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Wheat with a camouflaged butterfly |
After leaving the footpath by the road you'll find yourself
following a diagonal path to your right across the fields. During much of
the year this field will have wheat in it. You'll soon reach the hedge and
a small raised platform that gives you access to the next field. The hedge
itself is also something of a wildlife treasure trove with a wide variety
of insects, birds and plants making their home within.
After crossing the small footbridge you'll now be in
a grass field. Again you should see a diagonal path crossing it. Keep
an eye out for pheasants here - they remain very still in the long grass
and suddenly fly off in a panic if you get too close. The female pheasant
with her mottled brown and buff feathers is camouflaged well in the grass
but the male is unmistakable with his rich red and gold feathers and dark
green head.
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Path across the wheat field |
From the grass field you'll reach a hedge with another
stile in it. After crossing you will find yourself in another field. During
the year, this field also has a wheat crop sown in it. The dirt path across
this field is very clear and easy to follow. During the last ice age (Devensian
- between 10,000 and 500,000 years ago) the area would have been quite
something to behold. A huge ice sheet would have covered Britain as far
south as Gloucestershire so, looking north during that time you would
have seen the huge ice sheet in the distance. The Severn would have been
fed by melt waters from the ice, which would have carried rocks and debris
with it.
However, it wasn't always bitterly cold throughout the
Ice Age - there were warmer periods much like the weather we're enjoying
today. Modern humans moved into the area about 40,000 years ago and lived
a hunter-gather existence, probably tracking the herds of woolly mammoth
that roamed across the frozen plains. Fossils of the woolly mammoth and
the woolly rhinoceros have been found in Gloucestershire, proving that
these creatures did roam the area.
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Maize can grow higher than 2.5 metres |
Crossing through a stile you'll find yourself in another
field. Follow the path through this one towards the electricity pylons.
Passing beneath them you'll find you've moved into another field - during
parts of the year you can see a maize crop. Maize grows to a height in
excess of two and a half metres which is pretty spectacular as the path
cuts a long straight corridor through the field (anyone who has seen the
film Signs may want to give this one a miss!). Maize produces a crop of
corn which has a variety of uses, mainly in the food industry. The crop
is left in the field throughout the autumn in order to dry it out thoroughly
and it's sometimes not harvested until winter or even early spring!
Leaving the maize corridor you'll find yourself on the
bank of the East Channel of the Severn - you've just crossed from one
side of Alney Island to the other. If you're really lucky you'll see the
odd dragonfly flitting between the crop and the river. Follow the path
along the river bank to your right and you'll eventually reach a stile.
Once you've crossed over, follow the river around towards the road bridge
ahead. Head under the bridge and you'll reach another stile. After crossing
the stile you'll find yourself amongst some trucks and caravans. Head
to your left and follow the road straight ahead. Take a left at the end
of the road and follow the footpath around and to your right. You will
find that you're now heading under another road bridge. Keep to the left
and head out the other side, still following the river. If you look left
at this point you should see the cathedral.
After crossing another stile, you need to follow the
path across some wet grasslands. Again, the pathway skirts the East Channel
of the River Severn. These wet grasslands are also a haven for wildlife
and you may see black slugs in great numbers. Slugs love damp places which
is why they thrive in the damp grass. Slugs are members of the mollusc
family and they survive by eating plant material. In this kind of habitat
they form an important part of the food chain, providing meals for other
animals like birds. However you won't see many of them in winter because
frost kills them off. Slug eggs survive the winter and hatch in the spring.
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A Grasshopper |
Also, as you walk through the grass, you might notice
that something's moving. If you look closely you'll see grasshoppers.
Their green/brown colours are perfect camouflage in this grass but they,
too, form an important part of the food chain in the area.
Alney Island was also, possibly, the scene of an important
medieval battle. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Cnut, the Danish
king, fought and defeated the English king Edmund Ironside there in 1016.
Following the grass path you'll eventually reach the
beginning of a tarmac pathway. Take a left here and cross the footbridge
over the East Channel of the River Severn.
...You're now approaching Gloucester Docks and the
final stage of the walk.
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