Difficult journeys

Catherton Common - Wednesday 7th September

I have a choice of two main routes to Catherton Common. The first is to pick up the A49 heading south then turn left at Ludlow to Doddington; the second is via Bridgnorth and Cleobury Mortimer. Both should take just over the hour. So why when I set off only a couple of minutes late should I arrive at the meet point over 20 minutes late with everyone waiting (thankfully) for me, including a couple who sent me a message to say that they had been delayed. Yes my mobile phone was on and accessible!

A choice had to be made. I chose the A49 - straighter roads, less junctions etc.

What a bad choice.

All was well until I got to the A49 when I was stuck behind a road tanker.

Obviously it was not this one as I was driving and not in a position to take photographs so this and all those that follow are examples taken from clip art to illustrate the tale. The one I was following was white.

But this vehicle had to slow down as we came up behind a tractor and trailer.

The tractor and trailer carried on its merry way between 20 and 30mph for many a mile before finally pulling over. After that I was happy to trail the road tanker until we came across a horse box.

The driver was being very careful not to jostle his charges so again the tanker had to slow down with me behind it. The horse box turned right, we went straight on. Hooray.

I celebrated too soon as the tanker soon caught up with a recreational vehicle. This was proceeding more slowly than the horse box. Thank goodness I am retired and can be relaxed about hold-ups!!

I think one of the occupants must have been making a cup of tea so slowly did it proceed. Fortunately it was not long before it called in at a garage, possibly to buy some milk.

The open road at last until we caught up just before the Onnibury level crossing not one, not two, but three tractors in convoy.

  

These tractors did not yield (*) and it was not until I had to turn left at Ludlow whilst, with huge relief, the tractors went straight on, that I was rid of them. A clear road to Catherton Common, almost, but over twenty minutes late.

* Highway Code Rule 169 - "Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass."

Time to get ready to explore but tales of the trip had to be told in order to attempt to extract some sympathy. None was given.

We crossed the road from the parked cars and set about looking for things of interest in the heathland. 

This was dominated by heather and low growing gorse whose intermingling of purple and yellow flowers was very pleasing on the eye.

Rocks were uncovered and inspected for lichens

An early find was a fox moth caterpiller.

We wandered on.

One advantage of arriving late is that there is a shorter time to wait for lunch. We found a spot under an old birch where the ground was sculptured providing places to sit. 

After lunch some of us inspected the tree to see what delights it held whilst others created a piece of art out of a brown birch bolete, a brown roll rim and a rabbit skull.

A couple of birch shieldbug nymphs were found in the birch.

And a couple of Small heath butterflies were observed.



We moved on from our lunch spot towards a marshy area. We passed several small bell-pits, signs of earlier exploitation of the common. Many had collected water and had nurtured sphagnum moss. Unfortunately someone had used at least one of them to dump some gorse brash. A fungus was spotted on the sphagnum and one intrepid member of the group tentatatively tried to reach it without getting too wet, whilst other looked on amused. 



The attempt failed.

However we did find a Pine ladybird in a neighbouring gorse bush.



A change in the flora announced that we had arrived in the marshy area as the gorse, heather and bracken gave way to swathes of rushes and grasses. A few clumps of Sneezewort were found.



Until this point we had been following well-used paths. Now the Dr. Livingstone of the group decided to follow a small path that skirted the marshy area and we followed, foolishly.

After a hundred yards or so the path gave out and we had to forge our own trail. Dr. Livingstone was delighted - "just like the old days" he was heard to say. The clumps of grass and rush made the ground uneven and a foot in the wrong place found water. We pressed on.

The flora changed to gorse and heather again as the area became drier but this was followed by more wet conditions and then a ditch that was just too wide to step across. Eventually we found a place to cross and were delighted to come across a colony of Bog asphodel displaying their orange seed heads in the sun.



From here it was uphill all the way to the road on drier but still uneven ground covered in heather and gorse. Progress was slow and hard but we made it. What a work-out - who needs to go to the gym? After a rest we made our way sedately back to the cars and set off home.

In case you are wondering ... the homeward journey reflected the day ... excellent.

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for giving us permisiion to do what we enjoy doing; to Peter Hodgkinson for providing some of the photographs and to the anonymous photographers who contributed the clip art.