The Strange World of Temple Cloud (and Shepton Mallet) - Part Two

This is a copy of my blog about doing the Big Issue BigStep Challenge to raise money for the Big Issue Foundation which helps homeless people.  If you want to donate, please go to this site.

Tuesday 11^th September 2018

Today wasn't scheduled to be an all-day walking day, as I had various other things I ought to get on with. So I walked up to the pharmacist in Oakhill to collect a prescription, went to the coffee morning and had a pleasant time chatting to friends and eating cake there, walked home, spent the afternoon getting on with washing-up, laundry, playing Scrabble with my Beloved Partner, and relaxing after yesterday's exertion, and walked up to choir practice in the evening. I still felt a bit tired by the time I walked home from choir, but this was more to do with the emotional effect of practising Christmas carols, and the fact that we finished later than I usually go to bed, rather than the effect of the walk itself.

Wednesday 12^th September 2018

Today I wanted to go for a more ambitious walk. I decided to try walking to Shepton Mallet and back, but, rather than taking the most direct route along the Fosse Way, to start by walking around the engagingly named Moon's Bottom and T'other Side The Hill, through Binegar, possibly across Maesbury Castle if I could be bothered. Passing through Binegar was a pleasant chance to catch up on saying hello to neighbours, including an older couple, who very kindly invited me in for a cup of tea, a biscuit, a chat about gardening, and a chance to sing Morecambe and Wise's 'Bring Me Sunshine' after I saw a reference to it on a plaque on the walls.  Older people always seem surprised that younger people know about older television programmes, but really, why wouldn't we?  We've all grown up watching repeats on television, and hearing our parents reminiscing about them.

As it was a damp sort of day and my boots had long given up attempting to be waterproof (except in the sense of proving that there is water around), I had resolved to stick to roads where possible today, to avoid getting my feet and ankles soaked up to mid-calf in wet grass. This resolution lasted until Maesbury Castle, where I just had to go across the top to gaze out over the layers and layers of Somerset, growing bluer with distance until they melted into the blue-grey of the cloudy sky.

By this time, I could see that it was only a short distance to the edge of my map, and the place where the East Mendip Way first comes in from the edge of the page. I'm glad I did, because it's an attractively varied walk, crossing terrain from fields past the edge of a quarry (or, to look at it another way, one of the Mendips' most inviting climbing-walls) and up a steep, fern-lined set of steps.

When I lived in a town and exercised at the gym, there were videos to watch on the exercise machines of routes you might see if you really were running, cycling, or climbing steps on a steep hill. Mostly these were films of remote parts of the world such as Brazil or New Zealand, and I wondered why there weren't any videos featuring the varied splendours of the British landscape. I still wonder that now. The climb through Ham Woods up Windsor Hill looked as exotic as anything South America could offer, and would have been ideal for the stepping machine.

I would have liked to explore the East Mendip Way further, but by the time I met the Fosse Way, just after passing the Charlton Viaduct, my feet were aching and I was only too ready to take the fairly direct route home. This offered a chance to pass through Beacon Hill Woods, which is a different kind of landscape again: beech woodland carpeted in brown from last year's leaf-litter, instead of a jungle full of ferny hollows. On the steeper slopes of this wood, the trees seemed to be clinging for dear life to what soil they could find, their roots half exposed to the air in places.

When the Fosse Way broke off for a while, the last stage of my route took me across a few more fields, and then through the (surprisingly) now sunlit Harridge Wood. I wondered why I even needed to explore Somerset, when the ferny, boulder-strewn, stream-sewn, bee-loud woods on my doorstep are probably the most enchanting of all. After walking a while, I stopped wondering that and started wondering why a wood which doesn't seem like more than a spinney when I go for a typical walk in it, seems to stretch on forever when I'm tired and my feet hurt. I'm glad to be home - but if my feet have forgiven me by later in the week, I might try and see what the East Mendip Way from Ingsdons Hill to Great Gains Wood looks like.

Thurdsday 13th September 2018

My feet were sore after yesterday, so I decided to take the day off, spent the morning thinking and writing, and went into Wells in the afternoon to see whether there was anywhere that sold boots, as my old ones are falling to bits. Unfortunately, the shoe-shop has plenty of boot-like footwear, but only a few pairs of really sturdy hiking boots, which were all a bit pricey for me. Still, I got a reasonable amount of the day's walking in by wandering around Wells, and made up the remainder this evening by repeatedly running up and down the stairs of my house. Actually, walking sedately one stair at a time, instead of running up them two at a time, would have made up the requisite number of steps with less expenditure of energy - but it wouldn't have been nearly so satisfying.

The Beloved, who plays in the From The Top orchestra, is in a concert at St Cuthbert's Church in Wells tomorrow with the Cantabile Ladies' Choir, so I'm planning to walk into Wells to attend that, and get a lift home afterwards. The concert starts at 7.30pm, the tickets cost £10, and the theme is 'Music From The Wars', if you're interested in going along.