fleethants-walks

If you are a keen walker and want to pass on enjoyable and interesting walks to others in the area let us know. email community@fleethants.com

The North East Hampshire group of the Ramblers Association is based in the Farnborough, Aldershot and Fleet area and is the local group of the Hampshire area of the Ramblers Association covering Rushmoor and Hart districts. Walks are open to all members of the Ramblers Association. The group now has over 400 members. A regular programme of walks is held in the local area and also further afield. Walks are held at weekends, on both Saturdays and Sundays and also mid-week. During the summer, evening walks are also held. Both short walks (half day) and longer walks (full day) are offered. The club also does long distance walks, which have included the St Swithun's Way, The Thames Path and the Surrey Hills Challenge.

The group has an active social programme, particularly centred around the annual group walking holiday, the October weekend.

Visitors from other Ramblers Association groups are always welcome to walk with us. New members are welcome to walk with us twice but, after this, they are expected to join the Ramblers Association.

Further Information

Adults of all ages and fitness levels welcome
No specialist walking gear required
Walks last between 50-60 mins
One short weekly walk between 10-30 mins is also available
At the end of the walks a chat and refreshments are available

NATURE RESERVE at ELVETHAM HEATH

click here to see a video of what the reserve looks like now

INTRODUCTION:

Access through the reserve is via a series of marked routes. These will take visitors through all the main habitat types where the associated birds, animals and plants can be identified with the aid of helpful interpretation boards.

The prime objective in creating the nature reserve is to preserve and enhance the local habitat both an ecological resource and a place for people to enjoy.

What makes this nature reserve different to many others is that the area has not been left alone, ecological experts have helped create heath lands and other habitats which are typical of the locality.

A nature reserve manager has been appointed who will focus on the long term management of the reserve and monitoring of the habitats.

THE WALK by The Webmaster and his Daughter

There are no parking facilities provided at the Nature Reserve, this is to encourage walking and cycling. Visitors should park in the Village Square (The Key) or the Park and Ride Car Park and walk along Elvetham Heath Way or Turners Way.

Taking the Elvetham Heath Way route the first point we reached was Turners Pond which is fully landscaped incorporating footpaths, boardwalks and seating areas. At the ponds edge is a floating duck-house which is the home to four pairs of ducks. The ducks house will be gradually moved further and further towards the centre of the pond to ensure that the ducks settle into their new surroundings. We could not see any fish in the pond.

At this point there are a number of alternative paths to take all of which are clearly marked.

We decided to take the path at the point where Turners Drain meets Turners Pond and started walking through the wetlands on beautifully constructed boardwalks.

To the left is managed woodland and on the right mire community. The many dragonflies seemed to love resting on the surfaces of the boardwalks.

Further on we saw many areas of humid heath and rush pasture

Crossing the cycle way and through some gates we leave the wetlands and boardwalks behind and continue on footpaths through more humid heath land. As we progressed we could start to hear the motorway which was a bit sad in such otherwise peaceful surroundings. The motorway noise grew louder and we observed that throughout the walk we had neither seen or heard any birds.

Looping round the path we came to the point where work was still progressing so we started on our way back the same way as we came.

We saw many log piles. These stacks of cut logs should create habitats suitable for basking reptiles, invertebrates, small mammals and some birds. There are also three hibernation shelters located around the reserve to provide an ideal habitat for hibernating reptiles such as the common lizard, grass snakes and mining bees. Unfortunately we saw none of the above creatures.

We did however observe many differing flowers throughout the walk.

On our way back to the pond we noted that there was a lot of what looked like oil in the wetland waters. This is naturally occurring on acidic heathland soils, it's to do with the peat and often gets mistaken for spilt oil.

Returning to the boardwalks we also saw that the vegetation had started to grow through the slats between the timbers and thought that without continued maintenance the path would soon become very overgrown.

There were many varied trees and felt that notices regarding the types of tree would have been very useful. Throughout the walk we did not see any information regarding the habitats, species and history of the land but understand that "interpretation boards" are to be provided to give such information

On returning to the pond we tried the short boardwalk across part of the pond observing how fortunate the owners of houses built buy the pond were to have such a lovely peaceful location.

The walk had lasted approximately one and a quarter hours at a steady pace. We both enjoyed it but felt we should have seen more birds and animal life. We concluded that it was early days and the reserve needed time to settle and to mature. We shall return soon to see what progress has been made.