Reaching the small town of Malvern just in time for seeing the sun rise over the hilltops was a blessing. A small sliver of summits that span between two main roads and stand tall over the surrounding valleys.
The Route
This trek ended up being a lot longer than I had originaly planned. There will be more on that later. It was still a great mix of terrains with a lot of climbs and descents. Grassy paths and forest trails all of them pretty quiet which is something that I always enjoy.
Still I managed to meet some friendly faces along the way. Discussing our routes for the day and together trying to make sense of the some the local landmarks and how to get to them.
The Beacon
It wasn’t the warmest of December mornings. The winds were strong and as I got closer to reach the trig point on top of the Worcester Beacon. That is when I discovered it did stand alone on the summit. It stood proudly next to a pillar which commemorated the reign of Queen Victoria. I only know a little about our monarchy and its history. Our Queen Vic does seem to be a presence at many of our nations most beautiful nature spots.
The extra miles
I had only planned a ten mile “there and back again” circular route. Then as I reached the pinnacle where I was about to start my journey back to the car. I looked out over the hills to see a tower which burst out from a hill top in the distance. Since this tower was missing from the All Trails map, my curiosity got the better of me. So I set off in a new direction. Cutting into the valleys through forests losing sight of my new target. just hoped that I was heading in the right direction.
When I had reached the obelisk, I was quite impressed and the views of the surrounding countryside were pretty breathtaking. That is when I looked further in the distance. I could see another point not marked clearly on the map, Eastnor Castle. Again I couldn’t resist the temptation to get a bit closer and I headed off further away from my final destination.
It was only when I sat to eat my lunch outside of the castle that I realised I had a ten mile hike back to the car and the hours of daylight were going to be disappearing quickly.
Ten miles back
So I planned a route back which cut out the elevation of the hills and cut through the forest around their bases. Although these trails didn’t reach the same heights it was clear that they were a less trodden path. They involved a little bit of climbing to get through and I did try and tackle these with a bit of speed, which might have been unwise. I just wanted to make sure that getting lost in the woods after dark was a final option. As always though I went out fully prepared for a night in the wilderness with everything I carry in my pack.
I made it back with time to spare, but with very tired legs.