2009
23
MAY
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Royal Military Canal Walk 4 |
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Saturday, 23 May 2009 |
 Harvesting
A note should be made about the state of some of the stiles too. There isn’t anything that you can do when stinging nettles and brambles grow too close to a stile except carry something with you that can chop them down a bit or a stick you can push the tall growing nettles with and we did feel like we needed a machete at times. The biggest problem with some of the stiles we have climbed over when walking along the Saxon Shore Way, however, is that they are very rickety and it would be easy to hurt yourself if you’re not very careful.
 Canoeists on the canal
As we sat by the canal we saw plenty of insects, including the first of the Common Blue butterflies that I’d seen this year. The most butterflies we saw however were the Painted Ladies which had been reported as being on their way to our shores in great numbers. Painted Lady butterflies are from North Africa, but migrate to Europe seeking cooler temperatures each year. This year an unprecedented number of them have arrived on our shores and have moved on to colonise many parts of the country.
We certainly lost count of the number we saw but it was easily in the hundreds. Sadly none of them were in the mood to be still and have their pictures taken. It was curious though that the vast majority of them that we saw were in a heavily cultivated wheat field. It was obvious due to the lack of any other plant in the field that it had been heavily sprayed with herbicide. So there was nothing much at all for the butterflies to feed on in this field but every few metres we disturbed one and it would fly up in the air. Some of the Painted Ladies were looking very tatty but considering the number of miles they had flown to get here that’s hardly surprising. If they all manage to breed successfully we could be seeing huge numbers of the butterflies later in the summer months.
 St Rumbolds Church When we reached a bridge next to the Church of St Rumbold, we had a nice chat with a couple of canoeists who asked us exactly where they were as they didn’t have a map with them. I got out the Ordnance Survey map and was able to show them. Their canoe was a recent purchase and they had been out in it several times already on the canal. They told us of many close encounters they had had with wildlife while paddling including seeing a mallard duckling being taken by a Pike. Onward we went until we reached Bilsington Bridge, which is where we left the canal and now headed back inland to where we had parked the car. We still had several miles to go as we passed the church of St Peter and St Paul in Bilsington. The church dates mostly from the thirteenth century. We were surprised to see the church bell outside the church, however in the 19th century the tower was considered too frail to support the bell so it was taken down and placed outside. Just as we were starting to feel a bit tired as it was a very muggy day we made our first mistake. We must have missed somehow a Saxon Shore Way sign amongst the tall growing wheat and ended up going the wrong way for a short while. We soon realised our mistake though as it was obvious we were heading back towards the canal. We decided to retrace our steps and this time walk through the village of Bilsington rather than try to find the correct footpath through the field.
 Alpacas in the Buttercups.
I’ve used some of Nigel’s pictures from the walk in the gallery as my 18-200 lens is away having some TLC so I don’t have as much of a zoom as I’d like unless I change lenses every five minutes which really isn’t practical when you are out walking. I hope to have it back in action soon.
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