Masons Wood and Ladywell 5 miles

The original plan for today was to have a coastal walk, north of Lancaster, but because of the biting wind today and the forecast of rain later, we opted for a local walk.

              Descending into the wood provided us with some shelter from the wind.

   A memorial bench to a 2year old boy who died in 2020 has been positioned alongside the main path

The wood is owned and cared for by The Woodland Trust, and an excellent job they do, to.

By culverting the brook, which they have done in several places, they have been able to do away with less durable wooden bridges which they have replaced.

 Some woodland art has been installed recently, including the ubiquitous owl.

As we emerge from the wood, we feel the first drops of the forecasted rain.

As we proceed, the rain slowly but persistently gets heavier.

We are now looking for somewhere sheltered, where we can sit for our morning refreshment

Just the place. A children's play area. Not sheltered from the rain unfortunately, but at least sheltered from the wind. Well at least Vic's happy.

Back into the woods. Alas, the canopy of leaves which for much of the year would afford us some shelter from the rain, in winter there is no such shelter.

Coming out of the wood, with the rain easing off we take a short diversion through the more exposed Squire Andertons Wood, before returning, and climbing up out of the valley, up to the ancient shrine of Lady-well where we had dinner. My apologies for the picture. The selector switch on my camera had moved out of its correct position.

The dinner stop was not a prolonged one, due for the most part to the cold. After dinner, the majority opinion was that we return by the shortest route to our destination. The shortest route was across farmland, which exposed us to the wind once again. The route also took us  along a farm track, through deep muddy puddles.

With a little ingenuity, some of us were able to avoid the worst of it.

To get back we first had to cross a bridge over the M6 motorway.

After crossing the bridge we had to retrace our earlier steps back to Anthony's, but avoided going back down into Masons Wood. After reading this blog you may get the impression that we didn't enjoy our walk today, not a bit of it. We are hardy creatures and ca put up with anything the elements have to throw at us. It's the good company that matters most of all.

DK