What is autumn? Days get shorter and cooler. Fruits ripen. Leaves fall from deciduous trees. Walkers can enjoy cool dry sunny days, or endure cold wet days which don’t get properly light. Climate change ripens fruit earlier. If it delays winter does that mean longer autumn?
As a countryside access warden i visited Ellenden Wood, about three miles south of Whitstable last Thursday. Parked near a man who’d lost his car keys in the wood and was waiting for a recovery truck. Costly.
The public rights of way here are all bridleways, usable on foot, pedal bike or horse. I hoped they’d be wellused and clear. A CAW’s function is to check that paths are unobstructed and waymarked. Report any hazards such as broken stiles. The pleasure of walking is a bonus.
Parked in Denstroude Lane, near southern entrance to Victory Wood. A 21st century planting replacing wood cleared in the 1950s. Ellenden and Tong woods are older. My walk was a triangle, one corner being on Fox’s Cross Road. Other rights of way would have to be visited later.
A pleasant sunny morn. Little mud. Being autumn, fallen leaves covered the tracks making navigation difficult. Hoofmarks helped. Lots of oakleaves. Beech. Squirrel. Molehills. Reeds in damper areas. Many paths are not on the PROW map. By luck or experience, didn’t get lost. Fell once, slipping on tree roots and sitting in mud. Fitted two waymarkers (blue) and did a little pruning. Especially thorny things at eye height or trippy at ground level. Passed one dogwalker.
At the northern end an unexpected view across grass to Seasalter and Sheppey. The final leg was directly into the low sun. Dazzling.
That was a good walk. Autumn can mean plodding through mud or crossing freshly ploughed fields. Rain. High winds. My next walk may not be so pleasant.
We’ll see.
Rambling Brummie 