Having spent last week and all weekend helping with art work, packaging prints, sorting cards etc and selling – it was time to start walking again.
So my challenge this time is not to raise money but to challenge myself to keep using the refurbished body I have been given and make sure I keep walking throughout the autumn and winter. So not such a tight time schedule as this time I have 5 months to achieve my goal rather than just over two!
There are some significant walks already planned in but the quest will be on to find different routes and different places.
So today I started at Wotton which is both on the edge of Oxford and quite close to Abingdon. I was trying to be sensible with my petrol as I’d gone to the Hill End Outdoor Centre for a meeting and didn’t want to to waste my mileage!
A convenient place to park by the recreation ground and opposite the rather quaint little church.
The first part of the walk went through this small linear village of Old Wootton, in contrast to the new part which runs either side of the more main road. As the village runs out a small path leads next to a wooded area. The start of this path was very muddy, reflecting the intense rainfall of the last week. I looked up and in the distance I could see a deer on the path.
This area is quite close to Jarn Mound which I visited on a previous walk and there are more very large houses set in extensive grounds. The path passes through some more woodland, lots of Oak trees before opening out onto fields
As the path leads across the fields towards Childwell Farm there are views over towards Oxford. Not quite the classic view but certainly some towers and spires. The path has now merged with the ‘Oxford Greenbelt Way’.
This lone dead tree had a wonderful sculptural property. I seem to internalise these types of images along with the effects of water on wood and rocks.
The path curves round under the hill which is called Powder Hill – is this a reference to a battle in the tone of the civil war?
This tree looked very dramatic against the darkening skies, on this more open stretch.
Very few colourful flowers are now in evidence and the leaves are beginning to change. There are however some very healthy looking cattle!
A little further along and I see this lonely sole. I ate a quick snack in the gateway to this field and as I got my flask out he came right up to see me!
Some walkers overtake me and at the next junction of paths I find I’m following them. A series of stiles slows us all down and then I find they have stopped. A very muddy patch has to be crossed and they volunteer me to cross first! Not as bad as it looked but they didn’t follow!!
A short wooded section again before coming out onto a private road at the very top of the village.
Lots of Oak trees and Sweet Chestnut and lucky with the weather. Quite windy at times and a few spots of rain but from a bad forecast I was lucky again. Just before I reached the main village I spotted this little fellow. Initially sitting at the bottom of the tree – holding and eating a nut. He’d moved a bit by the time I got to take his photo.
This walk wasn’t particularly long – 8.6 km but it was great to be somewhere different again and starting my new challenge.
Also good to be writing the blog again. I’ve missed this discipline. I hope some of you will continue to read!
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 