On Sunday 5th July, we had our first official BWW walk since lock-down began in March. There are now special restrictions to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, which mean that no more than six people (including the leader) can attend a walk. All attendees have to book a place on the walk, in advance and provide contact details. Also, social distancing measures are to be in place and extra care is needed when handling gates and stiles, etc.
Many other walking groups have not restarted their walks yet, so we were rather cautious of how well this would work for us. There was a possibility that no one would want to go on group walks yet, or alternatively we would be inundated with people from all the local groups desperate to get walking again.
We had five people, including me (the leader) on this walk, although we did hear from a few others who would have liked to attend but weren't available this time. We started at 10:00 from the free car park on White Hill, south of Kingsclere, and followed the Wayfarer's Walk south-eastward to North Oakley.
I had advertised this walk as 7 miles with an option to extend to 8.5 miles. We stopped in North Oakley to decide whether to stay on the Wayfarer's Walk and take the longer route or to stick to the original shorter route. Being a small group, it was easy to make such decisions and get a unanimous agreement, which was to continue on the longer route. We passed through Freemantle Farm and a newish tree plantation before reaching White Lane, where we left the Wayfarer's Walk.
We followed White Lane to a crossroads where we turned left onto Hannington Road, which we followed north before taking a footpath through Warren Bottom Copse. It was too late in the year to see the bluebells that usually populate these woods in May/June time. Soon we were entering the picturesque village of Hannington, where we stopped on the green to eat our packed lunches (after sanitising our hands).
We decided to take the scenic route back through the woodland on Freemantle Park Down, by Cottington's Hill, which returned us to the car park on a permissive path with a nice view of Watership Down. See our route on Google Maps.
It felt quite like old times, walking in an organised group; the main difference being that we had to leave bigger gaps when passing other people.
I'd like to thanks all those who came on my walk and complied so readily with the new restrictions.
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