Eastbrookend Country Park – Chase Nature Reserve Walk – 16.01.2011

As promised in my last walk of 2010, we completed our walk at Eastbrookend Country Park (if you look at my previous blog you will see that I have written the history of the area) – and this time the light did not run out on us (although the day was a little cloudy).

We decided to restart our walk from were we left off on our last walk. This particular area of the park I have now discovered is actually known as “Fels Field” – although I cannot seem to find out any logical reason as to why this part of the park was deemed a field or why it was named “Fel” – perhaps it was named after someone?  Anyone with any ideas?  I would be intrigued to know.

The field is not actually that large to walk, but nevertheless very pleasant.  Although their had been no rain, the field was quite muddy to walk on 😦 .  In this instance I was glad that I had dug out my walking boots for the first trip of the year!

From 2011 – 16.01.2011 – Eastbrookend Country Park – Chase Nature Reserve

Sadly this particular Country Park is divided by up roads, which is such a shame as it loses it’s continuity whilst walking 😦 Making it difficult to plan a walk properly…

We navigated our way back down the road, we found our way to Eastbrook pond. Odd name that “pond”, not really that appropriate if you ask me, as it seemed larger than any pond I would normally come across – particularly as it would not fit in the average back garden!

It was good to see an abundance of Wildfowl on the pond and particularly in January. I always like to watch the Swans – they always seem to add a touch of magnificence to the waters! Other wild birds included greylag geese, canada geese and mallard ducks.

From 2011 – 16.01.2011 – Eastbrookend Country Park – Chase Nature Reserve

There was plenty of fisherman around which proved they were not fishing for small goldfish! The “pond” obviously had a population of carp or trout to attract the serious fisherman in early January! So when we took a wrong turning at one point we had to be particularly quiet!

We managed to find our way out again of the park, once again walking down a lane, which looked like we were heading for Eastbrookend Cemetery.   We could see that there was a small path by the cemetery entrance, however it was not very well signposted so we were unsure if this would take us back into the park but it seemed the next best route to take. Especially as the alternative route seemed to be through the cemetery, was not very advisable!

We had arrived at yet another part of the country park – a huge expanse of land.  More like the field I would have expected to see when we were at “Fels Field” which was undulating – this was extremely flat.

At this point we had lost all sense of route, but were enjoying our walk nevertheless and it was good to be out in January! It was then we arrived at “Chase Local Nature reserve”.  This area had a totally different feel about it.  The grass was most definitely greener on the other side!! Although a lot more boggy!

From 2011 – 16.01.2011 – Eastbrookend Country Park – Chase Nature Reserve

We decided to tackle the reserve, and see where this would take us. The terrain was extremely marshy and it was then I was wishing that I had brought my trekking pole, just so that I could test out the ground in front of us… I did not fancy falling into a huge pool in front us which was disguised as a small puddle!

After negotiating a small proportion of the reserve, we noticed that the local wildlife group had helpfully provided small wooden bridges in various places. Obviously the area was in a constant state of marshiness! We found the longest wooden “bridge” which would eventually lead to some steps – but we had no idea where to!

From 2011 – 16.01.2011 – Eastbrookend Country Park – Chase Nature Reserve

The path took us into a totally different environment, which was dark and inhospitable. The muddy path was parallel to the train line meaning it was not particularly nice to walk down, and most of the trees that hung over the path were still very barren – no signs of any life :-(. With the leaves on the ground and an extremely muddy path was a firm reminder that we were well and truly still in winter.

This path seemed to go on and on and on – almost never ending! It eventually came out into suburbia and past some factory buildings. The strangest thing happened, it emerged exactly where we started our walk in the first place, near the station! We had missed this footpath in the first place 😦 we had walked all the way round to Fels Field via the long route when we could have taken this shortcut in the first place!!

These are the photos of the afternoon walk –

2011 – 16.01.2011 – Eastbrookend Country Park – Chase Nature Reserve

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