Wonders of Our Universe

You don't have to be a professor named Brian Cox to talk about the wonders of our universe. Wonders of the Universe His universe may be quite large thanks to the BBC travel budget, but most of us have to settle for something a little more modest and closer to home.

Petrol like helium is constantly going up, which may well be good for the environment as we think twice about hopping in the car to travel around. And public transport was never frequent in our part of the woods, although twice a week would have qualified it to be regular. However, there are 'things to do' on our own doorstep.

Spring is one of the best times of the year to get out walking. The sun is not yet strong enough to burn or over heat us which makes it idea weather for walking and there is so much to see. There are the spring bulbs, the ponds coming to life, the buds on the trees, even the insects are active. Our chickens have been enjoying chasing flies around the garden before laying out looking as if they are playing dead in order to get plenty of sun.

We are very lucky to have the Badminton estate on our doorstep. I will leave others with better knowledge to give specifics of where to go, but I do understand that there are some lovely walks there. We also have the Boxwell estate, and others such as Ozleworth and Newington Bagpath in the valleys. These estates are not open to the public nor are they run as parkland like Badminton is. They are working farms, and because of this they have maintained over the centuries what we think of as natural English countryside. However, there are official footpaths and bridle paths running though them.

Then of course we have Westonbirt right on our doorstep. I have never liked the 'front door' of Westonbirt, with the car parks, visitor centres and high charges. Thank goodness there is also the 'back door'. There are public footpaths running from both Leighterton and Didmarton into Silkwood and the woods behind Silkwood. This to me is the real Westonbirt, the wild bit where the trees are left to grow naturally and the wildlife is less disturbed by people. Again, much of this is on private land and public footpaths and the Countryside Code should be kept to.

There is a good reason though to go into Westonbirt by the front door, and that is when there is limited mobility. In the modern part of the arboretum there is disabled parking, hard paths and electric scooter and manual wheelchairs available (best to book on weekends and at busy times).

But if you have someone in your party that is of limited mobility, and you don't want the expense or the crowds of Westonbirt, the Cotswold Conservation Board has produced a small handbook called Walks on Wheels containing 15 walks suitable for buggies and wheelchairs, two of which are in our area: a town walk in Tetbury and a walk on the Badminton Estate. Each walk has a map and details about parking, length, and whether there are any hills or not. That's essential information for the people pushing!

Theses walks and others can be downloaded for free from their website http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/

So Professor Brian Cox may be able to watch the sun go down from the top of a mountain or stand in the middle of a Peruvian desert to watch the dawn though a fourth century solar observatory, but nothing beats standing on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment and watching the sun rise over Westonbirt, or gazing across the Severn floodplain to take in a sunset.