Some would have thought it foolhardy to go walking on this rather damp looking day.  Some wives even said as much however there was no rain until just before we got back to the car and a good time was had by all.
From Clayhill car park we headed south east over some fairly wet ground as we made our way towards the cycle paths.  The path through Parkhill and Ramnor Inclosures was fine and reasonably dry.  

If you ever want to find out anything about butterflies you can visit http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/index.php.  
If you want to find out where to go to see a particular butterfly the same site has a distribution map that can be viewed in Google Maps
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/distributions.php  

Write up by Rob, who had one of his loquacious turns.
"Quite a clear day.   Lots of water about but our first explore of this top corner of Wareham Forest.  Peter missing on family duties but the boys got round.  Bit of map missing but route obvious!"
The additional half star for the Baker's Arms had nothing to do with the Baker's Arms but some other part of another individual.

The  Queen's Head car park is no longer free unless you are having a meal at the pub.  Payment  machines have been installed but the cost will be reimbursed if you present a tear off section from the ticket when you buy a meal at the pub.  We were fortunate to spot this before setting off. 
​Rob had made all the arrangements for the Walkers' Christmas Lunch at the Queens Head in Burley for the princely sum of £9.99.  So we decided to park at the pub and have a walk around Burley and Burley Street.  The walk was reasonably planned as far as the Smugglers' Road but after that it was "flexible" to ensure we arrived back in time for lunch at 14:30.
There is a decent path just beside the road out of Burley, past Burley Hill House and out onto Vales Moor.  Approaching the gates of Burley Hill House it may seem hard to believe that there is a public footpath but it is clearly marked through a gate on the right.  It was a little like wading along a small stream but luckily a very shallow one.  Once out on the moor the paths were remarkably dry until we spotted a good place to sit and have our break off to the west of the Smugglers' Road.  This involved athletic leaps over a small stream.  Everyone enjoyed this adventure and the nice variety of ups and downs that contributed to the day's exercise.
Crossing the road close to Picket Post we headed around Vereley Wood, with its impressive stand of beech trees, and then out onto Ridley Green and Box Berry Hill.  It was quite wet under foot in some places but not bad going really.  We all remembered the small stream by Common Moor.  A rather wet area that we had struggled to cross on a previous walk but we found a way through without too much difficulty.  We followed the road back from Burly Street to the pub with fifteen minutes to spare.
The lunch was excellent value for money.  The food was good and plentiful and the service efficient.  The Christmas pudding was rather small but none of us wanted any more!  The table had been nicely decorated and crackers provided.  They get 3★s for the lunch and Rob gets 3★s for the suggestion.
​

Once again Wednesday was there best day of the week.  There had however been a lot of rain recently and the tracks through the fields were a bit muddy in places.  On the other hand the sections through the woods were remarkably dry.
We missed the first turn off the road and ended up walking along the northern edge of Birches Copse before rejoining the main path, but this was fine. The stretch through West Farm is interesting as there are a few unusual farm animals to be seen beside the path.  You can see the animals or book one of the farm's lodges if you visit their web site.  http://www.westfarmholidays.co.uk/html/animals.html
We then passed the somewhat strangely named Ninney-cox Wood before reaching the Remedy Oak Club House where we found some comfortable felled trees to sit on while we had some refreshments.
We stopped to have a look in the church at Woodlands and to take a group photo in front of the old schoolhouse.
A little care is needed to follow the paths after this point and it is not unknown for those relying on paper maps to wander off the path.  The small section make blue on the map appears to be a proper path but it is not actually signed and the signed route goes through Maldry Wood with trees on both sides not the field as suggested by the map.
On the way back to Edmondsham there is quite a steep drop down a field that, today,  was quite wet and muddy.  Whether this was a good reason for Rob to try out "mud skiing" or not is open to question.  Sad to say it was a bit of a wash out - for Rita that is! 
There was, once again, a considerable difference between the 8.25 miles recorded by OS MapFinder and the 6.9 miles shown on Anquet.
We drove back to the Lambs Green Inn for lunch where we had chicken and leak pie for the second week in a row and we were not disappointed.
Another good day out.
​
Looking back I found that Clive covered much of this walk on 5th April 2006 but, being much younger in those days we journeyed all the way south into the edge of Ferndown Forest covering nearly 9.5 miles.
On 27th of October 2010 Rob also covered much of the same ground but we went to the Albion in Romford for lunch then and that walk was recorded as 7.1 miles.

It was a somewhat dull but quite warm and pleasant day when warm we parked beside the church and set off across the road to follow a quite reasonable grassy path out into Wareham Forest.
There was one very brief burst of sunshine captured in the picture below.
We have been to Wareham Forest quite a few times so Ray did well to find quite a few tracks that we had not been on before many of them with good solid ground underfoot.  We had a look at the possibility of crossing the boggy area following the power lines in the south west corner but that very quickly became an obviously insurmountable barrier and so we looped around the edge.  We stopped for our break where there is a faint number 26 on the map.  Here we saw a pine tree that was seeping liberal amounts of sap from its trunk onto the ground.  Peter and Rob both discovered how sticky it is!
We stopped for a group photo on the edge of Woolsbarrow Fort.  We were here earlier in March this year  but at that time Clive only appeared a spectre.
It was about here that we started to speculate on the distance that this walk was going to be as all our legs were starting to feel like a rest; surprising really considering that the walk is almost entirely flat and there are only a couple of styles.
We decided to give the Bakers Arms another try for our usual late lunch and were pleasantly surprised by the excellent Chicken and Leak pie.  It was very tasty,  full of chunks of chicken and accompanied by excellent chips.  The pots of tea were a bit of a let down and seemed to have been made with lukewarm water.  This cost them half a star.