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They said it would be showery, and all the showers came in
the morning and stopped when we got back, but as ever, it
was still a good trip. We only had three explorers: Alexander,
John Donaldson and Lewis with Philippa and the expedition
dog, Crunchie.
We parked close to the beach and started by examining one
of James Cameron's distinctive fence strainers, more of which
we were to see later on. Then we crossed the beach to look
at an interesting stone, only to be diverted by a very good
clay deposit which, from experiment, was found to hang on
to a wellie boot pretty well. After a look at the odd chunk
of limestone on the pile of ballast rocks at the top of the
beach we carried on into the wood through the alder plantation
and looking at a big oak which was being attacked by winter
moth caterpillars, although we didn't see or hear any caterpillars.
The waterfall was making a lot of noise but we couldn't get
a good view since the trees were in full leaf, next time I'll
come earlier in the spring.
Carrying on through the wood John read out the account of
the fire which took place there in 1755 and after a break
we went on to the top of the hill and examined a tree which
had once been a fence post and now had thick iron wires going
right through it. Lewis and John found a big ants' nest and
spent some time around it. We also saw a huge old oak pollard
which had fallen only a few years before and came back to
the road down a beautiful track built by the estate at least
a hundred years before.
John
Dye
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