January 7th
This is our annual walk in the early part of the year. This year we were spoiled by a few weeks of rain to soften the ground. Our resident sun deity told us to have a little faith and he was dead right. The day dawned miserably with drizzle and was very overcast. The weather forecast was not particularly reassuring but when the allotted time came around the clouds lifted, for a while, the sun shone through the gaps and there was a rumour of a bit of blue sky.
Hathi and Akela arrived at the Scutt early and were soon joined by Harry and his Dad. This meant that our 'Plan B' would have to be put aside.
As the minutes passed towards the leaving time more people arrived, Jack and his Mum and Dad and two dogs, Dan with his Brother, (hi Callum) and Parents, Sophie, her Parents and a friend called Holly.
The fifteen of us set out in the dry chilly sunshine, the path behind the Scutt was a foretaste of what we would experience out in the countryside. Mud and wet grass in sticky abundance, lovely! Would we have to wait long for the first Out Of Boot (OOB) experience?
The
route took us out past Horse World and our first real field. It was full of what
horses don't require anymore from their food. Akela tried out his golf swing
using the small round balls lying around. This came apart in a most satisfactory
manner spraying everyone in close range with used horse food. (I'm not allowed
to use the shit word apparently after it's unsavoury inclusion in the write-up
of the Cubs 90th Birthday Party at
Bristol Zoo.)
The going became very soft indeed to use a suitable horsy expression, the stiles were always in the middle of a very deep wet muddy area. This sorted the people wearing trainers out a treat.
The edges of the fields were a little drier but meant running the risk of holding onto the wooden fence with it's dangerously innocent bare wire, as nobody got shocked the fence must have been switched off. Naturally the local horses were interested in seeing if these interlopers had anything worth having and swarmed around us, only to be disappointed.
We dropped into the valley and across the new wide, safe, gravelled bridge and up the other side where some junior trees were thriving, As they have been there a few years I feel that I can't call them baby trees any longer. A healthy stream was running down the path and we decided to find a dryish route of our own. A pause at the top to regain our breath and to discover that we had climbed into a cloud. It was damp and the air was full of very small drops of liquid that Akela refused to admit was rain. He maintained that it does not rain in the middle of a cloud.
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The field with it's crop of stones was walked past with only Dan finding a golf ball from the adjacent golf course. A rest at the 'half way' point to gather the fortitude to continue. Then on into Queen Charlton, look it's been said every year that it's a shame that there is not a pub in the village so I'm not going to bother repeating it now. The short walk along the road was completed safely. and we were on the old bridleway. This had been dammed by some one and the resulting lake was impressive, and quite deep in places.
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The long slog back across the fields started, so it was pretty much the same as our outward journey only the other way round.(?) The main difference was that the three lads managed to get out of their parents view and were able to fall over in the mud more than once to become extensively dirty. We had several OOB's including one for Holly that proved to be the last straw and I hope she won't mind me saying that at that point her sense of humour failed (I'm not surprised) however, bless her, she kept going with out moaning too loudly.
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At last we reached the Scutt, there's an out-door tap that was used to remove the outer layer of mud from peoples boots, this meant that some of the Cubs would be allowed to get into their cars. The Leaders went for a de-brief in the Harvesters and most welcome it was.
Thanks to those that gave up their Sunday afternoon to keep Akela and Hathi company. Plan "B" by the way was to go straight into the Harvesters for an extended de-brief. Thanks to Akela for the dry part of the walk, shame about the cloud. That's over for another year, thank goodness.