Author Topic: Dalby Forest - Bridestone Moor  (Read 4927 times)

Mr. Blister

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Dalby Forest - Bridestone Moor
« on: 09:56:48, 20/08/07 »
Dalby Forest – Bridestone Moor, 19/08/07

My first thoughts on waking was to see if it was still raining, it wasn’t, but the threat was there.  I didn’t mind this, as overcast weather always makes walking easier.

My friend, Sue, came to pick me up at 8.00am, and we drove the 40miles or so into Nth Yorkshire, our destination being Dalby Forest, one of several forests on the moors.  I had still to walk in forest terrain, my main walking experience being limited to wolds and dales.

We parked our car in the visitor’s centre car park, paying £7.00 for the privilege. It was still early and so was fairly empty, save for a group of mountain bikers.  The plan, such as it was, was a broad circular route of about 15miles, taking in the majestic Bridestones to the north of the forest, and then to walk deep into the forest itself .. but unfortunately events were to dictate otherwise.

The early morning mist was clinging to the tree tops as we set off, and it was deathly silent.  We followed a snaking path uphill and into the forest.  The ground underfoot was damp and cloggy, and it became a matter of routine to bang our boots against trees to remove the earth.  I was finding it quite hard going, and was conscious of the fact that I was making more effort than I would normally do so early.  I made a mental note to keep on top of this.

Everything, everywhere was wet and dripping, and I enjoyed running my hand along the ferns or banging a branch to have a shower of droplets fall on me.  This simple act encouraged a sense of kinship with the forest, and made me remember that I am still a hippy at heart.  The path led us on a merry chase, sometimes away from the stones, then out of the forest, only to veer dramatically back into the forest again.  All the time, the map showing it as a straight line!  Eventually though, we started seeing signs for the Bridlestones, and the path became more waymarked and maintained.  It climbed steeply, and weeved in every direction, before emerging onto Bridlestone Moor itself.  This place taxes all the superlatives making them redundant: amazing, profound, stupendous, awesome .. let it be enough for me to say I felt a peace that I don’t experience enough.

The Bridestones are huge lumps of sandstone left here in the ice age, many legends surround them, but there true mystery is the dramatic impact they have on the landscape – imposing and dominant.  I was sad to see that some of them had had graffiti smeared over them. How? Why? Up here, in the middle of nowhere?  We could have stayed on the moor all day, such was our fascination with the place, but we wanted to get back into the forest. 

I was very conscious of the forest, with all its paths and avenues, and I wanted to experience them, to be amongst to them.  It was afternoon now, and the bluebottle bikers had arrived and were everywhere.  You could hear fanatical shrieking coming from a distant place, as a biker, somewhere, flung himself down a slope.  Without warning, they would come bursting around a corner, a quick “good afternoon” and they were gone in a blur of carbon fibre and gore-tex.

I’m not sure how long it had been damp, but I became aware that my right foot was wet, and that my boot felt loose.  We were heading into the heart of the forest, and I stopped to inspect it.  I was aghast to see the stitching had come loose down the whole of one side and that the sole was gradually coming away.  I sunk sullenly onto a fallen tree, and me and my companion agreed that we should return to the car.  It was, frankly, too dangerous to walk on the path.  My boot simply wouldn’t last, and so we decided to follow the main forest drive – the main road that cuts through the forest – back to the car park.  This was still a good two and a half mile of walking, and I wasn’t sure my boot would last.

I’m not sure it’s right to be emotionally attached to a piece of footwear but I had worn these boots since I first started hiking seven years ago, and to see them literally deteriorate around my feet was most disconcerting.  But they did me proud, and managed the distance, and I didn’t go barefoot once!

Still we managed a good nine miles, but I feel some regret that I didn’t get to experience the heart of the forest and its solitude.  Maybe next time.

baboon

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Re: Dalby Forest - Bridestone Moor
« Reply #1 on: 09:10:14, 13/09/07 »
"We parked our car in the visitor’s centre car park, paying £7.00 for the privilege."

  It is actually a £7 toll road fee not a car parking fee.  If you arrive at Dalby before 9am there is nobody in the toll both and you are allowed to travel / park for free.

  "The path led us on a merry chase, sometimes away from the stones, then out of the forest, only to veer dramatically back into the forest again.  All the time, the map showing it as a straight line!"

  Is your map current.  I don't know exactly when but Dalby has had a face lift to accommodate a mountain bike route, as you mention.

  Good write up and I agree it is a magical place.

Mr. Blister

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Re: Dalby Forest - Bridestone Moor
« Reply #2 on: 19:40:35, 15/09/07 »
Hi, Baboon,

Say, you don't work for the Forestry Commission do you  ;)  Of course you're right about the £7.00 toll fee, but it felt like we were paying to park.  I'm not convinced by paying to enter a forest, seems a bit odd to me .. but I guess you've got to fund the upkeep somehow.  :)  Bit of a pain, we arrived slightly after 9.00am, so I guess we just missed it.

I used Ordnance Survey landranger series 2006. Not great, and they've let me down before.  I found very little waymarking in Dalby forest, not so much on the publicised family walks, but on the outskirts.  The signs, like in the one above, were easy to miss.

All things considered, I am aching to return to Dalby. I have a sense of unfinished business, and it was a fitting place for my boot to end.  Can you reccomend any good walks around there, off the beaten track, so to speak.

Cheers!  ;)

 

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