Greeba

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.