Ramblers Association
The North Hampshire Downs Ramblers group, is part of the Ramblers Association. We walk mostly in Hampshire and the surrounding countryside. In the last few months our group has enjoyed both walks and social activities including a 4 day walking break to Paignton, a coach trip to Burton on the Water and a summer picnic held at Longparish, unfortunately the weather was not great for this but undeterred 38 hardy ramblers had a walk in the rain and the picnic was held indoors in Long parish village hall where a lovely spread awaited us.
The group walk on both Tuesday and Saturday and cover areas in and around Basingstoke as well as sometimes going further afield. We have had some lovely Spring and early Summer walks over the last few months and are now looking forward to the blackberries and sloes in Autumn. Also autumn is a wonderful time to walk due to all the changing colours in the countryside.
Our Tuesday morning walks, which are typically 6- 7 miles, continue to attract quite a number of walkers. We have recently walked around Hannington, Old Basing and Selborne to name but a few. We usually end up with an end of walk pub stop, to give people time for a catch up.
Our Saturday walks tend to be longer, with fewer walkers, and can sometimes take most of the day. This last quarter we have enjoyed walks from Alton to Basingstoke, our ever popular Mudeford Quay walk ( via Hengisbury Head) and a lovely walk from Horsebridge to Stockbridge and back.
As well as the walks, the group also enjoys social activities, this includes an Annual Summer Picnic, Boys lunches, Ladies walks and lunches and the group occasionally organise weekends and days away. In May there was a coach trip to Burton on the Water, about 50 people had a lovely day with a coach to Burton, a lead walk and then some free time at the end. We also had a few days walking in Paignton with four lead walks over four days. The walks were quite varied and involved both country and bits of the South West Coastal path. A good time was had by all.
The group have an active path patrol group, who report problems to the local council and also do some work on the paths, which can be as varied as checking waymarking and replacing waymarking discs, minor clearing or even repairing stiles and gates. To date this group has replaced 20 plus gates in conjunction with the local council. The latest tasks were clearing a Footpath at Kingsclere and installing some stiles.
If you are interested in finding out more about the North Hampshire Downs group, there is more information on our Website. www.northhampshiredownsramblers.org.uk.
If you are new to walking and want to give us a try, or already walk, you would be given a very warm welcome by the Group. We hope to see you soon!
If you are interested in joining the Ramblers we suggest you come along for a couple of walks with the group first to get a taster. Membership details are available from the Ramblers’ national website: www.ramblers.org.uk
Ramblers Charity England & Wales No: 1093577 Scotland No: SC039799
