This walk coincided with both the Wimbledon Finals and the British Grand Prix so unintentionally excluded tennis and motorsports enthusiasts! A small group of five ramblers uninterested in these events met at the car park opposite St Mary's Church in Eversley for the start of the walk. All had walked with BWW before - three regulars and two on their second walk with the group.
We began along forest tracks through Heath Warren Wood and had a good view of a buzzard which flew over just before we crossed Bramshill Road. The next section of the walk was through Bramshill Forest.
Here we passed three lakes where we saw several damselflies and dragonflies. We stopped for lunch by the third lake - an apparently peaceful setting until we discovered it was a popular place for dog walkers to play water based retrieval games with their pets. One particularly badly behaved (and also rather wet) dog even tried to steal lunch from one of our group!
After lunch we left the forest and soon joined the Blackwater Valley Path, walking by the river where we saw damselflies, butterflies and red kites. We crossed back over the river at the footbridge next to the New Mill and the path continued through farmland to Eversley. The day had turned out to be quite humid so by now we were ready for another refreshment stop, this time at the White Hart in Eversley. Three of the group opted for cold drinks and the two who chose tea were impressed by the attractive chinaware it was served in.
Following the break there was only another mile to the end of the walk. This last part of the walk included a good view of Warbrook House, an 18th century mansion now used as a conference and event venue. We also went past a farm with some goats and a lake with a large number of geese and ducks and two turtles. We wondered if these were real or stone ornaments until one ended the uncertainty by jumping into the water for a swim! Finally we returned to the car park past St Mary's Church.
See our route on Google Maps.
Thank you to Denise for leading this walk at short notice and for writing it up.
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