Walk reports

Saturday 5th December Kew. A Cautionary Tail!

A goodly number of Polyramblers met at Kew Gardens station, including new member Maria and her labrador guide dog Bella who was wagging her tail and cosying up to the walkers. We were ready for a soothing stroll along the Thames Path but fearing forecast strong winds and rain. There was too much traffic to let Bella off the lead, even while some of the group peeped into St. Anne’s Church at Kew Green, but when we got to the towpath Bella was keen to explore. I described to Maria that on our left there was a narrow road leading to Kew Gardens car park and on the right was the river. Maria said later she imagined the river bank would be the same as at Putney, gently leading down to the water. Before I could explain that there was a 10ft vertical wall covered in bright green moss, Bella was off the lead and skiing down the wall to the narrow strip of shingle beach, splashing delightedly in the shallows until she realised that there was no obvious way back up.  Continue reading Saturday 5th December Kew. A Cautionary Tail! →

Event Reports

Sunday 13 December 2015: Club Christmas lunch Freemasons Arms

Another visit to this popular venue for our Christmas get-together.  A quite large group met at Monument station for a short pre-lunch Thames-side walk. The leader (Danny) was late!  It was grey and foggy but it remained dry during the walk, first along the north bank of the Thames to the Millenium Bridge which we crossed to walk back along the south bank.  We crossed the river again on the Hungerford Bridge and walked to the Freemasons Arms through Soho for a well-deserved Christmas lunch attended by 46 Polyramblers.

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Walk reports

Saturday 28th. Chiltern Hills

A slightly disappointing turnout on Saturday, not helped by the overly pessimistic weather forecast and perhaps the lure of Christmas shopping – most of the massive ticket queue at Marylebone were heading off to Bicester Village designer outlet.    Nonetheless we made it to double figures, thanks to new member Maggie (welcome Maggie!) and Stuart’s friend Eddie who lives locally.  A bus took us south from High Wycombe town centre, across the M40 and dropped us outside a recently closed pub. We walked north west, through Marlow Bottom and eventually to Moor End and the village of Frieth.  Much of the walk was on bridleways through woodland so inevitably there was  a fair amount of mud and leaf mulch which made the going quite hard work at times.  This is a popular game shooting area and we were not surprised to come across a pheasant shoot shortly before lunch.  Luckily they were taking a break and we just had enough time to clear the area before the shooting restarted.  Continue reading Saturday 28th. Chiltern Hills →