On Bank Holiday Monday, 27th August, a surprisingly large turnout of 25 people from various Ramblers groups met at Sandhurst Memorial Park for this walk of about 7 miles.
We began by leaving the park and joining the Blackwater Valley Path eastwards. A bridge took us over the Reading to Guildford railway line and we soon arrived at Swan Lake Park.
This is a former gravel pit now transformed into a recreational area as part of a housing development to the south of the site. We followed the path between the river and lakes and cut through a new retirement village, where there was still construction in progress, to the road.
A short section along the pavement led to a footpath next to Trilakes Country Park then another road section to Horseshoe Lake (another former gravel pit now used for watersports and a location featuring quite often on BWW walks). Here, instead of walking past the watersports centre we continued along the Blackwater Valley Path to a path which runs between Grove and Horseshoe lakes then along the north side of Horseshoe Lake.
After leaving the lake we crossed a field with horses and then followed a path through woods to our lunch stop at Ambarrow Court. This was chosen as a wooden bench and picnic table were available but due to the size of the group the majority ended up sitting on the ground!
The next part of the walk started by crossing back over the railway line, this time via a level crossing. We walked through Edgebarrow Woods past the grounds of Wellington College, to Wildmoor Heath. Here we had to walk around some puddles from the heavy rain the previous day - quite a novel experience after the long spell of dry and hot weather!
The path included a boardwalk across a usually marshy area which makes an excellent habitat for dragonflies, but unfortunately there had not been enough rain yet and the area was almost dry. After the boardwalk we arrived back in Sandhurst and it was then just a short walk along some quiet roads before we arrived back at the park where we had started. See our route on Google Maps.
Thanks to Denise for leading this walk, for writing it up and providing the photos.
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