extraactivities

We meet the second Tuesday of every month on an informal basis in a local hostelry. Potential members to the Club are welcome to come along to these evenings and meet us and learn more about the Club. The dates and venues for 2008 are:

January 8	StirrupCup - Barton Seagrave	See Map
February 12	Bridge Hotel - Thrapston	See Map
March 11	The Piper – Windmill Avenue, Kettering	See Map
April 8	The Redwell - Wellingborough	See Map
May 13	The Carriage House – Higham Ferrers	See Map
June 10	Barbecue & Rounders at Irchester Country Park	See Map
July 1	Petanque – White Hart, Lyddington	See Map
August 12	Bird Walk in Fineshade Woods	See Map
September 9	Waggon & Horses - Sywell
October 14	Needle & Awl - Rushden	See Map
November 11	Duke of Wellington – Stanwick	See Map
December	No meeting

If you would like any further information on our activities, please contact Jane Tromans our new membership secretary

Charity Walks 2003 and 2004

We are undertaking a walk for Charity around Northamptonshire. This is the Northamptonshire Round designed to show people some of the delightful villages and sights around Northamptonshire. These walks are linear but we hope that there will be enough drivers to undertake some crafty manoeuvring of cars at the start and end of each walk. There is no need to book, just turn up at the time and place given below. All participants will be asked for a £2 contribution which will be collected and then given to a local charity. We are scheduling some shorter evening walks on Wednesdays now that the light evenings are here as well as longer walks at the weekends. Each walk will start at the previous finish point and will be taken at a leisurely pace. It may take us quite some time to cover the 51.25 miles but I am sure we will enjoy the companionship generated whilst walking. Guaranteed pub at the end of the walk for refreshments! Non-walkers are welcome to sponsor the walkers! Potential members of the Club are also welcome to join us. The Club is affiliated to The Ramblers Association for these activities.

Leg	Date and time	Starting point	Destination	Miles	Approx time
1 writeup	Wednesday, 21 April 6.30 pm	Brixworth Country Park (western end by tea room) SP755695	Holcot Church	3.25	1.5 hours
2 writeup	Saturday, 22 May 10.00 am	Holcot The White Swan Inn SP795699	Mears Ashby	5.5	3.25 hours
3 writeup	Wednesday, 9 June 7 pm	Mears Ashby Griffins Head SP840665	Cogenhoe	4.25	2 hours
4 writeup	Wednesday, 30 June 7 pm	Cogenhoe The Royal Oak SP830610	Yardley Hastings	3.75	1.75 hours
5 writeup	Saturday, 24 July 9.30 am	Yardley Hastings Rose and Crown SP866571	Horton	4.75	2.5 hours

6 writeup	Saturday 14 August 9.30 am	Horton Church SP820543	Hartwell	5.5	2.75 hours
7 writeup	Saturday 4 September 9.30 am	Hartwell The Rose and Crown SP785505	Stoke Bruerne	4.75	2.25 hours
8 writeup	Sunday, 24 October 9.30 am	Stoke Bruerne The Boat Inn SP743499	Blisworth	3.75	1.75 hours
9 writeup	Saturday, 2 April 9.30 am	Blisworth Royal Oak SP724533	Bugbrook	5.5	2.75 hours
10 writeup	Sunday, 15 May 10.30 am	Bugbrook The Wharf SP674573	Harpole	3.25	1.5 hours
11 writeup	Sunday, 12 June 09.30 am	Harpole The Bull Inn SP692605	Harlestone	4.5	2.25 hours
12 writeup	Wednesday, 6 July 6.30 pm	Harlestone The Dusty Fox SP709644	Chapel Brampton	2.75	1.25 hours
13 writeup	Saturday, 20 August 10.00 am	Chapel Brampton The Spencer Arms SP731662	Brixworth Country Park	3.25	1.5 hours

The weather forecast was awful, but despite this, 5 brave souls turned up and enjoyed a dry and very pleasant walk around Pitsford lake, ending up in The White Swan at Hulcot. We had to tell Grace to slow down (don’t these 70+ members just show you up?) and took our time enjoying the wildlife and pleasant views. Next walk is on Saturday 22 May at 10 am from Holcot to Mears Ashby – 5.5 miles which will probably take about three and a quarter hours (at Peta’s pace, not Grace’s). We start at the Church, but car parking is very limited (as it is in The White Swan), so try to find a friend to share transport. See you there!

Ten members completed the walk from Holcot to Mears Ashby on 22 May. It was a good day for walking, not too hot as there was little shade. We found that all our combined map reading skills were needed as the footpath was not always obvious. John West didn’t own up to having the written instructions until we were half way through the walk when he became concerned that the walk leaders were “taking the long way round”! The beer at The Griffin’s Head tasted good!

Seven members had a very delightful walk from Mears Ashby to Cogenhoe on 9 June – and we didn’t get lost once! The weather was kind and although rain threatened, it changed its mind so we did much of the walk in the sunshine. We walked through a number of pretty villages and admired the Nene valley from the hillside, and crossed a tiny medieval packhorse bridge near Billing.

On 30 June, this number increased to 9 and again, the group enjoyed lovely views over the Nene valley and Castle Ashby house. We almost got lost when Dennis Tromans could not sort out which way was south-east after taking bearings from the evening sun, but fortunately, Peta had a digital compass!

