Thirty miles of walking over two days through an area of outstanding natural beauty, plus a bonus craft beer/cat review!
Day One:
My mate Kit and I both have girlfriends who have ditched us to go to the other side of the world for ages. As such we decided to walk 30 miles across Somerset over a weekend for some reason, as we both had the free time. Here’s how it went.
I met Kit Friday at Bristol Parkway, where he was very surprised to see me as I told him I was going to be over an hour late. He called this “trolling”, which I would just call “a joke”. Vernacular differences aside, we drove to the Airbnb in Wells, catching up with each other between interruptions from the Google sat nav woman directing us. Kit had banked on using a pub toilet for the hour I was “running late”, and therefore was busting for a wee for the entire 45 minute ride to Wells, yet somehow paradoxically managed to see off the bottle of Felinfoel double dragon I handed him at Parkway. Once we got to the Airbnb and dumped our stuff, we headed into the city for food. We ate at an Indian restaurant called Rajah, before walked around the corner for some pricey trappist beer, and home to sleep.
The next day I had the pleasure of waking up at 5:30am, and driving to Weston Super Mare, where I parked the car at our finishing point and caught the first 126 bus back to Wells. The bus took an hour and a half, and I was back at the Airbnb by nineish. After breakfasting in town, we started walking at ten. The weather was not our friend for the first half of the day. Never more than a constant drizzle, it kept us saturated. It took us a while to find the West Mendip Way, all weekend we had this annoying habit of missing a subtle turn, and walking for some time before having to retrace our steps to get on track. One cool thing about the weekend though was that Kit used his phone to track our walk. The voice of Google would announce every mile, and told us how fast we’d walked it. This was a great tool to analyse our walk, and was encouraging after a quick mile, but disheartening after a slow one.
We left Wells on Milton Lane, where we passed a field full of pheasants. There must have been at least forty, which amazed me as I’ve never seen more than two together. It was like a Disney film. We crossed fields to the outskirts of Wookey Hole, where we were greeted with a row of houses all built of pale pink limestone. They reminded me of Pink Bay, my favourite beach near my home. Having cracked our first two beers we sipped them as we walked, Kit opting for (demanding) the coffee porter, and me getting lumped with the red rye IPA.
After passing Wookey Hole the path took us through a muddy forest with a steep route to the top. This was brutal as most of the steps were over a foot tall, and my rucksack was heavy with all of my belongings for two days including around three kilos of liquid in the form of beer and water, and a hoodie that I didn’t wear all weekend. Eventually we got the viewpoint on top, where we cracked the second pair of our Aldi beers, which I was keen to literally get off my back, and admired the foggy view. Kit having the golden ale, and me the 4 hop lager. After two miles we entered the village of Priddy, where we happened upon the Queen Victoria Inn. We seized the opportunity for a pint each, and to leave our gear near the roaring fire to dry off. I can’t help but feel we spent too long there, and too early in our walk. After leaving twice because I left my hat by the fire, we continued through Priddy on Coxton End Lane, which had rolling fields either side of us. In the next field we stumbled upon another walker who was going the wrong way. He joined us for a bit after we set him right. It was great chatting with him, but ultimately his pace was incompatible with ours, and he left us in his wake. No doubt he had less beer and useless clothing weighing him down. We cracked the last beer when he was out of sight, the American IPA, and shared it as we walked. A few fields later we were on a big downhill into the village of Draycott, and then back up another huge hill and down again, skirting near Cheddar, of cheese and gorge fame. Also, by this point it we’d seen the last of the weekend’s rain, which was a cause for celebration.
We got slightly off track, which was the thin end of the wedge that lead to us ending up very off track on the slopes of Beacon Batch, the highest hill in the Mendips. I was struggling with the uphills at this point. Eventually after climbing over a dry stone wall, and a barbed wire fence we were once again where we should be, and were soon rewarded with spectacular views of Glastonbury Tor to the south, and the almost perfect circle of Cheddar reservoir, and the Severn estuary straight ahead of us to the west. This encouraged me, even if briefly.
We then came down an incredibly steep forested hill to the road that passes through Cheddar gorge, and then across the other side. Up through a forest and across a hilltop farms fields. We passed a farm where almost all of the sheep were limping, much like I was at this point, and made our way down the lane. The paved road punished my feet, which were blistered and wet from the puddles that we tried unsuccessfully to not wade through. Eventually we made it to Winscombe and the Airbnb. After trying to get into the wrong house we eventually got in the correct one, and got clean, warm and fed. We ordered Chinese food and stuffed our faces. I was exhausted, having been up three hours before Kit to move the car. I was in bed at 9pm and asleep by around 9:01pm.
Day one breakdown:
Notice how Kit doesn’t actually start tracking our walk until we are pretty far from Wells city centre. You can add a mile to the 17.4 easily.
