puddleshark

A walk through the beech woods on Vernditch Chase on a cold November morning. I had hoped for sunlit woods, but though the sun glared whitely through the clouds, the clouds refused to take the hint and move aside.

Left the car in the car park for Martin Down nature reserve, took my life in my hands to cross the busy main road to Salisbury, and followed the bridleway that leads into hazel coppice.

A dark tangled wood, except where small glades have been newly coppiced to let the light flood in.

Note to self: where the wide grassy ride crosses the path, do not carry straight on. The straight path will wind off into the coppice woods and abandon you. You need to bear right, and look for a bridleway marker on a gatepost.

If you pass this oak, you are on the wrong path. Let's call it the Fool's Oak. Turn back.

Once you are on the right path, you will find yourself among the beeches.

Not ancient beeches. Planted sometime in the last century, I suppose. And planted close together, so that they grow tall and elegant, rather than indulging in the sinister sinuous side branches they prefer.

The woods are pretty, but the footing is unfriendly. The path compacted by the foresters' vehicles to slippery mud, with the occasional round, ankle-turning nodule of flint hiding under the fallen leaves.

Where the path changes to stone, the bridleway bends sharply left. And I, I carried straight on, following not so much a wrong path, as an unplanned path.

The path through the woods came to a road. I took out the OS map, scratched my head, and wondered where exactly I was, and whether it really mattered. On the other side of the lane, a bridleway was signposted. I followed in up through the fields, in search of landmarks.

Things seen when lost: four Red Kites circling above the Chase.

I found some landmarks - a group of farm buildings, a farm track bending sharply to the north east - and was pretty sure where I was on the map. But not quite sure enough to want to carry on further and prove it. So turned and retraced my steps back to the lane, and back through the beech woods.

Sat on a convenient stump & drank coffee. Two passing Jack Russell terriers came over to see if I had a picnic.

Landscape with Distant Jack Russell Terriers.

Back along the dark paths through the coppice woods. All the dog walkers were out now. A couple with a chocolate spaniel. A family group with four border collies. An elderly gentleman with an elderly white-muzzled Red Setter.