Yesterday a much needed and overdue longer walk with Dolly at Roydon Common and Grimston Warren happened.
As we walked along the upper path round the edge of Roydon Common I could see the sister tower to the WWII observation tower on Grimstone Warren to our right.
I thought I wonder if we can get to it?
As we got to the fence delimiting the border of the common, it became clear we couldn’t get easily to the sister tower following the fence. More fences and bushes providing too great an obstacle.
However once we got to the bridleway running between Roydon Common and Grimstone Warren we decided to head off in the direction of the sister tower to see if it took us close.
The bridleway did indeed take us close. The sister tower is less looked after than the one on the warren. It sits proud in the middle of a field currently growing sugar beet, slowly being over grown by bushes.
It’s a shame.
Eventually the roots will erode the foundations, while the branches crack the brickwork.
I don’t like advocating cutting down stuff usually. But this is a piece of twentieth century history that I think we should be protecting.
This sister tower deserves the same love as the one on the warren.
We headed back towards the tower on the warren to have our brew stop.
As we walked along the ridge to the tower down below where the tramway once was I could spot fungi. I promised to double back to them after the brew stop to investigate.
At the warren’s observation tower while getting today’s brew kit (MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe, Fire-Maple Petrel Ramen Pot 800ml) out I spotted four deer in the bracken. Dolly was oblivious to their presence. Next time I looked they were gone.
My snack today was a British Army ration pack flapjack and digestive biscuits. For me they tasted ok. But! The flapjack was too dry and crumbly. Plus it could have done with more fruit (raisins). That ratio between fruit and oats is wrong for me. It’s too heavily weighted towards the oats. I get it, slow released energy etc.
The digestive biscuits tasted fine. But too thin and bordering on too dry and hard. Even dunking them in my coffee barely made a difference.
Now if I had these in one of the war zones our forces have been in, and these were in my 24 hour ration pack. I’d probably think these were the best thing in the world at that moment in time.
They were edible. I’d eat them (and did). Better eaten than having to carry around as extra weight.
As we walked back towards the car I regretted having my fleece on. The morning was proving to be a lot warmer than I thought it would be. But I soldiered on because we didn’t have that far before we’d get to the car. Plus I wasn’t sweating lots, just getting warm.
As we got to the edge of the common, horses had appeared where we had entered. Luckily we were leaving a different way, and our path did not take us too close. Dolly did really well and ignored them.
A great mornings walk in unexpected sunny weather.