Day Two:
There is something to be said of the healing power of a dozen hours sleep. I certainly benefited from it after the first day’s 5:30am start, and twenty miles. Our Airbnb host Oscar cooked us fried eggs on toast, and made us coffee to start our day. This, along with the dry weather and dry footwear put us in a good mood, despite the aches from the day before. We were out and on the road shortly after 10am and headed for something called the Strawberry Line, the old Cheddar Valley train line. It should have taken us to the West Mendip Way, but was fenced off for construction work. As it was a Sunday we reasoned that there wouldn’t be work being done on it, so we hopped the fence and walked down the line, past pipes and machinery. We thought we were pretty clever not having to take
the diversion, until ahead of us we could make out some orange hi-vis trousers, and heard the noise of an engine. People were working. We had to head back to the last fence we’d hopped, and make our own detour which added considerable distance to our walk early in the day. To add insult to injury Kit bust out the crotch of his trousers hopping one of the fences. Not the best start.
I found solace on the dual carriageway, where we had to walk single file, by picking hawthorn berries and throwing them at Kit’s head from distance. This activity continued for the rest of the day whenever the hedgerows provided ammunition.
We soon found ourselves away from the road, and into the Kingswood, whose name is straight out of Game of Thrones. This was a long uphill section that was popular with local walkers. We climbed up through the wood and straight onto Compton Hill, where we enjoyed the best view of the weekend at the trig point. It was one of the best views I’ve seen in the UK, and the photographs don’t do it the slightest bit of justice. From the top of the trig point I could see 360 degrees. Somerset is mostly flat, and as we were so high up we could see for miles. We could see the Quantock Hills in the south west, Bridgewater Bay curving gradually around to Devon beyond. Both Flat and Steep Holm in the Severn Estuary, and behind them Cardiff and the South Wales coast. I could even see the Brecon Beacons, I’m sure I could make out the distinctive twin peaks of Pen y Fan and Corn Du almost fifty miles away. This was the highlight of the weekend for me.
We pressed on, following the dry stone wall to our right that guided us along the ridge to Crook Peak, another great viewpoint a mile away. This offered even better views of the Severn estuary and was popular with walkers. Two remote control plane enthusiasts provided entertainment, using the wind whipping off the hill to their advantage. The thin grey ribbon of the M5 passed close by, and Kit and I couldn’t wait to get it behind us.
Following what seemed like a path to nowhere, we scrambled down a rocky slope until it cut through a forest and a legitimate path appeared. We came out in a hotel car park and felt inclined to stop for a pint. I lost the bet as to whether it would be a bridge over, or a tunnel under the M5, (It was a bridge) so I had to buy the drinks. The hotel was dead, and we waited a long time for service. When we were served it was by an incompetent bartender who overcharged me by £3.90. Murphy’s was on offer but he insisted it was £4.50 a pint. We drank up on the balcony outside, but before we headed off noticed that there had been two signs on the bar announcing that Murphy’s was on offer for £2! After a chat with the manager I was reimbursed but still couldn’t believe a pint of coke was £3.50, I would have had two pints of Murphy’s instead!
After crossing the M5 bridge we went very wrong and had to retrace our steps to start the climb over the last big hill of the weekend. We walked down Roman Road, which had an incredible view, one that must come with an expensive price tag judging by the size of the houses there, and the supercars parked on their drives. After a long gradual downhill through the village of Bleadon we entered Uphill, and neared the Ship, the pub we’d set our sights on for Sunday lunch, at the bottom of Uphill Hill (I love the fact that you could say “’I’m going up Uphill Hill” and it would be grammatically correct).
When we arrived I was done. I wanted nothing more than for the walk to be over, every muscle below my waist ached. We shamelessly ate our roasts with our shoes off to rest our swollen feet. After debating whether to catch a bus not for the last mile, we decided to walk, passing a golf club, and the seafront before arriving at the car. I dropped Kit off at Temple Meads and headed home myself. As I crossed the Severn bridge the sun was setting. A consequence of travelling east for most of my weekends away, is having to return west on a Sunday evening, driving into the sun. It cast its golden glow over the Severn to my left. The estuary that had been our goal all weekend, was bathed in amber, Baywatch light that makes everything it touches appear more appealing. It looked glorious. The knowledge that I’d walked all the way to it’s shore from Wells made me feel good, like I’d achieved something, and it far outweighed the allover ache which I suppose is the price you pay for the feeling of achievement.
Day 2 breakdown:
Couple of things. First look how the start of our walk makes a number 5 shape. You can see the exact point where we saw the workers on the Strawberry line, and had to double back on ourselves. Secondly notice the part where we catastrophically went wrong and had to double back on ourselves again near Webbington. That cost us both miles and morale. Finally, notice how Kit ended the walk in Uphill, although we actually walked what Google maps informs me was 1.5 extra miles to my car parked on Severn Road.
Aldi craft beer review:
Hywel’s beer preferences:
- Coffee Porter
- 4 Hops Lager
- American IPA
- Red Rye IPA
- Golden Ale
Kit’s beer preferences:
- Coffee Porter
- Golden Ale
- Red Rye IPA
- 4 Hops Lager
- American IPA
Do with that information what you will.
Cat of the weekend:
First place: The first Airbnb’s cat that was utterly unfazed by us two strangers entering his home in the dark, and refused to move from his bottom step. We had to step over him.
Runner up cat: 2nd houses cat. Nothing special, just basic cat.
3rd place cat: The first Airbnb’s other cat that hid in the airing cupboard dead in front of the toilet and scared the shit out of me. Good job I was on the toilet. Not cool cat.
More photos of the weekend:
Walked it: 8th-9th/10/17
Published: 19/12/17
hywelwithoutborders 