Ten members of the Club walked from Yardley Hastings to Horton on 24 July in lovely sunshine. The walk of 4.75 miles was quite easy as it was mostly along quiet country roads. There was one stile, however, which was definitely problematical because it was in need of repair. It was V-shaped and no lower step to assist crossing. This meant that those with a larger derriere (such as yours truly) needed to stand on the top step and jump otherwise you were stuck in the V.

The storms and tempests had abated briefly to present a lovely day for walking through Salsey Woods. Five members undertook this 5½ mile walk to end up at The Rose and Crown at Hartwell for a lovely al fresco lunch (except for the wasps, one of which stung Grace). Anne K, complete with explorer’s hat, safely navigated us through the woods, though we did get concerned at one point when our way forward appeared to be dodging the cars driving madly along the M1. But we needn’t have worried: turn right and there was the tunnel underneath.

Well, for the first time in this series of walks, our navigation skills were wanting. Things started off badly when arranging for the “arrival car” to be left at Stoke Bruerne. After picking up Diane West at Bozeat, for reasons which are still a complete mystery to her, Peta decided to go via Olney, Weston Underwood, Stoke Goldington, Hartwell, Ashton to Stoke Bruerne! Look at the map sometime if you need to understand the madness of this. Peta’s disease must have been catching, because Anne K’s normal excellent navigational skills also went awry. It then took the 4 walkers almost one-and-a-half hours to escape from Hartwell, marching through fields of thistles and over private property before we found ourselves where we should be on the map! At one point Linda Street was left stranded on top of a stile, not sure which side to dismount! Partly this was caused by lack of 10 ft signs and partly because the routes through fields were not visible due to the harvest. So our gentle 4¾ miles was more like 6 miles - but it was still very pleasant, particularly by the canal.

Storms and tempests were threatened, but the sun shines on the righteous they say, and so it did on Sunday for our last walk of this year. Seven of us arrived at Stoke Bruene for 9.30 and then we realised that we had published a 10 am start in the Newsletter - so off to the pub to while away half an hour with a cup of coffee. We welcomed a new member Caroline Cordozo to the walk, which was about 3.5 miles to Blisworth. We passed a very ramshackle shed en route and debated whether we should put in an offer for it as a Clubhouse but decided it was too far to walk to the pub!

We have raised about £100 for charity doing the walks so far plus a few other events, so we are interested to see which charity will benefit from nominations received at the AGM. We will complete the “Northamptonshire Round” in 2005, starting in either March or April. So keep an eye on the Newsletter.

CHARITIES SUPPORTED BY THE 10 FT WALKS

There had been eight 10 ft Walks which had raised £114 for Charity. In addition, the Street Rally had raised £66 making a total of £180 available to donate to Charity. Three local charities were proposed: Northamptonshire National Association for the Blind, Red Dog Trading and Oakfield Residential Home. Members voted to split the monies equally between the 3 charities.

FIRST SPRING WALK FOR 2005
Our first Charity Walk for the year was from Blisworth to Bugbrook. Seven of us debated whether to take the easy route along the canal but decided that this would be rather tame for an Adventure Club so followed the scheduled Northamptonshire Round walk. It was a beautiful walk on a glorious Spring morning with the Larks singing and lovely views! Our next scheduled walk clashes with the Waendal Walk, so we will move our 10 ft Walk to the Sunday at 10.30 (later start otherwise we will be there before the pubs open - can’t have that!).

Four people went on the 10 ft walk in May - 3 of whom had completed the Waendal walk the day before! It was a glorious morning and we saw buzzards and yellowhammers and walked along a Green Lane with lovely views over Northamptonshire. We were without our usual sound navigators but only strayed off the route once - which involved walking through a field of inquisitive cows twice - much to Linda Street’s consternation!

Three members walked from Harpole to Harlestone and made such good time that they were sitting outside the Dusty Fox waiting for the pub to open! The walk was across fields with baby lambs and good views over Northamptonshire, alongside some woods, through fields of oilseed rape and a very difficult footpath of nettles! We also had to traverse a field where a bull was grazing with some cows - thank goodness none of us were wearing red!

Seven club members had a very pleasant evening walk from Harlestone to Chapel Brampton refreshed by wild raspberries en route. Just as well we had some sustenance - we had to wait for over an hour and a quarter for our meal at the Spencer’s Arms at Chapel Brampton!

Our last charity walk was enjoyed by 11 members. 88 people took part in the walks which started in April last year. All enjoyed discovering parts of Northamptonshire and pleasant company - not to mention new pubs to enjoy. Grace, Linda and Peta did the most walks and Peta will be forming a walking club called The Northamptonshire Shamblers (www.northamptonshireshamblers.org.uk). So if you can find the time and want to do more walking in Northamptonshire to keep fit for the adventure activities, please contact Peta for more information. The Club has raised £176 for charity over the series and for this year has a small amount of money to donate to a local charity. Nominations in writing to be sent to Peta before the AGM please when members can decide which charity to support.

If you would like any further information on the above activities, please contact Jane Tromans our

Informal Pub Meets

Charity Walks 2003 and 2004

CHARITIES SUPPORTED BY THE 10 FT WALKS