Date: 28th – 31st May 1971
Participants: Graham Beevor, Peter Cox, Phil Knowles and Eddy Wilson.
Phil had been saying for years that he wanted to go hiking in the Mendips but both the Senior Troop and the Venture Unit had ignored his pleas. However, the Service Team decided to take up his idea for their Whitsun activity.
Unfortunately, due to prior engagements only four members of the Team were able to take part. So, soon after 19.00 hours on Friday 28th May, we could be found waiting at Paddington Station for the 19.45 train to Yatton, changing at Bristol.
Being the last train to Bristol on a Friday before Whitsun, it was somewhat similar to a tube line in a rush hour, especially as British Rail in their wisdom had seen fit to make half the train first class and therefore empty. However, at Slough a ticket inspector informed us that to relieve congestion (on the train) we could go and sit in the first class accommodation, whereupon the sugar in Phil’s rucksack decided to leak all over the immaculately kept seats. One clearing up operation later we changed at Bristol for the stopping train to Weston-Super-Mare via Yatton where we alighted at 22.56 (exactly on time!).
We decided to walk out of town and then find somewhere to camp, but on the way stopped off for fish and chips, well after the shop was due to close. This chip shop seemed to be the hub of the town. It was at this point Peter discovered that the milk in his rucksack (all two pints) had leaked out of a container and been soaked up by his sleeping bag.
Still he smiled and whistled at the same time and we carried on to look for somewhere to camp in the vicinity of Cadbury Hill, an iron-age fort. After walking through a quarry (not marked on the map) we eventually settled down to a well-earned night’s sleep (some of us had been at work that day).
The night was eventful in that we lost one two-pint milk container, heard being stolen by a dog.
Next morning we rose early and had breakfast before setting off on route. By this time the good weather we had been watching from our office windows all week had emigrated and a grey colour filled eight eighths of the sky.
We were headed at first in a south westerly direction to Wrington, where we were able to buy some more milk. Peter also bought some more eggs having broken one, but if anyone has ever tried hiking with two handfuls of eggs they would understand why two more had gone west only 2 miles later.
From Wrington we headed south along the track of a long-disused railway. Less than a mile had been traversed when down came the rain. So it was a case of on with the waterproofs and press on regardless.
The next landmark reached was the A38, where we were greeted with a traffic jam stretching out of sight in both directions. We managed to find shelter at a roadside café where we could prepare lunch. By the time the banquet was over the downpour had eased off and we continued southwards to Burrington Coombe, a deep narrow gorge where we at last entered the Mendips on an 867ft climb to Beacon Batch, the highest point (1,066 feet).
A quarter of the way up the Coombe we stopped to rest at the entrance to a cave. Phil and Graham went down a little way to have a look round. After about 30 feet it split into two narrow passages so they decided not to go any further. We then proceeded slowly and laboriously up the Coombe and the hillside above to Beacon Batch. Here we went through our crazy ritual of standing on the trig point, although hampered by the strong wind.
On our return to sanity we started heading downwards in the direction of the top of the Cheddar Gorge. As we went down the spectacular gorge the area became more crowded (tourists everywhere). We wandered through Cheddar and then found a campsite. After our evening meal we finished the evening in the nearby ‘Gardener’s Arms’ playing skittles before retiring at about midnight, by which time it was again raining heavily.
In the morning there were four wet sleeping bags – Peter’s due to rain and milk, Phil’s due to rain (their tent was leaking), Graham’s due to rain (slipping out of the tent in the night) and Eddy’s due to rain which had leaked into his rucksack the previous day.
We had already covered half the distance of the hike on the first day so we had a fairly leisurely time ahead of us. We eventually strolled off from the campsite westwards towards Axbridge between the southern edge of the Mendips on one side and Axbridge reservoir on the other.
We had lunch in a bus shelter watching the horses, which seemed to outnumber cars by twenty to one. After we had eaten we continued to Loxton where we had originally intended to spend the night, but as it was still early we soldiered on up Bleadon Hill, about 500 ft high, an outlier to the Mendips.
Once again the descent followed a trig point farce. Eventually we emerged in civilisation again, at Hutton. Just beyond Hutton we stopped for the night in a clearing in the woods above the village, a peaceful place with only the midges for company. The smell of our evening meal (curry) soon got rid of them.
After a pint in the ‘local’ we were heading up the steep slippery hill to the clearing in the pitch black, when we stumbled on a heard of innocently munching cattle. In the dark they were quite a shock. However, we stole quietly past and eventually found our tents to settle down for the night.
The next morning Peter and Graham were presented with tea in bed, but then had to do the washing up after breakfast. Once we had packed up the site we set off in the general direction of Weston-Super-Mare Station, a mere three miles to the north-west.
Apart from getting lost in a new housing estate not shown on the map, we got there without much effort by lunchtime and half an hour later boarded the train home.
Eddy took his leave at Bristol as he was heading for Southampton and the rest of us reached Paddington at 16.30, and eventually got home via the dreaded Northern Line to end yet another enjoyable hike.