Thursday, September 9, 2010

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Rambling - February 2010 Report

Valentines Day and not a kissing-gate in sight. What bad planning! However, we escaped the cold, North wind and almost missed all of the rain - I wish that we could say the same for the mud.

Thirteen of us set out to walk on some familiar paths but it did not seem that way because most paths, in the middle, were approached in reverse order. We started at Upper Cross and headed to Church Lane and then to Fieldside to make our way to Tadley where we crossed the Blewbury Road. We continued heading east on a footpath that has just been nicely cleared (probably as part of a flood-prevention effort) and that eventually took us to the crossing of Mill Brook at the old paper mill site. Here we turned right and headed south-west to again meet (and cross) Blewbury Road.

The path straight ahead is one rarely attempted because of its great collection of nettles, brambles and things guaranteed to penetrate a ramblers protective layers and (too often) his or her skin. However, that difficulty only pertains from June to January! It's quite harmless during the remaining months although it does present another problem: the stickiest, heaviest clay-based mud that one can imagine. Our boots were the size of platters by the time we reached Blewbury.

Blewbury is a delightful village to explore with its many thatched and lovely houses and countless meandering, crystal clear streams. We only covered a part of this territory by walking up South Street to Watts Lane and then across to Church End. We actually turned in by the church and walked past the tiny Alms Houses, briefly across the Green and finally out to Westbrook Street. We then turned north to pick up our familiar route home via the BSW; it gave us a still-broken stile and a freshly ploughed field that once-again generously shared its load of mud.

As we emerged from Parsonage Lane and walked the last few steps back to Upper Cross, the rain finally started. Only a little shower, it hardly mattered as we were home. Exactly 5-miles in just a shade under two-hours - a short ramble for a short month. See you in March!

Next Ramble
Sunday, March 14th
1.30 p.m.
John Jones: 813326
Meet at the East Hagbourne Upper Cross