Tried using technology to navigate for us today instead of a traditional map. Turns out our map reading skills need fine tuning as THIS time we actually arrived at the places we supposed to. So instead of revisiting an old well known walk we ended up doing a new one! Chris and I really need to brush up on our map reading skills ….
Gorgeous day with a slight nip to the air and we had the countryside to ourselves with no other humans encountered all morning. We started walking over the fields from Catbrook village then through Cleddon, alongside Cleddon Bog.
Met squirrels, rabbits and buzzards and two fishermen at the fishing lake. Fish made ripples on the surface of the lake as a black goose flew overhead – my new favourite place to have a picnic.
This was true farming country with pedigree Holstein calves, ploughed fields and well maintained farms in quiet valleys between Catbrook, Hygga, Trelleck and Parkhouse. There’s a few scattered cottages and some beautifully kept large houses along the way. The thoroughbred horses pictured, had their own floodlit school – someone takes their riding very seriously here.
There’s evidence here of ancient roads connecting the local hamlets, once well used but now abandoned to walkers and riders. The old ford, now with a new bridge, would have been a major crossing. Only tractors, animals and walkers use it now.
We particularly appreciated the newly painted house we stumbled across – not quite as bold as the house Jen and I saw in Usk earlier this week but certainly more memorable than most!
