We arranged to meet Bob and Max outside South Cadbury church at 11 am. Arrived with 10 minutes to spare, so settled with the paper to wait for Bob. Rick went to stretch his legs but shortly came rushing back telling us that we were at the wrong church. Panic – visions of Bob waiting anxiously, like some jilted bridegroom. However when we arrived Bob had been spending the time much more productively, if unsuccessfully, in search of a map for the last part of our route.
We were introduced to Max who turned out to be a lovely cocker spaniel, an ex gun dog rescued by Bob and Dee. Understandably he was rather subdued and a bit wary when meeting us.
We travelled back to Bruton where we were still unable to find a map but decided we’d be ok with just the book for the last bit of the day’s walk.
Your correspondents for this part of The Walk must say that it was really great to meet up with old friend Bob after such a long time, and how much we enjoyed his company, and laid-back humour, again.
After leaving Bruton we got lost, well not exactly lost but discovered that we had inadvertently taken a short cut. So, of course we retraced our steps to do the walk proper (adding at least ½ mile to the days total in my reckoning) And it was during this section that both the tree and the loos of the walk were identified. The former, a curiously corkscrewed Scots Pine and the latter portaloos outside the wall of a country house at the delightfully named Wyke Champflower.
Our route took us through rolling fields and sunken lanes, which incidentally were one of the many exposures of the native rock, oolitic limestone, we came across. As well as the outcrops, most of the walls, houses and other structures were made of this lovely honey-coloured limestone, made up of ooids (from the Greek for egg), little spherical grains of limestone formed by direct precipitation built up around tiny particles rolling round on a sea floor - they are currently forming in the warm shallow seas of the Bahamas. Our oolitic limestone formed in the Jurassic, about 135 – 205 million years ago – and seems to have been laid down directly on an unconformity (gap in the geological succession) after Nunney, where we were yesterday, on Carboniferous (over 290 million years ago) limestone of a very different nature. (But the geologist in the group didn’t see the unconformity even though we must have gone over it.)
As we progressed the clouds built up consisting of some very dark ones indeed. Sure enough it began to rain, then it began to pour down then it fell like stair rods(as they say). Unfortunately just as it was at its heaviest we had a route finding query and it was far too wet to consult either book or map. We squelched our way up through an orchard where fortunately we found a waymark confirming we were on the right track.
The rain subsided and we found ourselves walking along the edge of an escarpment giving great views down into a valley and beyond. The only drawback was that the escarpment was full of waist high nettles growing as if they were a crop. So our enjoyment was somewhat tempered by the occasional stinging penetrating our sodden clothes. We eventually escaped up into an adjoining field claggy with mud. Thus we arrived in Castle Cary muddy and wet but looking forward to a pint or two. The first pub looked too posh for the like of us but next one, the White Hart, welcomed us all including Max the spaniel. It was a relief to sit down with our pints, shed our wet coats and discreetly eat our sandwiches. Max in the meantime had become transfixed by the presence of Rocky, an African Grey parrot in a cage in the corner of the pub. An ex gun dog, you understand, has only one thought as far as birds are concerned, however, coming across one that answered back was just surreal. Paul protested when it was suggested that Rocky should be the bird of the walk but Rocky’s protests, at this rejection, were far more convincing – so it had to be.
Max was a delight to walk with, once off the lead he ran joyously around, nose to the ground in great excitement.
An hour and a half later we left the pub to brilliant sunshine. Cheered by the effects of the sun and no doubt the beer (and excellent local real cider [Rick]) we made our way on up above the town to a small area on which was mounted a telescope (free) which we used to look back over our route of the past day and a half. It was from here that Rick observed ‘there’s free range chickens over there and they’ve got their own trampolines!’ No, not the effect of the sun or the cider, ‘cos when we all went to investigate, sure enough there they were, as you can see.(or maybe not)
The walk continued through more fields with more rabbit chasing opportunities, lovely tracks, a brief overgrown section and along lanes with very pretty cottages. The sun stayed with us all the way back to South Cadbury. It had been a lovely day.
Bird of the walk - Rocky the African grey parrot
Tree of the walk - Scots pine
Loos of the walk – Wyke Champflower.
We really enjoyed the last two days of walking the Macmillan Way with Paul and it was good share it with Di and Bob and of course Max too.
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