Jim's Holidays: Somerset Levels and Mendips

Thursday afternoon train to Salisbury where Duncan picks me up and after a supermarket shop we're soon driving down Cheddar Gorge and reach our small but clean home for the weekend. After cooking a few veg to go with yesterday's north African leftovers we go for a wander through the village where it's nippy out so soon back home to finish the wine and an early night.

After a decent cooked breakfast we're on the 9.30 bus to Wells chatting to the well travelled Christine who at Wells bus station tells us to call her if we want a lift to Weston-super-Mare. Think she's embarrassed that the bus no longer goes that far. Very generous. After passing the impressive cathedral we're soon out in the countryside and climbing to get fantastic views over the Somerset Levels across to Glastonbury Tor and beyond that Exmoor as it dips down to the Bristol Channel at Minehead. After stopping for a drink in a village pub we lunch in the spitting rain but it soon stops. We walk along the south east side of the gorge then drop down to walk down the road to get the full gorgeous experience popping into a couple of caves on the way down. Back home Duncan cooks ratatouille and we watch The Arsenal come back to draw in a disappointing match against Southampton. Cotswold whiskey sets us up for bed.

Saturday is a more relaxed start although we are awake early for another decent breakfast. After walking through Cheddar village we start along the old railway track that is the Strawberry Line then skirt round the reservoir to Axbridge then back onto the railway and through the tunnel at Shute Shelve at the end of which is a busker, although not asking for money, who's playing verse after verse of American Pie. We then join the West Mendip Way again. The ways are varied as we go along tracks through fields with vistas over the countryside, along country roads, up through woods with the ground carpeted with wild garlic reminding us of our senior school and across a few streams. We have a few showers but nothing too bad. We come down the gorge along the other side getting amazing views from the bluffs. There are a couple of climbers going up a sheer cliff face in the light rain and below them youths revving their souped up cars in the parking spaces. Back where we are there are goats skipping up and down the seemingly sheer cliffs and when offering to take a photo for 3 girls on a cliff I jokingly tell them to take a few steps back and when they start to I have to shout to stop as I was only joking. Haven't they known bad dad jokes? The walk takes us into Cheddar past our place and I cook a pasta dish with salad washing down with a bottle of red. After watching Man Utd beat Brighton in the cup we finish the night with snooker.

The day of rest we're up late and we decide on a flatter walk today. Through Cheddar village then along the River Yeo into the Somerset Levels. Our way is blocked a couple of times by bulls and cows meaning we have to ford a couple of the criss cross of streams before we are accosted by a young farmer who laughs at us for not shooing away his cows. Do cows butt their heads together? Seeing swans and herons then we head back towards Cheddar meeting up with the reservoir again. Back in the village we make for the highly hyped food and drink festival which is a bit disappointing including the much anticipated Strum and Bass, who unfortunately don't warrant a music blog. Back home we sup our local beers and go for a short walk around our part of the village then back home to sample the Legbender scrumpy from the Cheddar Cider Shop and Duncan's pilau.

Monday we pack the car and drive to Wookey Hole for a walk up Ebbor Gorge which we missed on the first day's walk. It's small steep and narrow and with just the track up slippery stones and the ferns and moss it's primeval. The birds serenade us all the way probably tweeting that there are strangers in these here parts. The weather is good as we come onto the top of the Mendips to join the West Mendips Way and then take the Monarchs Way back down to our start point. After looking round the church we drive to Shepton Mallet where our mum lived in the station house but we decide not to walk around as the heavens have opened. We were looking at the wrong station road anyway I later find out from my mum. We reach Warminster to see my train pulling away but there's another soon enough and I'm travelling through the Wiltshire countryside looking at deer in the fields and passing villages I remember from my youth following the Avon into Bath Spa. At Keynsham my dad picks me up and we have a great evening meal with nettle wine. It's lovely catching up. Next day is gloriously sunny though still nippy and after a walk along the railway track at Bitton and lunch I'm back to London. A great weekend's walking and a nice way to end it.