Avalon

I guess it wasn't the ideal spot for viewing but Josh was right, it was a wild place right on the edge and full of wildlife.

Anne, my friend Pete the poet's wife, had given me the tourist leaflets for Cheddar Gorge and the Avalon marshes.

Yesterday I enjoyed a good circular walk round the Cheddar Gorge starting at Jacobs Ladder.

This is a 274 step stairway leading to the top of the gorge. The information boards relating the step positions to the history of the gorge give a real sense of how we human beings most certainly are the new guys on the block.

Got lost too. That is par for the course for me. I could hear Kate chuckling away. She used to say, when explaining our walks to others. "we went on one of Steve's expoditions!"

This was a pleasant 2 mile 'expodition' along the Mendip way until that is, I realised that Cheddar Gorge and Tanya and I were going in opposite directions! Ho hum!

All ended well with tea & cakes back in the touristy bit of Cheddar village. Oh! and a wedge of Cheddar cheese with Chillies as a souvenir for Richard back in Salisbury.

Now to the 2nd leaflet. The Avalon marshes and in particular the well documented spectacle of clouds of squillions of Starlings or more returning to the marshes to roost at sunset.

I duly rang the helpline and negotiated Sadie through the peat bogs, or wetlands, which is the environmentally correct term. The roads are narrow and very dippy up and down. It is no joke in a motorhome let me tell you, going over these  subsidence affected roads. The various crashes from the 'garage' (boot in car terms!) right at the rear of Sadie amply attested to the fact that gravity was being tested and found to be functional by all my carefully stored goods.

We arrived at Shapwick Heath to be faced with a prominent sign; 'No dogs allowed beyond this point'. Hmmmph!

Spoke to a lovely local couple and took their recommendation of more rough roads and why not try 'Ham Wall'. I did, and guess what? The same sign was there too.

"Ah well." I thought. We, that is Tanya and I would walk round the road to what looked to be good view point according to the leaflet and the information on the 'starling hotline' which, I presume the Starlings also use so as to know where to congregate.

Now this is where Josh comes in. Josh was clearing brush and tending the fire in his family home as we walked past. To me this initially looked like a community with all sorts of stuff including little Kuney Kuney pigs snorting around as pigs do. He again informed me this was his family home but that the little Kuney Kuney pigs make great sausages.

"Go down the old drove road at the end of this wood," he said, "you can take your dog down there and no one will mind".

He was right apart from the fact it was more of a 'boggy marsh and no footpath in sight' trek over and between water filled ditches which none the less was enjoyable and free of people.

It did eventually lead to a place I decided would be as good a view point as we were going to get seeing as I was silly enough not to bring my jungle bashing machete with me.

The lovely thing is we were rewarded with a Starling Spectacular albeit at binocular distance. Apart that is from smaller flocks that kept swooping in over our hideaway at the edge of the woods as they headed for the main 'Starling action' of the evening.

Not sure Tanya appreciated it fully but I was glad we had made the effort to see this spectacle live on such a lovely February evening. I would certainly recommend it but maybe for others the conventional and well marked routes should be followed. No jungle bashing machete needed I can assure you.