On Saturday 29th September, nine of us (including four visitors from other groups) met up at the Rook's Nest Wood Country Park car park on Barkham Ride. Not a bad number for a Saturday, as it seems that Sunday is a more popular day with our group.
Setting off from the car park, we followed Barkham Ride for a short distance before taking a footpath that led us to California Country Park. We skirted the north and west shore of Longmoor Lake. While a few of us took the opportunity to use the toilet facilities, our leader Jim explained some of the history of the park. It has been a zoo, a munitions factory during World War II, then an amusement park with various rides and a ballroom.
Leaving the park, we followed roads and footpaths to Finchapstead, well the bit of it with the Queen's Oak and St James Church, which seems to be separate to the main part of the village. Then it was hedge-lined footpaths to Eversley, well the bit of it with the Talley Ho pub, which is separate from Eversley Centre and Eversley Cross. All a bit misleading really.
From there, we followed the Long River through various fields, stopping for our picnic lunch when we found a large log to sit on. Next we took a footbridge over the Long River by a ford. We even saw the ford in action as a Range Rover waded through it. The water was two feet deep. I wouldn't have tried it with my car!
A mixture of fields, footpaths and roads brought us to the Hogwood Industrial Estate. Not exactly a rural idyll but Jim had a reason to bring us here. Deep into the estate we found Siren Craft Brew, a brewery with a recent award for the "Champion Beer of Britain". There was a bar inside the business unit and tables outside. Of course we stopped to try their produce.
Refreshed, we headed back to California Country Park and took a route around the east side of the lake before retracing our steps back to the Rook's Nest Wood Country Park car park. See our route on Google Maps. Needless to say, Jim and Emily stopped by the Brewery on their way home to stock up.
Thanks to Jim and Emily for leading the walk and Rob H for recording the route on his GPS.
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