Wetmoor woods doesn't have a visitor centre, carparks or toilets. So if your visiting you have to be a little creative with your parking. Luckily the geocaching site gave us instructions that we could park tidily near a gate providing we weren't blocking it. We had to obtain the first clue from the information board by the gate - it was easily done. The board warned of the muddy/boggyness of the woodland, and advised anyone unsure on there feet to take a stick! They weren't wrong -it was very muddy underfoot, that sort of sticky mud which makes you slide back as you step forwards. Although the woodland is coppiced and well looked after by the Wildlife Trust it still has quite a wild, peaceful feel to it. At the start of our walk a red Roe? deer walked across our path in the distance. I know wild deer are pretty common but I still get really excited when I see one. I can't wait to go to Scotland one day and see great huge stags roaming about in the wild.
Our next way point took us to another notice board on the outskirts of the woodland. It was the same board but we had to obtain different facts from it. Once we had our co-ordinates we could then head off to find the cache. As we continued we could hear a blood chilling barking type sound, we soon realised it was a mating call of a deer. I got a bit scared as we crept nearer and nearer to the sound along a small woodland path. We suddenly saw the deer which saw us and soon scarpered. It was a smaller than the one we'd seen earlier think it was a muntjac deer. On reading about them afterwards this seems to tie in as they mate all year round and don't have a mating season, wheras other common species of deer wouldn't be mating at the moment.
We came out of the woodland onto a broad bridleway which was a huge grassy tracked trail. The sun was shining, birds were singing and there wasn't anyone else to be seem. I couldn't believe such a quiet, beautiful area could exist so close to a city. In the long grass Steve spotted wild orchids which were everywhere.
I'd forgotten my camera so here's a shot of one Steve took from his phone:
After that we found the geocache location, after a bit of walking backwards and forwards we soon found it hidden in a tree. It was slightly exposed so was a little obvious. It had only been found 4 times this year which is indicative of how quiet this woodland is.
After this we decided to head towards Hawksbury Upton and visit the pub there (it would be rude not to). The sun had really come out and it was roasting (not what the earlier forecast had suggested!). Our way on took us over a footbridge which had a bunch of bullocks on the otherside. I have quite a healthy cow fear after being charged at a few times over the last few years. After some bravery by Steve H - going over first and shoo-ing them away we continued, They slowly followed us up the hill - more curious than anything else. After that we had to pass over some very over grown fields on footpaths. Both of us started to really suffer from hayfever. There was the overall impression that no-one had walked this way all year as there was no evidence of the grass being trodden down at all, and some of the field exit points were rather interesting!
We came out of the fields onto a farm track -the map didn't mark the small section of track as a right of way, but we figured a footpath wouldn't just terminate/start with no way of joining it - as we ended the track we saw the footpath sign pointing to where we had come from. I don't know why they don't mark it as a permissive way on the map. I was a bit nervous as there was a barky dog blocking our way past the farm, but Mr bravery Hobdell approached it and the dog stopped barking and wagged it's tail as the farmer called it over. We stopped to have a chat with the farmer, who said it was one of the worst years he could remember for farming - the harvesting of the hay had been delayed due to the wetness of the weather. He also agreed that not many people walked around the fields surrounding there. The dog turned out to be a big softie and I enjoyed stroking it and passing it's ball back and forth.
We soon headed onwards, are tummys rumbling. Not able to wait any longer we leant against a gate and sat on a dusty track to shove some sarnies in our faces. Then it was a slog through more fields to the pub.
The pub was probably one of the nicest I've ever been to. The garden was proper country cottage and they did good cider to. We were a bit gutted we'd had our lunch already as the food coming out of the kitchen looked really good. It was so hot in the garden we had to move into the shade as I could feel my skin starting to cook. It was with heavy hearts we left the pub after a swift drink to continue the walk.
Earlier on, on the way to the pub, we'd seen a tower on the horizon - it was marked on the map as 'monument'. Some history taken from geograph: The Somerset Monument was built by Lewis Vulliamy in 1846 in memory of Robert Edward Henry Somerset. He was a general at the Battle of Waterloo of 1815, and died in 1842. He was a nephew of the Sixth Duke of Beaufort. The tower is approximately 100 feet tall and can be seen from the Tyndale
Sadly the gates were locked and there was no info about opening times or if you can go up it which was dissapointing. Even an internet search post walk didn't shed any light on it.
We had another geocache to find - the gps was pointing down into a ditch through lots of vegetation, we thrashed our way through and eventually found it - an Amo (amunition) box one - hurrah. I like these as they are usually filled with lots of things to swap. We didn't stay for long as it wasn't particularly pleasant getting poked by bits of bush etc!
We headed off along the re-diverted Cotswald way to our next destination - another multicache. The way took us along a combe called 'Long Combe' to the site of where the first geocache co-ordinates were hidden. We had to use the GPS and clue to find it. We hunted high and low for about 20 minutes but had to give up in the end. There was a new fence which had been put in so we wondered if it had been removed. There were also allot of potential places for it to be hidden and the GPS signal wasn't great so it wasn't always clear if we were in the right place. In the heat of the day we then had to ascend to the top of the other valley and walk back in the direction we had come from. I'd nearly finished all my water and Steve had forgotten to bring his. Neither of us had realised it was going to be a hot day and the heat was starting to make me feel dizzy. I sat down in the shade for a short while and then ate an apple which perked me up a bit and it was onwards.
The last section of our walk took us through more unwaymarked fields - at one point I was so unsure we were in the right place I got out my GPS to check - Steve's navigation was spot on - we were in the correct location, it just didn't look like a way through - a bit of reinforced wooden fence, with no sign and no path onwards was not clear at all! After passing through another field we reached our exit point- through a bog. In my typical gung ho fashion I didn't look before I lept and ended up putting a foot into the muddy bog. Thankfully it didn't cause too much damage.
As it was late in the day we decided to head back along the lanes, taking a short cut over Inglestone Common and back to the car.
Aside from the boiling hot heat and dying of hayfever all walk (and that's with taken antihistermines too!) this was probably one of the best local walks I've done in a long while. Will be returning to the woodland for more wanders soon I hope.
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