Pebble-Dashing The Dragon, 30 March 2013

A gentler walk east from Port Eynon, around a headland of impressive cliffs and on to Oxwich, where the less adventurous retired to the pub and the hardier artisans got busy with buckets and spades.  We know how to live at the seaside, we do - and after a quick spot of sculpture, the drinkers exited to be confronted with a great big dragon.  Naturally a dragon - it's Wales.

On to Three Cliffs, where most enjoyed the sun from behind shades, while two more ambitious ramblers ignored the view of snow on the distant hills to go for a paddle through a cave, and on for another kilometre or two back to the dragon.  On, relaxed and partially baked, to get busy and fully bake a huge set of lasagnes at the hostel.

The Early Bird Catches The Worm's Head, 30 March

The sun rose from the sea and shone across the gentle waves into our breakfast room, where the lifeboat used to be kept at the ready.  We needed some readying too - coffee on the launch ramp, then a big cooked breakfast.

Thus prepared, a day out with our local comrades, the Tawe Trekkers.  Onto the coastal path again in the direction of the Worm's Head.  This being an island with a tidal causeway, we had a low-tide deadline to keep, although the contingency of breaking into faster and more relaxed teams soon went a bit tortoise-and-hare as the 'fast' group negotiated some vertiginous cliffs and the 'slow' group confidently overtook on the easy route!  But, we all made it Rhossili, and those of us who still had a head for heights climbed the Worm's Head itself, while other LRWG artists constructed a small model of Hadrian's Wall with sandcastles (Offa's Dyke looking a bit vague in sand).

Back to base for pizza, and lots of it.

Coherent Mumbles, 29 March 2013

What's this?  Sunshine? On Swansea Bay?  Yea verily, forsooth.  So we got going and used it!

Around the headland from Mumbles, it being far too early for the Mumbles Mile (thankfully), and on to the cliff path to Caswell Bay for tea.  Tea and Welsh cakes, in fact - when in Rome, and all that.  

On from Caswell Bay on the newly-incorporated all-Wales coastal path, trekking through swathes of wild garlic in sun-dappled glades.  OK, we're getting in to holiday brochure talk here, but it really was a bit special.

Then on to our hostel, in a converted lifeboat station, for great big curry.  Well, the when-in-Rome thing only goes so far...

A cold and snowy walk in Countesthorpe, 24 March 2013

Another guest blog from Paula:

Six of us hardcore walkers walked from Countesthorpe in the snow! It was due to be a ten-mile walk but due to the strange March weather conditions our leader had to cut a few miles off, so it was actually seven or eight miles instead.

We started from a car park in Countesthorpe then headed to Willoughby Waterleys.  The name of Countesthorpe originates from the eleventh century when the area was part of the marriage dowry of the Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror.  The 'thorpe' part of the name is a variant of the Middle English word thorp, meaning hamlet or small village.

We stopped for lunch outside the Shires in Peatling Parva where one member enjoyed his Guinness and memories of Irish trips to the Guinness Brewery were discussed - but we couldn't stop for too long as we were all getting too cold!  So we carried on, and thoughts of a hot bath and hot chocolate became very appealing.

So on we went to Peatling Magna then back to Countesthorpe.

A 3ft drift of snow along the hedgerow in Peatling Magna.

Thanks to Barney for leading the walk in these cold conditions and also to Rob for his help navigating.

Snowy St. Patrick’s, 17 March 2013

Most of us headed out hoping for a bit of the luck of the Oirish this morning, looking at the grey skies and the rain splatting on our respective windscreens.  It wasn’t looking promising.  But, someone had clearly had a word with the official LRWG Weather Pixies, and on the way, those rain drops turned into the one thing better than sunshine – yes, snow!

So, a fair crowd of us pitched up in Knossington with a promising layer of snow already in place, and munched profiteroles as the last few stragglers rolled/slid in.  So we strode off into the rolling countryside with relief that we had a delicately dusted white world to explore, rather than just mud.

In truth, the mud was still there, just below the fluffy carpet, which had appeared all of a sudden, but the enormous flakes still falling from the sky were enough of a distraction from any slipperiness underfoot.  Lunch was a picnic in the snow outside Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, complete with pints of ale and fondant fancies (we know how to live, we do), and after a march in the last of winter we had a very civilised tea stop in Knossington afterwards, too.

Another wonderful wander in the snow was, exactly and precisely, just what was required – ‘love it when a plan comes together.

Roll out the Barrow, 10 March 2013

Excitement in the morning, as your reliable blogger found two inches of snow on the car.  Sadly, there was barely any sign of the white stuff at Barrow-on-Soar, where we all turned up to walk through the winter/spring overlap anyway.  Our nominated leader having pranged a limb (temporarily, we hope), we were personally guided around this route by our very own Chair, no less... and if you think that’s clever, you should see what the LRWG Occasional Table can do when push comes to shove.

So, we had a bit of a wallow through quite a bit of mud, to be honest, slurping over the fields and alongside enthusiastically bubbling brooks en route to the pub at Quorn, which has nothing to do with veggie sausages but was where the secret Kriegsmarine signals were intercepted in the Second World War – Bletchley Park had the egg-heads, but we had the aerials.  But, the purpose of today’s visit was no Enigma; we were there for the beer.

Thus reinforced, we did some more wallowing back to the Navigation, another pub, where all the tourists ran away in terror at the sight of muddy people, and we had tea in proper china, because we’re so rock’n’roll.  Oh, and we did get a few flakes of snow, after all.  Not bad at all!

Bring me your poor, your huddled masses. 3 March 2013

Off through the spring-time road carnage – dozy cyclists and end-of-financial-year emergency road-works all over the place – to the exotic outdoor landscape of... Leicester.  Well, why not?  It’s where an awful lot of our members live, and there’s walking to be done, if you have a native guide.  Our native guide started us off, on this occasion next to the Statue of Liberty, which has shrunk a bit, pinged across the Atlantic and now lives on a roundabout.  We have no idea why, and look forward to imminent plans to recreate the Eiffel Tower over a pelican crossing in Melton Mowbray.  But, it was certainly quite a change from a field full of mud.

Walking by the river, canals and flood-plains did get us to some mud eventually, and Watermead Park was happily supervised by a plastic woolly mammoth as ever.  We were chalking up a good count of random monuments by the first ice cream stop, that’s for sure.  Then came lunch part one in a pub, a diversion past the space centre to see the most ornately crafted Victorian pooh pump still in full running order, and lunch part two in a café surrounded by goats, just after discovering the remains of a huge medieval abbey.  What with that, and a moment to explore where Leicester’s castle once stood, we have to give our native guide full points for variety!