A short walk made long

After wearing out Sparky the dog yesterday by walking him about 8 miles I thought I would give him a bit of a break this afternoon. My random dice picked the map square with Wasing Farm as the start point. I knew that there was likely to be a wedding there as Wasing park hosts several every week. So I decided to start the walk from the other end of the path and walk to the south end of the farm and back again. About 3/4 mile at the most.

I parked at point A on the map below and we set off via F to B. Unfortunately I missed the turn at F on the return and went via D to C. While I was walking from D to C I believed I was on the path D to E. I discovered my error when we hit the busy road at C.

Retracing our steps we made it back to D and set off for F, only to realise at point E that I had gone wrong again! So we retreated once more and took the track directly to F. Our 3/4 mile walk was in the end nearly 3 miles. Poor Sparky, although he had fun running about in the woods. He probably covered well over 3 miles.

The path looked promising when we started.

Soon it began to get a bit muddy, but not too bad. To the right I saw a few early bluebells. I expect this whole area to be a carpet of blue in a few weeks.

Next we were shouted at by a ewe guarding her two very young lambs.

At the end of the track the remains of Wasing Place (http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/wasing_place.html) and the Estate parish church, now almost exclusively used for weddings.

Looking to the left we saw my wife’s office (the smaller building nestling between the barn and the large house).

Retracing our steps we saw the remaining trees of the former Christmas tree farm. Only a few trees are cut nowadays.

After I had made the first wrong turn we found some pleasant pine woodland for Sparky to play in.

But after much toing and froing I was relieved to find this waiting for us, just as it started to rain.

Next time I will take a compass and refer to the map more frequently, and not wear boots that I have not yet had a chance to “wear in”!