Tuesday, 10th April, (another late entry), was our first trip out that we had planned more thoroughly compared to the rest. We had our new ramblesacks (Berghaus Freeflow III’s), so we tested them out. We headed out before lunch, following the directions I had written down on a piece of paper to get to Churchtown Farm Community Nature Reserve. It was fairly straight forward getting there.
Our first “photography stop” was St. Stephens church, where an old man walking by stop as he noticed us taking photos, telling us a little bit about it and how that part of Saltash was the oldest. He mentioned a few other things, though I’m not sure what they were.
We continued up Farm Lane to the entrance to Churchtown Farm Community Nature Reserve and entered through a gate into a large field. At this point, we had to guess which way to go (we later discovered we didn’t actually go through the beginning of the trails) as there were three paths we could take. We took a diagonal path and realized it went to an exit anyway, so we went along the bottom of the field to another gap in the fence where we found more fields and paths. At first we went down a little lane though it was fairly we blocked by overgrowth. Zeta heard something down there in a bush and stamped around, then seeing a rabbit jump out. I’m sure she must’ve scared it quite well. I saw a few Great Tits, though unfortunately it was too dark in amongst the trees to get any photos of them.
Continuing on, we passed through another field, not actually sure whether it was following one of the Churchtown Farm CNR trails or not, and came to a stile, which we discovered was a part of the Sparrowhawk trail, a trail in which you could possibly see Sparrowhawks (which we did!), and a range of other wildlife. We decided we’d follow this one, through a fenced area and onwards, seeing a few different birds. We followed a path up the side of a hill, where at the top we decided to stop and have lunch.
Picture 2: One of the first views we saw when we arrived (Nyssa)
Picture 3: The tree we took many photos of (Zeta)
Picture 4: The path we followed up to our lunch spot (Nyssa)
Zeta unpacked her bag, pulled out our picnic blanket and we ate lunch (tuna sandwiches and crisps) with a nice view in front of us. We got to watch some buzzards flying above us while eating as well, which was quite nice. It added a little something to the lunch. After we had finished eating and relaxed for a few minutes, we headed off again, spotting a Blue Tit just nearby our lunch spot. It had flown into a bird box so I waited for it to come out again to take a few photos. It’s quite a cute bird to watch.
Continuing on, we came out into a field/hill, where we walked up a trail and decided to turn back and go the way we came. There was a tree we had spotted a little earlier (and had taken many photos of), which had a stile nearby, so we followed a trail up to the tree and stile, taking photos and then following more trail up and over yet another hill, which led into a lane. Here we found an information board so we could find out what trail we were actually on, and it was the Curlew trail, the largest of the 3 trails available. We decided we’d follow this one, as it lead right around to Forder Viaduct.
Picture 2: Trematon Castle from the field/hill after lunch (Nyssa)
Picture 3: The tree we took many photos of, again (Nyssa)
Picture 4: Stairs that lead down and around the water (Zeta)
This part of the trail lead down alongside the water, which made for some nice views. When we had come to another hill, we stopped for a few to take in the views. The water was quite blue which made the blue quite refreshing. At the next hill, we stopped again to take some photos of Forder Viaduct and Trematon Castle, then once again continued on, spotting a Long-tailed Tit along the way (very cute bird!). From this point on, we more or less just followed the trail all the way to Forder, when we headed back home.
Picture 2 & 3: Trematon Castle (back) and Forder Viaduct (front) (Zeta)
Picture 4: Forder, a small village outside Saltash, on the way home (Nyssa)
Walk Information
Start time: 11.25am
End time: 5.20pm
Distance covered: 7 kilometres / 4.3 miles
Type of walk: Public footpath & Nature Reserve
11 comments on Churchtown Farm Community Nature Reserve
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Kel said:
^_^ man you guys are doing so much walking! Great pics again
Kel said:
oh and who on god’s green earth decided to call a type of bird a “tit”, i nearly snorted juice out my nose when you said I saw a few Great Tits, though unfortunately it was too dark in amongst the trees to get any photos of them.
Nyssa said:
I know. I said something similar once. Now I just make jokes all the time… not that I should but I can’t help myself sometimes. You know me.
Glad you liked the pics, Kel. I think you’ll like the next lot more though
Kel said:
lol how could you NOT make jokes about it.. i’d be dying laughing everytime someone said “oh look at that lovely tit” LOL
EpharGy said:
Well i can see 4/12 pics looks like the host is being a lil slow tonight o_O
Oh well i’ll check back soon for the rest.
Geez, id get lost way too easily with so many paths to pick *giggles*
(And nice shot on DA Nyssa)
Nyssa said:
Kel: I know… sometimes I say “Thats a tit, I think” to Zeta and then giggle inside my head. So childish.
Kym: Oh man, that sucks
Hopefully you’ll see the rest soon. Were they just not loading or were you getting a heap of text saying the size couldn’t be found?
It’s not easy to get lost at this place, though I imagine if it were out and about somewhere, it would be easily done. hehe
And thank you.
EpharGy said:
Its all loading fine now, but before, it just wouldnt show up o_O slow load times i think, seems to fine now though
EpharGy said:
Wow, the last photo from each of you are awesome!@! my fav’s
Nyssa said:
Damn, that’s annoying. Ah well.
At least you got to see them and glad you like them 
Sunshine, 3 years, complete silliness, going home « Nyssa’s Ramblings said:
[…] we’ll be heading out tomorrow to Churchtown Farm. We haven’t really had a lot of photo opportunities due to the overcast and rainy weather, so […]
Paul said:
One of the loveliest parts of Cornwall.
I live in one of the more western parts of the County, which is overated IMHO, though get back to this part as often as I can.
Mount Edgcumbe and Antony woodland are probably my two fav bits in the entire county.