For the 15th Polyramblers annual snow-walking weekend, we went to Bad Gastein, a spa town in the mountains in Austria. This year there were 12 of us including newbies Jackie C, Julie and Wendy (Christine Bignold’s daughter). We flew from Heathrow and Gatwick and met at Salzburg airport. We had a lovely train journey to Bad Gastein with magnificent scenery. But we should not have sat in the quiet carriage! We were told off twice for being too noisy. After a short walk to discover the town or to the nearest supermarket to buy shower gel, we had a very nice but enormous dinner at the Schafflinger Alm. How can they eat such huge portions?
On a bright, mild and dry day 18 Poly Ramblers set off on what purported to be a seven (later calculated to be eight) mile walk in the woodlands of Hertfordshire. We quickly reached Brickendon, one of the most haunted places in Hertfordshire, where we briefly visited the Holy Cross chapel built in 1932 in Tudor style with a fine wooden beamed interior.
In spite of the best efforts of the Metropolitan Line signalling system, 13 walkers finally assembled at Chesham station on a sunny but cold Saturday morning in January. By the time the train arrived we were nearly an hour late so we set off at pace to warm up and make sure we could complete the circuit of the town before dark. A number of valleys converge on Chesham and any walk in the vicinity involves a lot of up and down. Continue reading CHESHAM CIRCULAR – 10 JANUARY 2026→
It is said that some plants and trees give off volatile organic compounds (phytoncides) that protect them against attacking organisms such as bacteria or fungi. And that “after only a short amount of time in the arbour of a forest, stress levels are reduced. Walking among trees decreases the body’s stress response, which in turn lowers your levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. As a result, you feel calmer.” Well it worked! The group was very calm and friendly, walking through the autumn leaves and looking out for fungi. Continue reading EPPING FOREST CIRCULAR WALK – 25 OCTOBER 2025→
Twelve Poly Ramblers and two guests gathered at Berkhamsted station on the last shopping Saturday before Christmas. We would have been one more but Geoffrey was unable to find any parking and ended up going home. It was a lovely sunny morning and the first part of the walk took us on a loop through fields and woodland to the north of the town with beautiful views, returning through Berkhamsted Common. A few people peeled off to attend to Christmas preparations while the rest had a picnic or a quick drink and snack in the Boat pub on the canal. After lunch we did an easy, flat circuit on the canal towpath on either side of the town and we finished up following a Blue Plaque trail along the High Street of this historic market town. We saw old coaching inns, the impressive gothic style town hall and the childhood home of Clementine Churchill. We should have seen the birthplace of Graham Greene too but I managed to miss it in the fading light. Having had our fill of history we dispersed to the station or to tea and mince pies. Thanks to everyone who chose walking over Christmas shopping!
