Brumai one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Brumai here.

I walked Maiden Bradley -> Bruton.

The paths out of Maiden Bradley were great - it was a series of fields separated by a gate or stile every few hundred yards.

The road walking segment along Bradley Lane felt long but it was perfectly pleasant.

After the wooded section and approaching Holt Road, I totally struggled to find this path. There was some barbed wire fences with clearings for crossings but no stiles. There were large cow herds where I thought the path may have been. To avoid the trouble, I stayed on the farm access road which landed on Holt Road a bit south of where the Slow Way path crosses.

A little navigation difficulty through the next stretch around 43 Acres (I think it was called), but I pointed myself in the direction I thought I was supposed to go and followed existing paths sensibly and had no trouble.

Approaching North Brewham, I had a lot of trouble. It seemed to me there were a lot of paths that started with closed and locked gates you had to climb over, and then the paths were really not clear or through fields of cows. It happened approaching North Brewham and leaving it. I ended up following farm access driveways to get to Hammer Street and then sticking to the road on James's Hill and Tile Hill Roads.

Had a few other serious navigation difficulties in the next bit of farmland after South Brewham - the paths just didn't quite exist where Slow Ways and OSMaps said they should, and it was getting really frustrating! I did eventually find my way, but it involved hopping gates, skirting under (maybe) electrified fences, and keeping an eagle eye out for stiles off in the distance. It was pretty frustrating and challenging; I think the paths probably existed, but I just had the hardest time finding them!

The path near the railway line into Bruton was really nice, actually, following for a time a stream of some kind. Once there was a herd of cows in this wooded streamside area, too! It was so hard to escape them! I managed to skirt around them ok, though.

Overall, 3/5 route:
Pros:
- Quiet countryside walking is always great
- A few great snippets of views
- Reasonably direct and fast route
- For much of the route, the path quality was very good (good dirt road or compacted dirt path)
Cons:
- Minor but really frustrating navigation issues, combined with fields of cows that just scare me

Summary:
18 (ish) stiles
10 (ish) gates, including four that were locked and had to be climbed over
Several electric fences to navigate, and potentially one barbed wire fence with no stile.

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