Plymbridge Wood Walks
Dave and I planned a walk in Plymbridge woods to ‘welcome’ Butterfly, a mutual friend of Gee who is a Brazilian studying English in UK. The purpose is to trek down trails for our next cycle outing in the weeks to come. Since the day was so awesome, we planned a quick BBQ just right in Dave’s backyard.
Nothing special prepared as we had our spare time spent below the shade in the garden enjoying ourselves with some occasional summer breeze breezing around us.
Damn, was so hungry that I refuse to walk until my tum was filled. Here are the sequence of pics of whats on that sunny day.
Going going gone!
Becky da Brazillian.
Dave da Englishman
Burger da Bloody Food.
Plymbridge Woods is made of a network of footpaths and cycle trails that was previously railtracks for transporting quarryout of the mines. The area covers approximately 200 acres (80 ha) of woodland and meadows along the River Plym on the northeastern fringe of the city of Plymouth. The timber is mainly sessile oak with other broad-leaved trees such as beech, sycamore, ash and chestnut now becoming established growing wild among the remnants and ruins of the old mining settlement.
Being the gentleman he is
The map guide
Let’s roll!
As you walk, you can see a lot of the oak trees in the past have been coppiced, but generally the management of the woodlands today is left to natural regeneration. Very little planting has been carried out in recent years, in the belief that the natural woodland will provide a more sustainable habitat for the wildlife. In some areas, the trees are “thinned out” in order to allow more light to reach the ground, thereby encouraging a diverse ground flora and permitting the remaining trees to grow larger and stronger with the reduced competition.
Macros of some leaves sideways
Some wild berries.
The real Plymbridge, remnants of an old railtrack
The woods contain a network of streams and ponds where some were man-made left from the previous settlers using them for their own usage. Ponds was soon became habitat for some fishes. I wonder if one put a croc in, would it survive? As the pond are marsh like with swampy areas all around.
Streams
Scenic
Foothpaths and streams. View from the bridge
If you are a keen ornithologist, this part is where some of the rares birds made their nesting. Very suitable for observers as signs are well placed so that visitors could learn what species inhabited those designated areas. Our walk was accompanied by many passers by cycling with families or walking as couples ‘paktoring’, not too quiet till it creates a silently creepy atmosphere. Nice place to have your kids learn cycling too with mom and dads guiding their kids trailing them from the back with their kiddie bikes.
The place’s serene and greenery is such an enchantment in summer as this is the right place to chill after the long week of hectic working days.