Day 31 Footpaths: the good, the bad, and the “I’ll just take the road”.

I would like to say that today started with an early morning climb up a misty and atmospheric Cheddar Gorge, but in reality it started with a trip to Tesco to stock up on lunch, and to a local bakery chain, Parsons, to stock up on flapjacks. By the time we started up the side of Cheddar Gorge-views, orchids, feral goats-it wasn’t very early but the clouds were still pretty low.

The gorge was spectacular and we carried on through Blackrock Bottom and then through Velvet Bottom. Velvet Bottom was very interesting, and very soft underfoot. Velvet-like, you might say. It was worked for lead in Roman times and again in Victorian times. The high proportion of lead in the soil has affected the vegetation-not that we knew that at the time. I’ve had to rely on the Somerset Wildlife Trust website for information- there was no signal in the valley so the QR code on the notice board was useless. From our point of view, the landscape was clearly manmade. There were washing pools known as buddle pits, slag heaps and shiny black rocks like jet on the paths. I did try and take a photo of a shiny black rock but, I have to say, it looked rather turd-like so I haven’t included it.*

The other interesting feature (thank you SWT) is the dams. Apparently the people of Cheddar were rather unhappy about the lead levels in the water as they were high enough to kill the fish. Because of this the mining company made dams across the valley so that the lead would settle out rather than flow towards Cheddar

Time was slipping by so, having stopped for elevenses, and admired a Victorian subway under the road (barred, we didn’t venture in, or even very close), we hit a byway and gained a bit of speed. Byways are often very road -like so one can make up some time. This one led us to a road and then to a most delightful footpath between an avenue of lime trees. We followed it through a farm and then down a beautifully clear, and very red, sandstone path which descended a rather steep hill through a wood to the village of Compton Martin. Again a byway out of the village towards the River Yeo -straight, easy-going underfoot, just great. Strangely we missed the River Yeo although the map showed that we would have to cross it and there didn’t appear to be a bridge. We think it must have been in a culvert although, knowing about Yeo Valley yoghurt we had imagined a much grander river.

The footpath trouble started after the River Yeo. We crossed a road and who should be crowding round the kissing gate, obviously curious about us, but a herd of Yeo Valley yoghurt cows. They were very pretty jerseys, who let us pat their noses but resolutely refused to move off. What could we do? Well, we raised our walking sticks in the air and banged them together. The cows looked a bit pained and moved away enough for us to get through. However, being friendly, curious cows they followed us, matching our pace as we sped up. We reached the stile and despite it being a rather dodgy one we both fell over it, into a field with, yep, more cows.

On closer inspection, the reason that these cows were at the other end of the field turned out to be an electric fence. We breathed a sigh of relief, made our way across the field to the footpath gate, sat down and ate our Tesco sandwiches.

Then the footpath trouble started. The kissing gate was surrounded by nettles and very long grass (which sheltered scores of small blue damselflies, really lovely). We climbed a hill then found ourselves in a field of cabbages -no visible path. Nothing daunted we strode uphill through the cabbages worked our way round the farmhouse, nearly sprained our ankles in a very uneven field, before battling through a corridor of nettles and brambles to the road. Yes, this is a lot of text without photos but what with the cows and the bramble/nettle combo I really wasn’t going to stop to take a photo.

That last footpath took it out of us. We didn’t fancy another mile or two of bramble bashing. We’d had enough of footpaths for one day. We hit the roads. Which turned out to be very beautiful with high (twenty feet in places) green banks and no traffic. We passed through a pretty village or two before reaching the turning to our hotel.

The road turned up a long, long hill. Our hotel was right at the top. We were relieved to reach it. It was a slightly strange hotel but it did dinner (although not breakfast) and that was enough for us. And it was very cheap.

* I decided to include the picture after all. If anyone knows what sort of rock it is, let me know. Turns out the geology app needs signal which was in short supply both in Velvet Bottom and our hotel.