Sunday, 22 April 2012

Burghfield and Mortimer

Wow… I managed to take some really interesting photos on today’s walk.  Pity I forgot to insert the memory card into the BIG AND HEAVY camera before leaving!  Another circular route.  This time it was 29.3km.  It would have been slightly shorter except I discovered there was no public access via the road through the Police Training College.  This had me backtrack three times before eventually finding a suitable alternate footpath.

I hadn’t previously walked much of this part of the local countryside. On one part of the walk I crossed from Berkshire into Hampshire.  There were two young lads in their very early teens dressed in gilly suits hiding in the hedgerow near the Police Training College.  Then I noticed an adult male pegging out decoy birds in the adjacent meadow and trees.  My initial thought was they were planning to catch a bird of prey in a net.  Then one of the boys pulled out a shotgun before the man unleashed a spaniel.  Obviously it wasn’t a good time to be flying in the vicinity.

The route passed through the villages of Burghfield and Mortimer.  Both had pubs, but I resisted the temptation.  This also applied to the local shops selling chocolate and ice cream.  The later was a mistake because my energy level was seriously depleted towards the end of the walk.

One thing which is quite noticeable in West Berkshire are the large number of horses.  There are no carts, so I assume they are either expensive lawnmowers or end up in meat pies or the famous British sausage!  Not that it worries me….. I’ve already eaten horse meat (Italy); along with guinea pig (Peru), Carpathian bear (Romania), beaver (Lithuania) and mountain oysters (NZ)! Smile

Accordingly to Andy, work on Waiouru is scheduled to recommence on Tuesday.

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