An upside down sort of Greeba
walk
Tuesday 21st August,
2012
On Tuesday we arranged to meet in West
Baldwin village to do our "Greeba walk" . . . hoping to enjoy the heather up on
the hills. We usually walk from West Baldwin because it is difficult to park
closer to the footpath up Cronk Breck, which we use to approach Greeba
Plantation and the mountain above.
It was warm and sunny at home and Tim decided
to drive to West Baldwin via the Mountain Road - but we hadn't gone far before
we drove into dense fog on North Barrule. The fog persisted all the way until
we reached Injebreck House near the bottom of the West Baldwin
valley.
We set off, hoping that the sun would burn off
the hill fog before we reached Greeba plantation but the tops of the hills were
still covered with a dense "tablecloth" as we walked up the road towards Cronk
Breck. There is a footpath from the top of this road which leads towards the
plantation on the left of the photo. The right of way turns downhill and ends
near the house at the corner of the plantation. There is no legal access to the
plantation but we have always walked along a path used by mountain bikers, above
a stone wall along the edge of some rough ground. It leads to a gate into the
plantation just above those beige-coloured fields behind the house.
As you can see the mountain was still covered
with dense fog/cloud as we approached the plantation. We decided that it would
be a better plan to forget about the invisible heather and walk down through the
plantation instead of up into the fog.
The path we were following was very wet and
overgrown. It looked as though it hadn't been used much recently. We also
noticed that one of the fields that we passed had been ploughed and cleared of
gorse so hikers may not be tolerated along this route much longer. We reached
the gate into the plantation and crossed the stream . . .
. . . and then turned down a forestry track
towards the main road from Douglas to Peel. The path followed the edge of the
plantation and we had a pleasant view across the fields in the valley to Crosby.
The trees in Greeba plantation, which is
sometimes called the King's Forest, are mainly conifers but there were some
lovely old beeches by the path too.
After reaching the main road, we walked along the
pavement in the direction of Crosby before escaping from the traffic by turning
down a lane which led to the old railway line. We found a lovely clump of Field
Scabious (Knautia arvensis) at the side of the path. The first that I have seen
this summer.
We stopped for a short rest near the cricket
field in Crosby and then followed the Millennium Way up the Eyreton Road and
back to West Baldwin. As we approached the Cronk Breck road, we saw that the
fog had lifted and Greeba and Slieau Ruy were bathed in summer
sunshine.
And looking back we could see the profile of
Slieau Whallian where we walked last week.
The last part of the walk wasn't the best! We
were all tired after walking up from the valley and had to endure an overgrown
path . . . a number of steep stiles . . . some boggy fields strewn with
cowpats . . . a farm road covered with liquid mud or blocked by enormous puddles
. . . another muddy field which had been churned up by by cows' hooves . . . and
- the cherry on the top - a muddy field full of cows! I always carry dogs
through fields of cows because there have been instances of cows attacking dogs
and occasionally a hiker has been killed by stampeding cattle. I don't think it
has happened on the Island but there have been incidents in the UK. Anyway, the
cows never seem to notice a small dog which is being carried so I wasn't worried
- but I didn't particularly enjoy carrying a wriggling dog covered with mud and
probably a liberal smearing of cow manure as well. Danny doesn't like being
carried. He thinks he is too macho to be treated like a baby. After a tiring
and dirty, four hour walk, I was very glad to get home and into a nice hot
bath!
PS. These photos were taken with our old camera
which I borrowed from Tim after finding that the battery in my new camera needed
recharging.
