Gloucestershire, The Peak of Clarity
Warning: This is going to be a very green post
@mobbsclan, having lived in Leicester his entire life, decided to move to Gloucester to live in a less sh**ty place. A little harsh on Leicester, but hey. I went to visit for a couple of days again this visit to England and he, well, took me on an adventure, to say the least!
Up cliffs, through some forest untouched for generations, past the kayaking riverside, along the borders of @elliotjgardner's grotto, through fields of sheep and cows over some wind-toppled trees, through the boating yard and beyond. Our second day was a 10km trek in unknown land bordering Wales somewhere, and though we got a bit lost, it was all quite beautiful. Check it out:
And since you can't fully appreciate big images on Steemit, Click here for the full panorama!
Looking carefully can you see the couple walking their dog? How about the sheep?
In the second picture, you can see the extent of how far we walked that day. Across the horizon, you can actually see where we walked... and back again:
But we didn't just walk down a path, no... we went the dirty, untouched route for extra beauty of nature. More on that in a second.
What I really found interesting in this little spot were the secretive houses hiding amongst the trees. You can see some that are fairly obvious yet still isolated among themselves:
But there were some individual houses separate from anyone else that you could just barely see, but certainly not see how to actually get to them. Can you see it?
From here, we found a little alleyway nobody else was going down and soon enough, to my surprise, we were actually at one of those very hidden homes! It was starting to look like something out of some fantasy novel:
Beyond this, people had clearly not thought to journey this way for years, perhaps decades. With one particular flower dominating the lows, and trees completely covering the sky up above.
Some of the trees had collapsed in the winds of time, across the only tiny pathway we were using. This became a barrier several times through which we had to squeeze or clamber over:
I really appreciated what this stylish moss had to say about the rocky debris in the area:
After an infinity within the wilderness, we found an empty road, possibly unused for a lengthy time, too, and below, the river following from the one you see in the first pictures. We managed to find a way to scramble down there and I took the opportunity to say hi to some kayaking passer-bys:
It was around this point that @mobbsclan informed me that we were, contrary to my belief, nowhere near the end. and as we trudged on, we ended up in some open fields somehow, in stark contrast to the previous hour or so, walking among the alarmingly smelly sheep having a great time wallowing in their own filth.
I realised I had yet to take any 'proof' selfie yet so I took one next to this single house we happened to go past, which looked pretty posh amongst the lamb:
This is, in fact, where @elliotjgardner's grotto is hidden, somewhere deep beneath the safe haven of middle class country home life.
We would continue to see the occasional secret home every 20 minutes or something. I dread to think what it's like for the mail...person? getting down to these places!
At some point, we took a real wrong turn and ended up literally in a field of sheep wondering which bush we were meant to climb through to the next empty field:
Thankfully the farmer lady was peacefully watching us terrorize all her sheep and helped us get back on track and on the way home to freedom, which is more than I can say for these poor gals:
And so, a few kilometres later, we got back to the car and headed home, utterly exhausted but for me at least, more than satisfied that I gathered up a healthy dose of fresh air to take back to China with me and hold on to for as long as my lungs allow.
I'll do a second mini-part to this to cover some other things and perhaps some videos I made which really show off the vibrancy of the countryside in England.
Cheers!
Extremely greeen! ... and one of your better Moe faces :D
I wonder how many ruins are buried in all that forest, Gloucestershire is one of the proper ancient sites of England.
Apparently King Richard III hung about there a lot :)
Hmm yeah, dad mentioned that very briefly on the way back to Lesta, worth looking up
Green is good :)
Great shots ! I could say that you did a great job!
You should visit my country Bulgaria. You would love the nature !!
There's a lot of places in that part of Europe I've been really curious to travel to - Romania, too. One day!
Wow!! Green everywhere. Will it be raining there for most part of the year?
Well, I haven't lived there for over 8 years and the climate has noticably changed since, so I can't really say. There's a lot of dull drizzle over 6 months I guess?
I can volunteer to be the mailman! This would be heaven for me. Greens of different hues, open space, get lost in those trees and find my way eventually. I would go chase those sheeps lol!
