Walking in the countyside

Since it was lunchtime and I was working in my old trusty camper van on Exmoor, I decided to nip up to Dunkery Beacon for a lunch time walk.

From Dunster, I went up to Wheddon Cross past snowdrops waving in the wind and turned right towards Exford.

A quarter of a mile along the Exford road, I turned right up a tiny road onto the moorland around Dunkery Beacon.

As soon as I was on the moor, parking was easy with the choice of two small parking spots. The Bristol Channel looked kingfisher blue in the distance under a beautiful clear sky spotted with lazy white clouds drifting under a sparkling bright sun.

I parked up my camper van and struck off up the hill following the path bordering the hedge. It was fairly rocky underfoot which makes for hard walking but it was tremendously exhilerating to be so high up on the moors. The heather was a dirty brown at this time of the year but the grass was green and the air was sharp and fresh.

Last time I came to this spot, I heard and saw a cuckoo for the first time in my life so it was already special. On this occasion, I was struck by the lack of any bird calls. The only sound was my feet on the stones and the wind through the trees. Quite eery really

After walking in the direction of Exford for 15 minutes, I turned back along the same path and immediately spotted black smoke billowing up from the moorland to the left of where I had parked my campervan.

I needn’t have worried, though, because when I got back I could see that the smoke was still coming from quite far away. Nevertheless, it certainly speeded my return journey and I was relieved to be safely back with my vehicle again and to find it intact.

Within half an hour, the smoke had disappeared. I expect it was controlled burning by the people who manage the moorland.

More walks coming soon.

Bye for now

Rob
(Rob Hopcott)