On Saturday 9th March, twenty-seven of us met up outside The Duke of Edinburgh pub in Woodside, Winkfield for a six-mile walk followed by (for those who had booked) a pub lunch. Light rain began to fall as we gathered together, but it stopped about ten minutes into the walk and held off for the rest of the walk.
We started by following a footpath by some woodland and then joined a road. Due to the recent wet weather, Ann (our leader) had to include more road-walking than originally planned as some footpaths were just too wet and muddy. We followed Hodge Lane, Hatchet Lane and Forest Road, passing through gates into Coach Road.
A woodland path took us into leafy North Ascot and then into Ascot Heath - the grounds of Ascot Racecourse. We followed the public footpaths through the heath, crossing the racetrack itself at one point.
Leaving the heath and racecourse, we followed a muddy footpath that took us to Cheapside Road, which we followed for a while before leaving it for a track into woodland. We stopped at Penslade Bottom for a coffee/snack break, where there was a convenient place to stop and a fallen tree to sit on.
Refreshed, we resumed our walk through the woods, passing Great Pond and Lower Farm as we headed north. Soon we reached Wood End and then emerged onto Windsor Road. We crossed this main road and joined the much quieter Woodside Road, which we followed back to The Duke of Edinburgh pub where we'd started. See our route on Google Maps.
We got there soon after 12:30 and our table for lunch was for 1pm, so some of the group that weren't staying for lunch had time to join us for a post-walk drink. After the main course, I received a pleasant surprise - a chorus of Happy Birthday and tray of chocolate cakes appeared, complete with a few candles. I blew out the candles and we shared out the cakes. Jane knew it was my birthday in a few days and thoughtfully organised this. I'm still smiling about it as I write this!
Thanks go to Ann for leading the walk and to Jane for organising the birthday surprise.
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