Taking the Path

It's odd that such simple things should not be easier to find. There can't be many surfaces we walk on that are as good as this.

Where you find paths like this you may be off the 'beaten track', by which we might mean a track that has been beaten into shape rather than respectfully used. There are a few on Blacka but they are those with less direct value, more digressive and therefore not favoured by those who walk to a time constraint and even recreational walkers often have their timetables. The routes genuinely ramble but strangely perhaps don't tend to attract 'ramblers'.  Here the wild animals invariably start the process. With them it isn't necessarily random; their use of contours shows a wildlife intelligence that beats anything institutionally designed by a qualified rights-of-way officer.  Some of Blacka's official paths take such straight routes they could only have been decided using a ruler on a map. Most are on slopes so invite erosion from moving water and the steeper ones become an uphill trudge.

It suits the purpose of deer and fox to take their own time. When you do find these wildlife originated paths on Blacka you will usually be in the kind of mixed woodland that looks inviting in winter when sunlight easily penetrates to the ground. There will be standing dead trees, small oak and beech still holding brown leaves and along with bronzed bracken other ferns still vivid green.

Absence of signs of human activity adds more appeal.