May 31st Awre

Just four walkers set of on a bright, warm, but not hot, Spring day from the hamlet of Awre. The plan was to see the area, which is just across the River from Slimbridge, which is due to be flooded to create 150 acres of wetland, the WWT Saltmarsh Solutions at Awre.

Six weeks earlier, my walk over had found a series of unsurmountable obstacles - cropped fields with no path, impenetrable thickets (involving a diversion along a railway line), an electric fence, four broken stiles which were potentially dangerous to use, a fallen tree and a barbed wire fence crossing the route.

This was totally unsatisfactory for a Ramblers Walk and I thought I would need to return to Awre to work out a new route. However I contacted the local Gloucestershire Rights of Way Officer, who indicated he would try to make the route passable and phoned me a couple of weeks later to indicate landowners were working to remove the obstacles.

Hence it was with some trepidation we set of. What a revelation! The illegal railway diversion was not required because a clear route through the thicket had been cleared which also allowed a delightful grassy walk through a small wooded area. Also the electric fences removed, the fallen tree removed and four replacement or modified stiles installed!

Inevitably there were other problems, crops had grown over pathless fields and there was one stile which required some cutting back of brambles, I was prepared but still sustained scratched legs.

Subsequently the walk progressed although took a little longer and we were later back than expected.

The site was just fields so difficult to imagine the WWT plans, but the views over the River Severn towards the Cotswold Escarpment were captivating.

So at least four Ramblers were able to see the area before the dykes are broken and the fields flooded.

260531 Awre1