Words by Bollards
Thorverton Parish Council had kindly allowed us to use the
village hall car park so Twin Peaks was there to greet us and wave us through
the gates. The sun was beating down; not
the usual October weather -but welcomed.
The trail was three and on, with several long/short splits;
the first at the beginning of the trail where the shorts went right, (or was
that left?) just out of the car park. The longs faffed around for a while, crossing
over a ford, then back, generally ambling around until they decided to go in
the direction of the shorts, then found an interesting diversion down a bank
and along a stream until a cross appeared and everyone turned back, slipping on
the rocks in the process and makings sure that no-one exited the stream dry.
Back on the road again, the trail took a right turn along a
disused road. Another long/short split
took saw the longs gravitating towards, and into, the stream again, when the
actual trail went along the edge and up onto an old railway line. There wasn’t a defined path and we picked our
way through the brambles before joining up with the shorts.
The third split was a Ha Ha, of sorts, and shortly after the
longs had re-joined the shorts we were at the sweetie stop. There was much confusion about the name of
the small purple flowers growing under the tree, but they were definitely
cyclamen.
The last part of the trail had plenty of fish-hooks and then
just as we thought we were on home, there were two diversions to make it more
interesting (and longer).
The trail was well laid; everyone kept together. There were the usual fines, plus the naming
of Happy Snapper’s husband who will henceforth be known as the Dark Lord.