Today it was Alicia's turn to lead Joyce's Walking Group. We did a circular walk from Lynford Stag.
This was the invite.
"Friday February 21st Alicia is kindly leading a walk from Lynford Stag parking area at 10am. Nearest postcode is IP26 5ET (off the A134). It is a circular walk of 11 miles. The walk will go through Lynford Arboretum where there will be a coffee break and toilet. Please bring packed lunch as this will be eaten at Mundford. There is a pub here and Alicia may have a stop here. "
9 of us assembled at the Lynford Stag car park and we set off about 10am as planned. This was our route today, which was a nice variation on what we had done before.
Here are a few of my photos.
The Lynford Stag sign by our car park.
Off we go.
We were soon at the weir at the corner of Zigzag covert.
This colony of bracket fungus was rather colourful.
We crossed the bridge to the arboretum.
We went in search of the tree planted to mark the retirement of Joyce's Dad. And here it is!
We saw plenty of crocuses today....
I managed to catch this cheerfully singing song thrush.
Just ahead, others in the group had spotted a toad. I just managed to catch it before it disappeared under the leaves.
We double back westwards to reach the beaches of
Lynford Water
Rachel was the only one
mad brave enough to go for a paddle. She didn't stay in for long!
We returned to skirt
Lynford Hall, which, in July last year at least, was still on sale for £3.95m (see
here). (See also the photo at the top of this post).
In front of the avenue of sequoias planted in the 1800s to honour the Duke of Wellington, is
this statue of bulls fighting - alas now missing some horns and a tail. It was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1863 and 1864 and bears the
inscription "COMBAT DES TAUREAUX CAMPAGNE DE ROME J. CLESINGER 1863".
The marble was described by the Clesinger's friend the critic Theophile
Gautier (1811 - 1872) in August 1864: '
The two enemies have given their
all as they charge in blind fury, their legs braced, muscles tensed,
flanks quivering with the effort; it seems as though the fight will
continue, but it is over; one of the bulls has plunged his horn into his
rival’s stomach, ensuring that he will soon roll over dead, his hooves
in the air, pulling the victor down in his fall".
We walked along the avenue of sequoias behind the statue
...and passed this lake at the western end of Zigzag Covert.
We were soon in Mundford - our lunch stop.
Time head on back to the Lynford Stag.
They had been logging here.
Now here was a surprise. We came across lots of people with vans... and huskies!.
They will be racing tomorrow but probably not far because the weather was too hot for the dogs.
Past a collection of potential witches broomsticks...
...across the road and we were back at the Car Park.
Thank-you Alicia for leading us and to the others for the additional company.
You can find more details of our 10.8 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.
Other related walks you can find on my blog include...
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