Walk 28/2009 – Grafham Water Circuit

Sunday 15th November 2009

Opened in 1966 by HRH Prince Philip (I know because I was there on a junior school trip) Grafham Water reservoir was created to provide people with drinking water and is today, a site of special scientific interest, owned by Anglian Water and managed by The Wildlife Trust.

Today we were joined by 3 new walkers – Linda, Pat and Ron for what turned out to be weather wise, a glorious autumn day, a welcome change from the recent wind and rain.

Simon was our walk leader and led us well around a mixture of the 3 Shires Way, cycle routes and bridle paths. A kestrel and red kite were spotted hovering high above.

This magnificently graceful bird of prey is unmistakable with its reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail. It was saved from national extinction by one of the world’s longest running protection programmes, and has now been successfully re–introduced to England and Scotland. It is an Amber List species because of its historical decline. (RSPB)

We entered Savages Spinney (not as scary as is sounds!) – An ancient Oak and Ash woodland area with distinctive plants such as Bluebells and Spurge Laurel. We didn’t see any Bluebells, though we did encounter a rather large black bull and 2 babies that looked quite savage and had their eye on Claire’s red jacket!

Coffee break brought about the arrival of Owen as we sat in the sun overlooking the water and activities.

The trail took us through Dillington – a very small community, with just one lane through it, and not a million miles away from Little Hey open prison, which led to an amusing story from Simon, about his Dad’s car being stolen, some time ago, by an absconder.

Respite was taken in the café at the exhibition centre where it was generally agreed that it had been a walk, made especially enjoyable by the weather.

Report – Sue

Pictures – Simon

Walk rating – has anybody got a rating?