Two weeks ago, on my way back from Corfe Castle, I went to RSPB Arne, a nature reserve occupying an entire peninsula on the west side of Poole Harbour and while I was there, I spied a mention of a Halloween trail over the half term week. So on Saturday, its first day, I returned.
It wasn’t a great day. In accordance with all the rules about the October half term, it was grey and windy and drizzly, later becoming full-on wet. Still, I had a (new!) raincoat and some waterproof mountain boots instead of the “Halloween costume and weirdest wellies” that the website suggested and that should keep me dry enough. Spoiler: it didn’t!
I started the day at the tent by the visitors hut. I was the first ever participant in this year’s trail, as evidenced by the awkward “Umm… you get a bag and… do you have any food allergies? Well, yes, a goodie bag and there’s a map here on the table? Umm… you’ve already paid? You haven’t? Oh… Does anyone know how to use the thing?” Bless ’em, I have plenty of patience for volunteers, especially the ones roped into running an event. I paid my £2 eventually, took my goodie bag and set off.
It contained a map with directions and questions, a pencil for answering the questions, a chocolate pumpkin and a chocolate eyeball. I pocketed the chocolate and examined my map. When I was here two weeks ago, I’d found the trails quite difficult to make sense of but between the map, the directions and the various markers, most of it was quite easy to follow.
I was expecting it to be more Halloween-themed – some skeletons and pumpkins, maybe some spiders. Instead I got an autumn-themed nature walk packed full of creepy-crawlies, nasties and supernatural beasties which was perfectly satisfying and much more in-keeping with this being a nature reserve. I didn’t see many of the creatures but among them we had a Devil’s Coach Horse Beetle, various local bats, lacewings (which use the corpses of their prey as a disguise) and Green Tigers (which lurk in burrows to jump out on their prey). I had to collect an acorn to present as payment to the Troll Gate and look out for Sika Deer hoofprints and spot wand wood in the fairy hedge.
It was a loop of about 3km, taking me deep into pine and birch woods, across hillsides, past a bull so huge he just had to be a buffalo, and up to a viewpoint over Poole Harbour that probably looks amazing in August sunshine. It wasn’t at its best on a wet and windy October day.
I think it took me an hour or so, maybe a bit more. Probably longer with children but then again, I planned to make a video (you’ll find out at the end of the post whether or not I spent yesterday actually putting it together!) so that slowed me down a bit. Nice to have enough privacy in the woods to be able to film myself running up and down the track!
Once I’d done the Halloween trail, I should have sat at the viewpoint to eat my picnic but instead I thought I’d walk through the woods to Shipstal Point, a bit of beach with views over Poole Harbour’s various island and, if you crane your neck a bit, Poole Quay. Mistake! Almost from the second I finished the trail, the weather deteriorated rapidly. By the time I reached the beach I was wet and by the time I got back off the beach, my trousers were clinging to me. My raincoat was doing its job but with a fleece underneath, I was sweating buckets. My camera was getting wet, my hands were wet so even the safe dry pocket was getting wet and the wind was so strong that I had to stride across the sand with my head down and my arms behind my back to reduce drag.
So straight back to the car. Glasses off because they’re wet and steamed-up, raincoat off, fleece off, discover fleece and t-shirt are both dry except around the cuffs, boots off while sitting in the driving seat, unzip trouser legs and squirrel them off somehow, sandals on. And breathe. Leaving me half-blind in a steamed-up car in shorts, t-shirt, sandals and grey-and-red Christmas socks. Still, I was now as dry as I could get. My glasses and camera could dry while I ate my picnic and once I got going, the car’s fans could dry me out properly.
I enjoyed the Halloween/autumn trail: it was interesting, it was well done, it didn’t use this over-commercialised orange-and-plastic vision of modern Halloween and had it stayed dry, it would have been a 100% great day. But then again, you might as well see nature in all its moods, not just the comfortable and pretty ones.
And did I make the video? Well, it didn’t come out how I planned (technical difficulties included limitations of the editing software, limitations of the laptop’s processing power, limitations of my ability to use any of it and also some personal issues with some of the footage) but it’s not too bad. Enjoy: