On Saturday 30th December, Mark led a walk around Ambarrow, Moor Green Lakes, Finchampstead and Simons Wood. The walk had been advertised in our programme as twelve miles to burn off those Christmas calories, but it was actually only around nine miles.
Maybe it was the advertised 12-mile length of the walk, or the forecast of wet and windy weather, that meant only three people braved the walk. I couldn't go myself as I had a nasty dose of winter cold and flu.
I'm told the walk was as muddy as expected after several days of rain. Several paths were waterlogged, requiring a detour from part of the Blackwater Valley Path.
Starting from the Ambarrow Court public car park, the walk followed the Three Castles Path into Moor Green Lakes nature reserve. Switching to the Blackwater Valley Path, they left the nature reserve, heading westward towards Eversley before turning north-east to Finchampstead. The lunch-stop was by St James' Church on the hill north of Finchampstead.
After lunch, the walk carried on heading north-east towards Wick Hill and then joined Heath Ride, heading south-east. Entering Simons Wood, near Heath Pond, the route continued on its straight course south-east to the roundabout on Wellingtonia Avenue and Duke's Ride.
Passing Crowthorne railway station, they turned south and followed a footpath that ran parallel to the railway line before crossing the line into Ambarrow Court woods. There is an easy route back to the car park from here, but Mark wanted to include Ambarrow Hill, which meant a steep climb on a path cut with muddy steps. It was a similar slope back down to the path back to the car park. With only three people, all fast walkers, the nine-mile walk was finished in under three hours! See the route on Google Maps.
Thank you to Mark for leading this walk and to Emma for taking the pictures.
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