THE INTREPID EXPLORER LIVES AGAIN

I was always a bit of a tearaway as a child - an adventurer, an explorer. One of my first and favourite books was RM Ballantine’s ‘The Dog Crusoe’ - one of those three men and a dog stories that tells the tale of exploring on horseback the passage from the head waters of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, in the days of the deep frontier. The star was the dog, of course, a great Newfoundland called Crusoe - ever faithful, sage beyond wisdom and trained to accomplish astonishing feats of great persistence and daring.

I was lucky in my tearaway fortunes: when I was still only seven years old we moved to a large ramshackle old house with seven acres of land deep in the Berkshire countryside. This was hardly the badlands of Montana, nor was the homely Thames like the head waters of the Mississippi; and nor did our untrained mongrel, Twiddles, remotely resemble the heroic canine Crusoe.

But, nevertheless, who cared? There was still exploring to be done. Trees to climb, houses to build from sticks and corrugated iron, the river in which to swim and fish, cellars and attics in which to hide or treasure hunt the discarded bric à brac of previous owners. There were even ponies in the great field - not ours - but still rideable if you didn’t, like the Red Indians in Ballantine’s book, worry too much about saddles and bridles. You learned fast to grip with your knees or be bucked off into a hideous clumps of painful nettles.

Such a spirit of adventure, of being an intrepid explorer, never really dies. It merely ages, smothered in a thousand practical worries about getting clothes dirty, twisting ankles and other wholly practical concerns about ‘safety.’ Even today when I see a horse in a field I long to lose half a century of age and to go quietly up to it, speak softly while stroking its neck and then, quick as a flash, to leap upon its back and, clinging for my life, go galloping headlong with the wind in my ears. Can ever such fun be had amongst computer games I wonder?

Of course, I doubt today that I could leap easily even upon a donkey, never mind a horse - but still, as I say, the exploring spirit never completely dies and thus it came about that I was idly listening to Rosie one day after lunch during our recent visit to her son’s Auvergne Mill. We were talking about walks, I think, when I heard her say ‘I want a Nature Trail.’

The tea was being made - a few minutes then to go outside in the sun. ‘Nature Trail?’ I found myself wandering up the unmetalled back road that leads up one side of the valley. Rosie’s remark had set me thinking.

Nature Trails should be circular, but the trouble with this is that the river Celé at this point forms a horse shoe, cutting through the high plateau, with the Mill at the end of it. This means that in order to do a circuit of the Mill you not only have to cross the river twice and the leat once but also climb up and climb down again the high valley sides.

I wondered. I had already crossed the river once, by the Mill’s own bridge. Now if I just climbed the first ridge.......? I looked above me. At this point the ridge is a jumbled landslip of grey rocks - big and square - almost as though a giant’s baby had overturned his tray of building bricks. It was covered with heather and moss, but didn’t look too difficult. Seizing an oak sapling I hauled myself up, block by block.

Once at the top I could see over into Cocotte’s field - named after the fat, sad and greedy pony who belongs to the neighbouring farm and who grazes the field occasionally. Having climbed up the ridge I had now to descend. I decided I would not go back the way I came. Onwards and downwards then, towards Cocotte’s field. The ground looked quite smooth, though steep. Fortunately plenty of saplings meant I keep my footing.

At the bottom ran a low retaining wall - about six feet in height. I would have to jump this. What was the ground like underneath? Uneven certainly and with stones. I leapt, hedging my bets, planning to land with one foot on a flat stone, and one on the ground. All well.

Now it was simple to cross the field to the river where I knew that a young oak had been washed down in last winter’s floods and was lying lodged in the tree roots on either side of the bank. The river is not very wide at this point: twelve or fifteen feet perhaps and the tree trunk was maybe six foot above the water. No matter there was little water in the river. If I slipped I should have a nasty fall.

I hesitated. Then I remembered one of the Hornblower stories in which he leads a party of men along a ship’s yard to invade the rigging of an enemy ship. This trunk lying across the stream must be about the thickness of a ship’s yard I thought. Yes, I can do it. In no time I was safely across.

So now I was into the Leat field - through which is dug the leat that carries water from the sluices at the weir to the millpond, running in a trench four metres above the river. No problem to cross this as there’s a concrete bridge so that tractors may pass from one field to the other.

From the weir I had what I thought would be a difficult climb - straight up through a grove of holly trees to the crag that marks the boundary of the Mill’s land on the main drive that leads down to the Mill from the village above. Though steep it was easy enough with plenty of handholds and footholds.

I was reliving my childhood, the pulse racing, grizzly bears about to emerge from the sweet chestnuts that line the roadway. Where was my racoon hat? My deerskin jacket? Had I had enough. I’d gone about three quarters of the way and from the roadway I could simply have walked down the drive to the Mill to collect my ever cooling tea. But I would not have completed the circle.

From a little below the crag, on the other side of the roadway, there leads a forest trail cut to bring timber out of the dense woodland. It climbs sharply up the hillside to meet a confluence of such trails directly above the Mill. That’s where I headed. Here is to be found also the well that provides the Mill with its water, a plastic hose snaking down the mountain.

The trails haven’t been used for a long time. The forest is overgrown and fallen trees make vehicle access, even with a tractor, impossible. To someone on two legs, however, fallen trees present no problem.

Then, high on the hill I heard a tinkling sound. Like something from Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ - He jangled and jangled and jangled his bell. Someone was ringing for me with the old hand bell kept to summon folk in from the fields just as in my growing-up days, my parents would jangle to summon me from the bowels of a hidden cellar or outhouse attic.

I shouted in reply, but the forest simply absorbed my sound. And still the bell rang. Maybe an emergency! No question then of searching out a convenient and happy way to descend the long steep and bramble-thicketed hillside to the walnut trees on the Mill’s lawn that I could see far beneath me. Straight down then.

At least it was impossible to fall for the brambles gripped me like thorned string. I tore and tumbled my way downwards, eventually running out on to the lawn out of breath and adrenalin pumping a few minutes later.

‘What’s the problem?’ I shouted.

‘Your tea’s cold,’ answered Rosie.

But at least I had completed the circuit.

The photograph shows the river Celé in spate; there was rather less water in it when I crossed it via the log bridge just downstream from here.