Hill Top Frolics

 

This weekend's adventure was to Titterstone Clee Hill in Shropshire. Joining me on this little jaunt was once again brother dearest (who here on in shall be known as Max), and our chumly Emma, who had flown in for the weekend from Northampton.

Our first stop was to the abandoned quarry buildings, which were awesome. What's left of the structures stands bleakly against the stunning backdrop, providing you with an almost post apocalyptic feeling. There are some which you can freely roam around, and others which you avoid at all cost as they look like they could fall down at any moment and leave you in a crumpled bone heap.

After a full exploration of the abandoned buildings, we headed on up the hill and parked up overlooking an old quarry, where Max once again demonstrated the same dodgy parking we experienced on our first adventure to the waterfalls, and parked the motor perilously close to the cliff edge. Once parked, and gratefully still alive, we set off up to the summit. 

On the way up, you pass a mini version of Epcot, which Max informed us is an early warning radar for nuclear attack (cheery thought). Next to Epcot is an even smaller version, which is a Met Office weather radar, which presumably is an early warning radar for weather?

Once you pass Epcot, it's a short walk to the summit, where you are greeted with 360 degree views. There's not really a lot else to tell you about the summit, and not much to do here but look in awe at the vista, so we'll skip forward to the next part of the journey. 

Having returned to find the motor where we left it, and not at the bottom of a ravine, we next stopped at a quarry pond we'd passed on our way to the summit. Here we edged our way along the water's front and proceeded to wang stones into the water like children. I wanged one too hard and accidentally wanged myself into the water, which resulted in one wet foot (luckily for me I was once again wearing inappropriate footwear, being flip flops, and everyone knows water poses no threat to flip flop wearers). 

Once we were all wanged out, we headed back to the motor and left Clee Hill behind. From here we headed north up the A49 and stopped in Craven Arms, where Max and Emma got their first experience of Tuffins supermarket. To see the joy and wonder on their little faces as they explored the treasure trove of delights inside was a sight to behold, and one very reminiscent of watching a child opening their presents on Christmas morning. 

After Max had finished scouring every inch of Tuffins for all their vegan supplies, we carried on to our next and final destination, Lydbury North, in search of some big water I'd spotted on Google Maps called Walcot Pool. Part of the Walcot Hall estate, the sign said Private, so we stopped for a quick drink in the Powis Arms where we abandoned the motor and headed off on foot to find the water.

It was at this point that our tiredness started to show and certain members of our expedition lost the power of speech. Emma was the first to go, when during our stroll down to the water she reliably informed us that in Scotland you are allowed to sleep overnight in lay-bys, and more interestingly in cupboards. What she meant to say was pub car parks, however it was too late by this point, it was already out there, and the thought of being allowed to sleep in cupboards in Scotland, and it being against the law in other parts of the country, was the undoing of me, and I promptly fell apart in fits of giggles so hard they made my sides hurt. 

On our return walk, we found a swing in a camping field (which we obviously stopped to play on), and this was where Max lost the power of speech and came over all German, referring to a zip line as a lip zine. Although amusing, this screw up in speech was nowhere near as hilarious as Emma's faux pas, which will keep me giggling for days. 

And so ended our adventure to Clee Hill. If you like abandoned buildings or incredible views, you should definitely visit. It's easy to get to and there's plenty of parking at various points, plus it's an easy walk from top to bottom (although you can choose to take a more difficult walk if you're not a wimsy). It was incredibly windy the whole walk up, which was deeply unpleasant on the ears, so maybe bring a hat or wear something with a hood, however having never been here before I couldn't comment if it's always windy or just happened to be so on the day we went. 

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