The last outing of the Forum walking group was to the forest around Mamhead. As most locals will know, there are two particular features of note here. The first is the obelisk, built in 1742 as a landmark for shipping, and the second is the wonderful view from the edge of the plateau out over the Exe and its estuary and across to Exmouth, Lympstone and much of the rest of East Devon.
The route was carefully planned to arrive at these two points as a climax close to the end of the walk. Unfortunately, after a period of hot sunny weather, on the morning of the walk the weather turned out to be quite different - misty. What's more, this mist became steadily denser as one climbed up Telegraph Hill and then on the side roads to the Forestry car park at Mamhead. The upshot of all this is that we did the walk in a fog, with nothing of the famed long views to be had.
What the unusual light conditions did mean, though, was that the detail of the barks of the trees became much more visible, not being bleached out by the more usual bright daylight coming at them from behind, and that there were some eerily atmospheric views through cuts in the tree cover in one or two places.
Despite the disappointing conditions the participants enjoyed the walk and particularly picking up and pondering on the various woodland sculptures dotted along the trail. The morning was rounded off with a lunch at The Ley Arms in Kenn.
The route was carefully planned to arrive at these two points as a climax close to the end of the walk. Unfortunately, after a period of hot sunny weather, on the morning of the walk the weather turned out to be quite different - misty. What's more, this mist became steadily denser as one climbed up Telegraph Hill and then on the side roads to the Forestry car park at Mamhead. The upshot of all this is that we did the walk in a fog, with nothing of the famed long views to be had.
What the unusual light conditions did mean, though, was that the detail of the barks of the trees became much more visible, not being bleached out by the more usual bright daylight coming at them from behind, and that there were some eerily atmospheric views through cuts in the tree cover in one or two places.
Despite the disappointing conditions the participants enjoyed the walk and particularly picking up and pondering on the various woodland sculptures dotted along the trail. The morning was rounded off with a lunch at The Ley Arms in Kenn.
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