Celebrating 10 years of rambling
 Report & Photos of the Commemorative Walk
from Bath to Bradford on Avon
7th Oct 2007

This walk  featured in one of our earliest walk programmes. It follows  the tow path of the   Kennet & Avon canal and  wends its way along  the deep valley formed by the river Kennet. We felt the route rated high on  our collective Richter Scale  of good walks, so chose it for the first of our 2   walks for   commemorating  our first 10 years of rambling. 

19 of us mustered at Bradford on Avon car park to catch the train to Bath.  No one was surprised when it was announced  the train was running late - 16 minutes late to be precise and   the train proved to be very precisely late.  If memory serves, the train was late when we did the walk the first time, so hey ho.... 

After arrival at Bath Spa it took a while to find the canal that was all of 100yards away, but we were soon on the tow path and on our way... well until we reached the ice cream parlour that is.  See photos.  Oh and who did we find sitting on the bench beside the ice cream hut ? Yep it was none other than  Melvyn Pickering. He had arrived on his bicycle and was wiping the remains of a giant size  raspberry ripple and flake from his beard.  

Although the walk was 9 miles,  the tow path makes for  such easy walking that we soon ate up the miles and arrived at the Hop Pole and our lunch stop.  What with the train being late and the unscheduled ice cream stop, we were running a bit late and it was touch and go as to whether we would get any lunch. The publican  is an honours  graduate of the Fawlty Towers college of charm and was more interested in  his afternoon nap (or nooky ?)  than serving 19 hungry ramblers. 

After lunch, on our way back to regain the tow path,  we had to cross over the river Avon by the  the road  bridge and there beneath us, standing in the middle of the river,  was an angler, and he had just caught a monster fish.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone catch a fish before especially not one that size. We all applauded so loudly  that it frightened a passing motorist. The  fisherman was pleased though and took a bow.

The conditions for the walk were  just about perfect, the sun was shining and  the leaves on the trees were doing their autumn colour spectacular .....bliss. 

The second of our walks to commemorate 10 years of rambling is on Sunday  Dec 9th which is the day following the Ramblers & Friends Xmas Party.  The route follows that of the  very first ramble   we ever did. It is a local walk so there is no driving involved and it will freshen  up any suffering heads from the Xmas Party.

For details of the Ramblers Programme click (HERE). See also the Ramblers Temporary Home Page

Click on image to enlarge

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