It's been a while since I've been on an adventure. Partly due to inclement weather, but mostly to do with the wretched coronavirus.
This weekend, however, I went exploring in Lickey Hills Country Park. Located in Lickey, Birmingham, for all of you who have never heard of Lickey Hills, I agree with you, it is a silly name. However, the park is actually far from silly.
Due to social distancing restrictions, I was unable to be accompanied by brother dearest on this adventure (some might say this was a blessing), so I was instead joined by my fella. To protect his identity, I shall refer to him as 'Mike', which coincidentally is his name.
We parked at the Rose & Crown car park (parking is free), where there was also a handy cafe offering takeaways. We were greeted by a filthy pond, which in summer I'm sure looks delightful. However, as we were visiting in the middle of winter, the park was a muddy quagmire and presumably the ducks had traipsed mud into the pond and filthed it up, ruining it for everyone.
After circumnavigating the pond of filth, we came upon a series of mini ponds, each feeding into one another via a small waterfall. From here there are several paths you can take to wend your way around the park. I chose the path which looked like it had the lowest gradient. It wasn't long before we reached the pinnacle, Beacon Hill, where to my utter delight there was a small fort with a toposcope (for those of you who have absolutely no idea what a toposcope is, click
here). From here, on a clear day you can see all of Birmingham. Luckily for us it was a pretty mizzy day, so we couldn't see much of it.
It was at the fort that I discovered Mike is fairly useless at taking photos. Here's a photo of me on the fort steps. You will notice that the photo has been taken off to the side, as opposed to straight on. Apparently Mike struggles with centralising photos. I would expect this kind of ineptitude from Max, but not from someone with intelligence. I will make a point to work with Mike on this.
Once we had frolicked on the fort and looked on in disdain at the view of Birmingham through the mizz, we made our descent back through the mud to the car. There was a lot more of the park to see; indeed it covers a vast area. However, covered in muck and bloody freezing, we decided to call it a day and venture back another day to explore more.
Overall, Lickey Hills Country Park is worth the visit. Just make sure to wear welly boots if you go in winter, and don't forget there is a view of Birmingham at the top of Beacon Hill (there are other routes you can take which avoid looking at Birmingham).
One final note, my loyal readers (Mother & Father Salsbury and Alistair), are probably all wondering if I missed having brother dearest on my adventure. Of course I didn't.
Check out Instagram for more photos of my adventures
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