Sunday 18 September 2011

Look closer still


Having decided to boldly go where no man and Berner had gone before it was fitting that we found something extra ordinary during our exploration of Worzel Wood. The wood is a hill, cone shaped, very steep and changes from deciduous ancient woodland to slash and burn forestry conifers clinging on to the rock strewn slopes.
Spotty took point, Bliss, slightly more timid than an agoraphobic mouse walked to heel. Every now and then Spotty would turn to make sure I had followed rather than hid (I hid once and it took us an hour and five miles to find each other, but that's another tale and we both learned a valuable lesson)and we made our way to the summit. The wide leafy trail petered out into nothing and soon we were walking virgin territory, occasionally we might find evidence of inhabitants of the forest but with two dogs panting like steam trains having coronary problems the chances of seeing anything other than deaf squirrels was remote.

And then something caught our eye, Spotty tried to do the pointer but epic failed, instead he just looked long and hard. Now it has to be said I did have in the back of my mind an idea we might look for some caves that are supposed to be in the wood that were allegedly home to some pre war hermit, but what we were looking at was just a shadow in the trees, a bit different to the rest of them.
Closer inspection confirmed man made shadow and closer still a basha type shelter. I did knock, just in case, Bliss got ready to run, just in case, and Spotty just ran inside, just in case there was any free food. The photo of him is blurry as it was a real snap shot because having seen Blair Witch I know you should always run rather than film things.

Anyway, no one home, much to Bliss's relief. Not sure why it was there, someone must have thought this was the place to be, and you have to be determined to get there. Around a year ago I did see smoke rising from this approximate location but never got round to checking its source. But this camp is less than a year old, some of the broken branches have leaves that are barely dried out. Darkness was now falling and as I know how Blair Witch ended we beat a fairly orderly retreat. We shall return one day soon to see if anything has changed. Mind you we have told Sparky Steve's son roughly where it is ( hes 6 and an apprentice super hero) so by the time we go back I expect to find he's moved in, booby trapped the place and taken whoever built it hostage.

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