Mendip at 09.40. We will be able to use the facilities beforehand. Pub is on main A39 accessible by Bristol bus 376, post code BA3 4LL grid ref 597:531.
We start by going up through the Church yard and out at the back, across fields, which have just been sprayed with slurry! We go down a difficult descent (walking pole recommended) to Watery Combe, which we cross and up the other side. We turn towards Litton, following Ford Lane and up past Litton Wood with views across to Chew Valley Lake. We go through Litton and along a track heading East towards Farrington Gurney. Turning South we climb up through the trees and follow the path back towards the West and finally climb Litton Hill, turning onto Field Lane we make our way back to the pub via the side gate through the Church yard to the pub.
There are fourteen stiles some are doubles and one triple, but all are dog friendly, some are a challenging height. There is bound to be mud, particularly near the gates/stiles. The grass is mainly quite long and if it has rained will be wet (wish I had worn over trousers/gaiters) The lanes are minor and quiet, the tracks firm, and the fields mainly grassy, but at least one has been ploughed so is a good source for picking up sticky clods of mud. We aim to be back at the pub for a 1.15 lunch.
Report
A “stylish” walk through delightfully undulating terrain in an arch around Chewton Mendip, never straying beyond the sound of the church bell.
I, for one, hadn’t quite clocked the advertised “fourteen stiles” included “some doubles and one triple” ….something like nineteen actual “up and overs”, which if you add those by-passed and squeezed passed rises into the low twenties …. Nothing daunted, our ever resourceful leader, Patsy, had brought an expanded polystyrene “step” to assist with the most precipitous; inadvertently destroyed by the clod hopping descent of one of our number whose penalty is to pen the write-up!
Recent mild weather had insured lush damp grasses, so our exertions provided mild distraction for contentedly munching cows, an enormous bull, sheep, horses various and some pretty Shetland ponies. Lynn did a stalwart job shepherding the stragglers in her first outing as a back-marker around a lovely walk blessed by glorious autumn sunshine. Thank you both very much.
Report by Keith L J.