In Search of bluebells in Whitleigh Woods and Southway Valley

 Bluebells are my favourite wild flowers, they are so bright and cheerful.  When they are in flower I try to visit as many bluebell woods as possible.  In the past I have been to Whitleigh Woods at this time of the year and seen bluebells so I decided to revisit this wood to see what sort of show the bluebells were putting on at the moment.  I parked at the end of Southway Drive and crossed the road to the woods.  I didn't see any bluebells until I reached the top of the woods, which was disappointing. The bluebells in the woodland by the road were not at their best as there were still flowers to come out.  However it was good to see some.

By the time I had walked back through the woods to my car I had only been walking for about 20 minutes so I decided to explore somewhere new.  I drove round to the other side of Southway Drive and parked as soon as I saw a sign to the Southway Valley Nature Reserve.  There were steps that led down to the wood.  I could have followed these to the valley floor but decided instead halfway down to walk along a path through the wood.  There were lots of bluebells here, but some were the spanish variety. 

After a while I came to a path that lead to the bottom of the valley where there was a large field.  I turned around and continued walking along a stream that was only a trickle.  Eventually I came to some steps that led up to by car.  

Again the bluebells were not fully out.  In another week they would look a lot more spectacular.  There were definitely more of them in this nature reserve than across the road in Whitleigh Woods.  I will certainly come back another later in the season.  Next time however, I will park nearer the bottom of the reserve so I don't have the steep climb into and out of  the reserve.