We spent a long weekend with the Camping and Caravanning Club Photographic Group, who were meeting at the Conkers CCC site. We were met by Mr and Mrs Pott and their dog Woody.
After greeting us, they introduced us to the meet’s stewards, Gwen and John, who gave us a warm welcome and explained how the group meet worked. They then gave us the programme for the days of our stay.
Conkers
Conkers is in the National Forest and has many trails and paths to explore on foot or by bicycle. Its current use disguises the fact that this is what used to be an industrial landscape; it is amazing how nature takes over if given a chance.
There are many signs which explain what was here before, for example this one at Moira Junction South, just outside the CCC site, behind the Youth Hostel:
You can see on the information, a picture of the junction before 1972, when the track was lifted and removed. Below is the same place now:
The woman and dog are following the right-hand branch-line. The signal box has been removed and there is now a pond:
We chose to explore the area by bicycle and followed one of the routes indicated by coloured markers, up and around Albert Village Lake, to the north. On the way, it became clear this was still an actively managed project, with groundworks continuing:
There were two dumper trucks being filled and then emptied just to the left of this picture, in a very slick operation to bolster the banking of one of the waterways.
A little further along, there was also, what I ssume to be a mountain biking area to the side of the path:
The lake is quite large and it has an island on which gulls were nesting (seen in the distance in the image below).
The lake has a good path around it and we chose to settle for a short while on a bench. The swan in the picture seemed to expect something and made its way to us.
I took the opportunity to take some photographs of this beautiful bird which I identified as a male Mute Swan.
The following morning, there was a Park Run through the Conkers trails:
Some are clearly more competitive than others:
I was informed that some were going on to do a 10K after completing this event:
A “Tail Walker” is a new one on me, I thought you would have to take the whole dog.
"See-u-Later" 