Deb has an allTrails walk that starts in the carpark.
We walk through a gate, into a field. Through a small herd of cows. They ignore us.
there's lush green grass, cows foot prints from when the ground was muddy. A faint trail and occasional marker posts. We're following the blue trail.
It's an "official" trail, allTrails lets Deb know when we wander off course.
Up a gentle hill. down again to the river Ouse. Here, the river channel is a couple of metres deep, the water less than a metre.
Signs tell us that the occasional shallow ditches are Neolithic diggings. Fish traps, perhaps.
Work has been done on the modern river to make it flow better.
There are decorative wooden... things... standing like posts, we're not sure what they mean. Probably not Neolithic.
Both allTrails and the blue trail are blocked by padlocked gates. New owner of some fields, we guess. No worries, Deb guides us on a detour, we rejoin the track a bit later.
There's a sign to SkyGlade. We can see a clear area surrounded by a dozen large wooden posts. No explanation of its significance. I guess, weird women dancing naked under the full moon.
We don't get to the glade, it's the other side of a fence and brambles.
We walk on. It's very peaceful, just us. There's a distant camp ground, no people in sight. Not even more cows in sight. Just a few birds. Lovely:-)
Through a gate, and we are back in the Gardens. The trail was outside, in farmland, edged with trees.
We find a geocache! Our second this holiday.
We're not really trying. I occasionally check the app, see if there's a nearby cache.
This one showed up from 700m away. we're unfamiliar with the country and, for earlier possibilities, unfamiliar with streets and bushes and such. It's hard to know how to approach a distant cache.
But this one is by a pond. And here is a large pond :-) I get us close, Deb finds the cache. Woohoo :-)
Now we're back at the carpark. And near the Gatehouse Cafe.
After nearly six km we feel we have earned a cream sponge and iced coffee.
We've walked through farms. What about the Gardens?
We pay our money and go into Sheffield Gardens.
These Gardens are, of course, old... all the Gardens are old.
There are sweet Chestnut trees 400 years old. Massive redwoods, rhododendrons with a forest of tangled trunks.
There are several large ponds. water lilies are just starting to show flowers, the water lilies are a feature of the Gardens, we're just a month too early.
These Gardens are less formal than others.
There's a lot of mention-- in this and other Gardens -- of destruction caused by the storms of 1987. A lot of trees were damaged or destroyed.
We walk in the Gardens, around the ponds. Admire lilies and ducks. Then back to the cafe.
We eat a late and light lunch. Buy sandwiches for a later dinner. And drive home.
phew!
Oh yes. This week is the Chelsea Flower Show. No way we will go to London to see it.
But no worries... we see it each night on the BBC.
We avoid the crowds of the major events. It's still quite exciting to be close and to see them live or almost live each night on TV.
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-- Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
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If everyone is thinking the same way, then someone is not thinking.
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If everyone is thinking the same way, then someone is not thinking.
A long walk by my standards.
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