As has become traditional several Cubs drag their parents, grandparents friends or siblings on the great-new-year-walk. This has proved popular and some of the Cubs have not learnt anything from previous walks and came again.
Walkers:
Cubs; Katie, Nicole, Dan and Steph(2)
Leaders; Akela, Mrs. Akela (Peg), Hathi, Abi and Lyn
Others; Carol, John, Sam, Liam, Becky, Rich, Dan's Granddad, Steph's Dad and Hannah.
Route:
Same as last year and the year before that. Stockwood to Queen Charlton and back.
We started the walk later this year at 13:30hrs as we felt that the paths would be drier than last year, the mud would be shallower and the pace much quicker. Hathi led off to cries of horror from the walkers who followed him to Eastwinds last year. Even Hathi couldn't get it wrong as he had walked the route several times.
The first muddy area was disappointing as it was nearly dry. The walk proceeded past the Horse's Home through slightly boggier ground and past a field with twenty two horses in it (thanks Becky and Hannah for counting them).
Rich had a new toy and was able to use it to tell us to within 15 feet our exact position, height, time of sunset, distance walked, average speed, inside leg measurement and lots of other exciting things. GPS is a wonderful thing.
The big field en-route to Queen Charlton that normally has a good crop of stones was almost covered in green stuff, how the farmer will find all his stones is a mystery. This part of the walk resulted in everybody getting several centimeters taller and our boots kilograms heavier. This mud was more like it.
Once again the village / hamlet of Queen Charlton was walked through in open mouthed envy. Lyn has said that when she wins the lottery we can all call in on our walk next year. If she can build or open a pub there she would be even more popular.
In the next field was the highlight of the walk. Three sheep watched as we walked past, but as soon as they saw Rich and Akela their eyes lit up and they rushed over to be near them, could it be love at first sight?
The path to the bridge at the half way point was reached at about 15:15, so we should be able to get back to the Scutt before it got too dark. The short cut taken by Hathi and Rich was not followed by anyone else, probably because Hathi told people to trust him.
The metalised road on the return part of the walk was hard going, the surface was loose stones and seemed to be much longer than it needed to be. People were getting strung out as this test of fitness continued. Sam, Liam and Rich led the way, and waited patiently for everybody to catch up. The delay to some of the walkers was due to them collecting golf balls from the boundary hedge of Stockwood Golf Course. Once reunited, the long slog back continued. We reached the Scutt only minutes after sunset, according to Rich, we knew this because the backlight to his GPS came on at exactly the time it said that the sun had set. Fantastic!
The weather was reasonable, it remained cloudy and mild for our little saunter, Akela's record still holds.
Thanks to everybody that turned up and helped make a fun afternoon.