tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13665817.post516817475318067630..comments2024-03-28T11:16:38.801+00:00Comments on SWC - This Week's Walks: Saturday Walk - Change of Plan necessary: The most diverse lunch pub selection - Wye Circular (Long or Normal or Short)Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11395064086819994526noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13665817.post-86889602558211730842020-02-22T21:34:48.221+00:002020-02-22T21:34:48.221+00:0012 on the platform, 1 met on the bridge over the S...12 on the platform, 1 met on the bridge over the Stour (off the train an hour earlier up from 7oaks), who had met 1 other SWC regular on his train, who had announced she would walk (some version of) the walk, ie n=14 in w=overcast weather. All of us 13 walked the long version via Hastingleigh and Bodsham, although 1 or 2 took some improvised shortcuts in the pm to make early-ish trains to meet evening obligations. There was a 15 minute period of spittle, which - combined with the at the time (on top of the downs) hard wind - felt like rain but wasn't. Apart from the blustery period along the NDW on top of the downs the wind was not a big factor though. Mud: some unpleasant stretches in the bits of wood that we passed through, but a non-event on the downs and - surprisingly perhaps - neither in the many arable fields crossed. They looked soggy upon approach but proved to be carrying our weight w/o sinking in, and there were no mud agglomerations on boots either. <br />4 ventured into The Bowl Inn, which deserves any CAMRA accolade it gets in our views: welcoming, great beers, fine selection of snacks, a snug ('Adults Only'), shame it comes a bit early in the walk for a meal. On to the Timber Batts then, where all but the 5 picnickers had a meal (plenty of burgers and assorted other dishes, incl. one gumbo) and just as everyone was ready to move on (the picnickers had long left on account of the coffee machine being broken), one walker announced that he was not going to leave, come hell or high water, for at least another 10 minutes as he was following his football team's travails on the wifi-powered smartphone (loosing at home to their across-town smaller neighbours). That was enough of an excuse for everyone else to get another drink but eventually we moved on. We caught the others half-way through the pm and got to Wye in time for some to catch the 17.20 train. Others went to The Kings Head for a hot drink (mostly hot drinks anyway) and/or a quick pizza. <br />A fine route, less muddy than feared. Plenty of snowdrops, lots of crocuses, loads of daffodils in various stages of readiness, most beautifully in the churchyard in Wye, where they seem to plant more and more of them every year. Some wild garlic (more a scent than fully grown plants). Lots of beautiful quiet valleys (no roads through them, mostly). One Harris Hawk (in the aviary of the Timber Batts).Thomas Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01298846868417688062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13665817.post-47039676687262829782020-02-22T08:25:42.960+00:002020-02-22T08:25:42.960+00:00plus 1 on earlier train doing Wye Circplus 1 on earlier train doing Wye CircAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com