Fairytale paths lead you through the magical Chase landscape, out over windswept hills allowing stolen views into other counties, off along secluded meandering valleys and through woodland; woodland, which at this time of year, all skeletal and eerie, could be straight off the pages of the Brothers Grimm. We're lucky to have so many wondrous places to roam so close to hand. There's a certain gravitas to the Chase, the millennia of history are almost tangible, so soaked is the landscape. A walk through the Chase is a walk through time. As I say, a magical landscape.
We sat awhile in ancient woodland below Wingreen Hill: silence, nice, well not really silence, the sounds of nature busying herself filled the stands and spilled out into the coombe below, it's all the noises of man which have been silenced; planes, cars, you know the things. It gets harder and harder to find spots where the sounds of modern man don't impinge on natures perfection. Here's one spot. A chance to stop, close your eyes, relax and breath deep. Tune into the woodland: the more you sync in, take root, the more the woodland opens up to you and the more you hear. A woodpecker taps out his repetitive beat high amongst lofty boughs, while other birds of many types contribute the chorus; with dexterity squirrels move gracefully from branch to branch, tree to tree, like daring high-wire acts; just visible in the woodland on the other side of the coombe deer graze unawares of our presence and all about, hidden from view, you know a myriad of creatures busy themselves. So, really it wasn't silent at all, but what it was is what it should be... nature doing her thing. You could sit for an age, here in her embrace.
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