I noticed in the second photo a red thingy on the right. Is that a wrapper of some sort?
I love your photo of the house. The brown door was nicely contrasted by the white walls. The kayak photo is nice too because there are contrast of colors as well.
If I am not the mailman, then it would be awesome to live there and enjoy the place.
Haha, I really love what I see here. Those pictures are cute. And then living in midst of Greenland makes one live longer. I love green. By the way, when are you leaving the West for Asia?. Hope your Visa is cleared.? 😂
Oh I'm already back in China, just delayed posting because I've been too busy while in England and still catching up with everything now I'm back. Slow and steady!
I could live here forever and not get bored. We love green.
I imagine you would spend a lot of time running in it, right?
Haha..green&run
That, amongst other things :)
I love the green field and the sheep. Your face look younger than your age. Lol. Hope you are back to China ?
I seem to get younger every photo I take... it's getting scary now! But my phone also has this make-up effect that happens annoyingly automatically when I take selfies, so there's that to consier too...
Lol. @mobbs.Then it means you refuse to age.
I grew up in the NE US and I'm struck with how much this area resembles it (although swap the sheep for dairy cows). I guess I shouldn't be surprised, what with the whole 'New England' moniker, but there you go.
I find it odd that the US would be similar. I've always seen it as a place of numerous terrain and climate, but always 'bigger' than England's more quaint appearance. But then, New England is quite small, perhaps I should visit for comparison...
I've lived in various parts of the US and you're correct, it's quite varied. However, the scale does vary too. I used to live in a big, flat state and routinely had to inform relatives visiting that 'yes, so-and-so lives in the next big town, but that town is an hour's drive away'. Those relatives were from New England, and were used to driving across states for morning trips.
The really funny thing for me is that I intellectually know England is large, but I'm only used to very tiny islands where the shore is at most a 15 minute drive away, so I keep finding myself erroneously assuming everyone in England is close to the beach. Like right down to, 'wow, it's cool they can farm like that. I wonder how they keep saltwater out of their land', even though the farm may be someplace like the midlands.
I think the pictures of moss were my favorite. And I liked the dog on the wall. Sheep weren't bad either. Very enjoyable.
Agreed. Full screen the moss looks quite gorgeous! I'm sure the sheep will be saddened to know they were simply 'not bad' =(
:))
Oh it seems great to me that you have gone out to enjoy nature and its beautiful landscapes. I believe that the distancing of nature is behind a good part of the ills that afflict us, as individuals and as a society. That's why you have to go back to nature once in a while, because the field heals. I'm glad that you go to walk, sit, stretch, observe natural elements of the environment and enjoy the silence and natural sounds in a relaxed way.
I love doing those little "trips" I'm a faithful believer that we should all do it, the well-being we feel when we submerge in a grove and settle into the forest community, integrating ourselves into the rich biodiversity that it hosts is impressive because in addition to improving the general mood, attenuate all kinds of ailments and strengthen the immune system, the depth of nature is the last refuge in a world that has renounced the planet to seclude itself in increasingly hostile cities, dominated by noise, immediacy and the stacking.
In short, I believe that trees are constantly contributing to our well-being in many ways, always silent and invisible!
By the way, if it's not too much trouble I wanted to invite you to read my posts. I would greatly appreciate if you take the time to read them, and in case you like them, I would appreciate it if you would give me a vote, a comment, or a resteem.
You have my vote, and I stay attentive to your next publications!
Thanks for the comment, I've got a tab open for you but no guarantee if/when I'll get time to squeeze in some reading (depending how long your posts are).
And yeah you're right, going out there into the green is seriously important, especially for people like me who live in these giant megacities, completely separate from the rest of nature.
Oh I usually write a lot sometimes. But it's very nice that you had the intention of reading something that I publish! I hope that someday you have the time to do it and that you like what I write.
And yes, nature exerts a powerful influence on our health, both physical and mental. Nature not only lowers our stress levels, also allows our brain to rest and recover from the daily hustle and bustle of stimuli it receives in cities.