#guisboroughforest

[jordanaimee]

Had a lovely couple of days with my wonderful family making me smile, and all rounded off with a hike upto Highcliffe with my fave two terrors! ♥️ #labradors #blacklabsofinstagram #doggo #mybuddies #walks #hike #guisboroughforest #highcliffe #sunshine #perfectday (at Guisborough Forest)

[buggyexplorer-blog]

Guisborough Woods

Welcome again to Buggy Adventures. Wow, they seem to be coming thick and fast! Well this particular blog brings to you a nice short 4.5 mile circular in Guisborough Woods. So if you don’t have much time but fancy squeezing in a nice walk and with 550 feet of elevation gain, so it gets the blood pumping, then this is a good one.

I have also discovered how to add photos to my blog, I’m getting so tech savvy these days and courtesy of Strava I will add a route map at the start of each blog.  There are one or two pictures added to my two previous blogs, so please feel free to scroll down and re-visit.

Joining us today on our Buggy Adventures is Thomas’s Grandad - my Dad, Keith and Lily the poodle. Growing up I was an only child and to be honest, I loved it. Not having to share my CD’s, no squabbling over which sibling gets the bigger bedroom, or battling over who got the keys to my Dad’s Renault 5 once I was of driving age! So having a dog constantly in the family was my equivalent of a sibling. Misty, our wonderful family pooch, was a miniature poodle with attitude. He really thought he was head of the family and quite frankly, he was! Misty often covered two or three times the distance than we did on our family hikes. Then we had Louis, a white standard poodle who was such a handsome devil and he knew it too. Louis also loved his walks in the woods and hills of Guisborough with my parents. My Dad often shared his love of photography with Louis by going out on early morning walks in the woods in an attempt to photograph the perfect sunrise. Sadly we lost lovely Louis last year just before Christmas and it's fair to say the whole family was devastated. I still miss him so much to this day. My poor Dad was lost without his loyal companion and despite my parents saying that they weren't going to get another dog it was evident that there was a void. Lily was the perfect dog for my parents. A three year old miniature rescue poodle who had not had a very nice life so far and had been used purely for breeding. Now though she has been given the life she deserves with my Mum and Dad. Actually looking like a poodle now after some serious grooming, I was amazed at how well behaved she was off the lead on our hike. So, Leela, Thomas, my Dad, Lily and the Buggy Explorer set off on a walk all together.

We entered the Guisborough Woods at the top of the Pine Hills housing estate off Lyndale.  All of the road names on the Pine Hills estate are named afer dales such as Farndale, Weardale and Rosedale.  The path from Lyndale goes down a short but steep hill where it meets up with the old Middlesbrough and Guisborough railway line.  Oh how Guisborough could now do with a train service to Middlesbrough, I think that it would be very well supported and would certainly take a lot of cars off the road.  Cut backs are not only happening now as they obviously played a part in 1964, the last time a train operated on this line.  Much of the old line is now walkways or built on, so no chance of it being re-opened.

Once at the old line we turned right and walked in the direction of the briliant Branch Walkway Cafe at the Guisborough Forest and Walkway Visitors Centre.  If you are on the look out for a full monty breakfast, than you need not look any further than the Branch Walkway Cafe.  Just don’t expect to be able to eat for 24 hours after and make sure you are hungry, really hungry.  Their rocky roads are pretty special too.  Anyway, as my Mum was preparing a lovely family meal for later in the day we avoided temptation by taking a left turn into the woods just before we got the the cafe.  We immediately turned right and walked uphill past the adventure playground on our right amongst the trees.  Thomas will love it here when he is older.

As we walked the views opened up to our right looking over Pinchinthorpe and the fields between Guisborough and Nunthorpe.  In the distance you can see towards Flatts Lane and the Eston Hills with the busy A171 road linking Middlesbrough to Guisborough inbetween.  Along this path we passed a few walkers one of whom had a dog which seemed to show some interest in Lily and decided for a good few yards that he no longer wanted to wallk with his owner and tried to tag along with us!  Lily is not that type of girl though and she did not show one bit of interest in her new admirer and the dog finaly gave up and walked back in the oposite direction towards his owner who by now was out of sight!

We followed the path for its entirety and it came to a head at a concrete road which snakes its way uphill through the trees to Bousdale Farm.  This concrete road was always a killer when I rode up it on my mountain bike years ago and guess what? Its a killer when pushing a three wheeled offroad baby buggy too!  After one or two rest stops we all made it to the top at Bousdale Farm where we all decided on a rest and drink stop while taking in the views and a few photos.

Bousdale Farm has renovated some outbuildings turning them into holiday cottages and what a setting it is in.  Within easy reach of Guisborough and the surounding area it has a feel of remoteness with some outstanding views of the hills.  There were some very friendly goats in a field here and one of them was eager to make friends, or perhaps he just wanted whatever food we had on us.  Since we were only on a short hike all we had were a couple of snickers bars and a bottle of water, so Billy the goat went disappointed!

We walked through the yard and through a gate into fields and we got a spectacular view of that mountain again, Roseberry Topping.  It certainly dominates and you can see why it is nicknamed the Cleveland Matterhorn as it does share a distinct resemblance with its much bigger namesake.  The summit once resembled a sugar loaf. Then in 1912 Roseberry Topping changed forever when the Western side of the hill collapsed, mainly due to alum and ironstone mining but also because of a geological fault.  Apparently Guisborough is one of the more likely places in the country to have an earthquake, not that I have ever noticed!  Due to the sheer West face following the collapse the Topping has since been compared to its big Swiss cousin.

So once through the first field we entered another via a metal gate and keeping to the left hand edge of the field we walked through to another metal gate and turned left to go up to the wooden gate oposite.  Back onto well maintained paths we turned left and walked back into the Guisborough Forest.  From here on it was easy pushing with the buggy rolling over well maintained fire track roads after the uneven tracks in the fields that we had just come through. 

We carried on walking downhill and after a little while we turned almost back on oursleves to extend the walk a little.  The paths zigzag their way through the woods and you can walk for hours without ever being more than a couple of miles from where you started!  As we dropped lower towards the end of the walk we enjoyed a little break by a bench with a lovely view across rapeseed fields near to Home Farm on the Hutton Village Road.  We admired the yellow carpet that spread out infront of us while munching on funsized Aldi Racer bars, which is basically a Snickers but half the price, as is everything at Aldi!

We finished the hike by walking along the track going past Home Farm and the idylic barn conversions with their spectactular views of the surrounding countryside and onto the Hutton Village road, where we parked the car on our last walk.  We walked onto the Avenue and the final few minutes rolling back to my parents where a hearty meal awaited us.

A lovely way to spend a couple of hours in the local countryside.

Look out for the next Buggy Adventures blog where our very good friends Maggie and Joe join us for a hike which challenges the buggy’s capabilities in the heart of my favourite part of the country.

Boldly going where no buggy has gone before...........