Date: Sat 24th May 2008Distance: 35km (21.9m)
Location: Reed, Nuthampstead, Buckland, Kelshall, Ashwell, Therfield, Royston
Conditions: Too many nettles
Weather: Sunny, with a bit of wind (in more ways than one)
Participants: Pip, Nik, Gee
With Carl away in Suffolk, with Family Wol, and Lurch opting to stay local, Pip, Nik and Gee headed off back up the A10, to the now familiar territory of Reed and the surrounding area. Today was the first official 6 hour-er, raising the bar once more, as the countdown to July d-day continues.
A pre-planned Robbo route involved a double loop, starting off with an 8km return yomp to Nuthampstead. Cunningly, he took us on this first, so that we had then to do the main loop, denying us the opportunity to opt out of this extra shorter bit add on.
Things didn’t start off very well, as after less than 5 minutes, we were confronted by a sea of nettles, enemy of the yomper. This stand off was solved with Mr & Mrs Robbo donning waterproof trousers in order to defeat the evil foliage. Onwards we went. A constant string of texts from Lurch suggested he was somewhat lonely. Partridges, dogs and limited snacks all contrived to distract our boy.
As we headed onwards the conversation got back round to nettles. A pesky irritant to the walker the question of what stops them taking over the world. Is the nettle a greater threat to mankind than global warming?
Phil got particularly excited when we walked along the side of the GNER mainline rail track, with comments of awe about how the rail route had to be dug out by hand. Trains and Stags seem to get the boy excited. On the latter subject his plans for turning the Roberson spare room into a Stag workshop received short shrift from Mrs P. “You can go and do it under the pergola” was the response.
Phil got particularly excited when we walked along the side of the GNER mainline rail track, with comments of awe about how the rail route had to be dug out by hand. Trains and Stags seem to get the boy excited. On the latter subject his plans for turning the Roberson spare room into a Stag workshop received short shrift from Mrs P. “You can go and do it under the pergola” was the response.
The low point of the walk was caused by low energy reserves. The upside of stopping for lunch in Therfield was somewhat dampened by the fact that the bench we sat on was facing directly at the Fox & Duck pub...the temptation of a mid walk pint was hard to resist....
Onwards we headed, up into Royston, then back towards Reed. One last challenge stood between us and the Cabinet...the ‘mountain’ as Pip described it. A short but tasty incline back into Reed. The gauntlet was picked up by Gee and Mrs P, as Stag boy was left in their wake.
A well earned couple of cheeky pints at the cabinet to reflect on a job well done, with agreement that a future walk from Royston back to Hertford is on the cards.
Just in case you were wondering about the relevance of the blog title, well a certain person had ‘issues’ throughout the 6 hours walking...no names, no prizes for guessing.....
Gee
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