| Date: Location: Distance: Parking: Lunch: | 15 March 2018 Moreton 5.8 miles Beside the Walled Garden, close to Moreton Cemetery. The Bakers Arms ★★★★☆ |
Health Warning: You could end up in a similar place if you tackle this walk after bad weather!!
 T E Lawrence | This walk turned out to be quite exciting and parts of it could not be recommended for the faint hearted. I feel obliged to point out it was Ray's choice. I'm not that brave. Parking was off the road, free and easy just beside the walled garden next to Moreton cemetery. We spent a few minutes here going to look at the grave of TE Lawrence which is at its far end. |
It was only a short distance along the road before we came to the long footbridge over the River Frome. We were a bit concerned about the track before Moreton Plantation that appears, on the map, to run across the middle of a couple of fields. We were pleasantly surprised to find that this was a well maintained grass track between two wire fences. However a nasty surprise was just waiting.
| Shortly before the Plantation the ground became a lot wetter and Peter was using the fence wire for support. His feet slipped. He held on to the wire but alas the last section was not secured as, at its end, was the hook for the electric fence. It would have been impossible to have found a muddier part of the path to have dived onto and to make it worse the judges awarded a zero for style. Ray found a towel in the bottom of his bag and enthusiastically provided rub down services. It didn’t take too long for the mud to dry! |  A Nice Place To Lay Down |
Through the kissing gate (no we didn’t) and we were onto a better more solid path. Entering the wood we were faced with a small lake where there should have been a path. We struggled to find a way round this, through some quite thick rhododendrons, but finally made the other side where the path improved again. Unfortunately this sequence of events continued to repeat itself. We climbed across tree trunks, stepped gingerly along branches lying on paths covered in running water and even walked the plank at one point.
It may look as if we were to the side of the main Jubilee Trail but it has obviously been re-routed since this map was drawn as we came out at a point where there was a marker showing the path where we had come from. We could rename this stretch the Jubilee Trial.
It had taken some time to get through this section so we decided not to go past Cul-peppers Dish but to cut across to the west using the path running almost parallel to the Hardy Way. We found an excellent spot to sit, have a drink and relive our recent adventures. Although this looks like a minor path it is in fact well made up and reasonable dry. The positions and existence of some of the adjoining paths are however not accurate.
The path continued to be good after crossing the Waddock Drove Road. We remembered from previous times in this area that some care is needed where the path crosses under the pylon lines. The main path seems to swing round to the right but the one to take is the minor one down the slope. It passes, through a gate and into a field. The exit from the field is through another gate in the top right hand corner and comes out on a road beside a very small group of properties.
Everything was then easy going until we reached the track from the road and on past Waddock Dairy. This was full of large puddles and pretty muddy too. It was however possible to avoid the worst bits by carefully selecting a very zig zag route. We then enjoyed a short stretch of grassy bliss before rejoining the path we started out along.
We stopped for lunch at The Bakers Arms in Lytchett Minster where we had the excellent chicken and ham pie. The food here is now consistently so much better than it was a few years ago.
It may look as if we were to the side of the main Jubilee Trail but it has obviously been re-routed since this map was drawn as we came out at a point where there was a marker showing the path where we had come from. We could rename this stretch the Jubilee Trial.
It had taken some time to get through this section so we decided not to go past Cul-peppers Dish but to cut across to the west using the path running almost parallel to the Hardy Way. We found an excellent spot to sit, have a drink and relive our recent adventures. Although this looks like a minor path it is in fact well made up and reasonable dry. The positions and existence of some of the adjoining paths are however not accurate.
The path continued to be good after crossing the Waddock Drove Road. We remembered from previous times in this area that some care is needed where the path crosses under the pylon lines. The main path seems to swing round to the right but the one to take is the minor one down the slope. It passes, through a gate and into a field. The exit from the field is through another gate in the top right hand corner and comes out on a road beside a very small group of properties.
Everything was then easy going until we reached the track from the road and on past Waddock Dairy. This was full of large puddles and pretty muddy too. It was however possible to avoid the worst bits by carefully selecting a very zig zag route. We then enjoyed a short stretch of grassy bliss before rejoining the path we started out along.
We stopped for lunch at The Bakers Arms in Lytchett Minster where we had the excellent chicken and ham pie. The food here is now consistently so much better than it was a few years ago.
 Crossing The Frome |  Mind The Gap |  Rimsmoor Pond |  Dairy Go Here? |
RSS Feed