The Somerset levels

[boboneleg]

Not a great deal of words today as I'm going all Pedro-like.  I went to have a look at some new (to me) Droves on the Somerset levels today.  On the way I dropped down over Burledge Hill where there is evidence of some great lane management..........

 

Up over the Mendips and down through Wells, Glastonbury and Street to get to Somerton and onto the fun stuff.  You get miles of this..............

 

 

 

 

[XTreme]

Nice one Bob......except for those puddles! 

And what's a Drove?

[boboneleg]

A bit further on and it started to get a bit sticky, there is no gravel surface under this grass, it is pure peat and with the amount of rain we had yesterday it was slicker than a Beavers back end.  The fun bit is trying to guess where the tractor ruts are under the grass so that you don't tip over in them.............

 

After heaving my way though my thermostat started reaching boiling point so some clothing was removed and I made it back to terra firma. 

I carried on to do some more Droves which were pretty uneventful and then came to the North Drain.  The North Drain does exactly what it says on the tin in that it drains the water off the Levels, there was a big shoal of Roach basking in the sun...........

 

 I started to head north now and back towards home, here you can see Nyland Hill (an extinct volcano) in the forground and the Mendip Hills in the distance as viewed from the Levels..........

 

Once I got up on the Mendips I stopped near Priddy at a convinient tree stump to sit on for lunch...........

 

I had a quick look at a campsite (for future reference) and then made my way home.  There will be some bike washing to be done tomorrow.

[boboneleg]

7 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Nice one Bob......except for those puddles! 

And what's a Drove?

Those puddles are all  new to me Pete, a Drove is a 'way' where cattle and other livestock were driven to market in days gone by.

[Pedro]

How hot is it over there? 
 

looks like a swamp to me, mud and grass and water just screams giant mosquitoes

[yen_powell]

1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Nice one Bob......except for those puddles! 

And what's a Drove?

A driftway, a lovely wide lane with plenty of grass (for on the move snacking) to make your sheep, cattle, turkeys etc walk along, promising them a nice Christmas as they make their way to Smithfield Market. I did hear that the Norfolk drovers would dip the turkeys' feet in tar to protect them on the journey.

[boboneleg]

50 minutes ago, Pedro said:

How hot is it over there? 
 

looks like a swamp to me, mud and grass and water just screams giant mosquitoes

It was about 22c today, we don't get a lot of mosquitos around here, it was the horseflies that were trying to munch on me

[Pedro]

1 minute ago, boboneleg said:

It was about 22c today, we don't get a lot of mosquitos around here, it was the horseflies that were trying to munch on me

Same thing, even worse

I nearly dropped my bike today when stopped looking at google maps and up  my collar crawls a giant grasshopper very curious about my face