Saturday came and with it, the opportunity for me to lead my fifth (and final) Ramblers walk of the year. I’m pleased to say I’ve now done enough to have earned myself a £20 voucher at Cotswold Outdoor. In 2013, I lead a total of three walks to gain £10. This year, I’ve gone that extra bit further. What will 2015 bring?
A great day for low-visibility.
It got off to a very foggy start as I set off from home.
Travelling north up the A38; I passed the vague glimmers of Bristol Airport before heading deep in to a near-standstill of traffic where visibility dropped to less than 100m at the Barrow Gurney traffic lights. Bristol wasn’t quite as badly affected.
Fog or not, I was late arriving for my own walk! Fortunately, a couple of others were waiting and while one searched for the missing ticket machine so that he could leave his car behind without being penalised, another late arrival (and newbie to the group) turned up and soon there were four of us, with another set to meet us at the car park in Box!
This was a Saturday. Yet the majority of the group’s walks ‘almost religiously‘ take place on a Sunday. During a recent survey among the 350+ members, apparently the question was raised by some as to why there aren’t more walks available on a Saturday. As I’ve now lead two consecutive Saturday walks, I’m thinking about beginning my own ‘revolution’ among the calendar programme for next year!
On a personal note; I’m fine doing a shorter walk on a Sunday but long ones are less attractive when I know I have to start work at 7am the next day (new year, new job, maybe…). Whatever time of day someone has to get up; the majority will dread the familiar daunting thoughts of the Sunday Night/Monday Morning slump. What we discovered on Saturday, during our post-walk drink in the pub, is that we didn’t ‘have‘ to be home by a certain time. We didn’t ‘need‘ to be anywhere else and, with a good cohesion among this particular group, we’d stayed (in the warm) far longer than I have known for many-a Sunday afternoon.
Our lunchtime view, as the sun fought for freedom.
Each to their own; horses for courses and six of one Vs. half-a-dozen of the other… Out of a possible 350, you can never known who or how many are going to turn up beforehand. We all lead different lives but it’s become apparent to me that some would certainly prefer to see more Saturday walks on the calendar.
Something else I’d like to do next year, which I’ve not done before, is to lead an evening walk during the summer; usually of no more than around 6 miles. I have a partial route in mind for something locally and I’d also like to try and advocate some of my own surroundings on another weekend, as much as I still intend to keep introducing people to hills outside of Bristol.
All these words and I’ve barely talked about the walk itself… Well, you’ve seen me post photos from Box before; these were very similar, just surrounded by grey! Sadly, the Guernsey goats headed for shelter as we made are way beyond the manor house but everything else was on show – I even got to share some of my new found “information” on the mysterious Rudloe Manor…
This was my fourth time walking past this secluded property. Internet research has recently lead me to understand that this is a local hub for conspiracy theorist attention – from talk of underground tunnels and even a secret city; to UFO cover-ups, communication and at least one video on YouTube showing unidentifiable lights hovering over the house… Do a Google search of your own and make of it whatever you will!
Autumn is beautiful season for walking and yet it doesn’t seem to last very long. We bemoan the length of our summers and yet we’ve now had two good ones following the ‘Year of Rain‘. Winter arrives with impatience but I’m not about to surrender my shoes. I ‘temporarily disabled‘ my camera only 30 minutes before sitting down to write this but I will find a way to share my winter walks with you – even if I do end up owning my third point-and-shoot of 2014!!
Thanks for reading.