As promised a bit about the Arundel Trip

In August a party of us visited Arundel YHA just before it closed. It was one of our favourites and will be sorely missed. It was tucked away down a small lane at Warningcamp and had a nice patch of grass outside which campers could use, and the younger generation loved the freedom it gave them! Mind you we did have to cross the railway line to walk to Arundel itself.

 

This was the nice conservatory where you could have your meals.

 

 

A folly in the distance on the way to Arundel.

 Arundel Castle as seen at dusk from the bank of the river.

 

 The countryside in this area is beautiful - close to the South Downs. This is us on a walk on the Sussex Downs. 

 

Here we are walking the short distance from the hostel into Arundel along the bank of the river Arun.

 

This is us having a break by the Arun in the Town.

We went down on a Friday (which seems to have become the norm) and did a half day walk after which we made ourselves a slap up meal at the hostel.  We did a full day walk on the Saturday taking a packed lunch and then going into Arundel, after sprucing up a bit, for a group pub meal. We then did another shorter walk on the Sunday before returning home.  As you can see the weather was kind to us and we all enjoyed the walking, views, food and company! Again more photos in the Album on the website.

Time has flown again but we have been busy!

The last post on here is June!  It would be nice to know other people look and perhaps think about our poor lonely blog before spending time and energy uploading on to it!

However as usual the Boggies have been out walking every week as there are now an average of 3 a week, one short and two long or (even pretty long if you go out on a Thursday!).  We have also been on several weekends away.  The albums are on the website.  In July 14 of us went to Cholderton and Salisbury Hostels,

Cholderton Rare Breeds Farm Hostel

  Adventure of jumping on a muddy footpath!

                               The ubiquitous Group photo!

 View of Salisbury with Cathedral in the distance.  We had some beautiful walks over the South downs in mostly glorious weather.  There are photos accessible from the bogtrotters website.


 In August we went to a private Bunkhouse in the Brecon Beacons 

It is called Penstar  Bunkhouse and is only a short distance from Brecon

 

This is Crybin. It is steeper than it looks. That day we also climbed Corn Du and Pen-y-fan which is the highest mountain in Southern Britain, it  is in the distance. The views from the peaks were fantastic. Again go to the Website for the Album

This is some of us on the top of Pen-y-fan.

An example of just two of the dozens of waterfalls we found on the second day walking. 











We also visited Arundel Hostel (before it closed) and had  work parties at Jordans Hostel, but they will be another post!

Stotfold Mill

Sorry been a while again, but last weekend some of us took the opportunity to go to Stotfold Mill with the Friends of Studham Conservation Group so I thought I'd share a few photos. 

Stotfold Watermill, is in an idyllic setting on the River Ivel,  Having burnt down in 1992, it is now a completely rebuilt Grade II listed watermill with three fully accessible floors to view. It was rebuilt and  restored by a huge team of volunteers working alongside mill specialists. Its  the 4.4 metre wide overshot waterwheel is the widest in the country. Here is a link to their website http://www.stotfoldmill.com/

20 of us were given a slide show and talk by volunteers and were then taken round the mill.  

 

We had a superb lunch provided by the mill staff and then we progressed to the Stotfold nature reserve which has only been open since June 2011 but has won awards and is progressing nicely.

 

Thank you FOSC for inviting us and perhaps the Bogtrotters may visit again in the future as it was an enjoyable visit. 

AMAZING MARCH TRIP TO JORDAN

We are still having our usual two or three walks every week plus a few social activities but in March we did something special! It was suggested we went to visit Petra last year but the logistics proved too complicated, but low and behold this year it transpired we could easily travel by budget airline from Gatwick to Amman at a very reasonable price. Bob's daughter Gail and son-in-law Ibrahim have a basic hotel on the hill behind the entrance to Petra and the three of them organised virtually everything for us. Indeed before they knew it they had 15 and had to refuse any more requests to go.

We all got ourselves to Gatwick and to Amman with no problems, where we were met by a travel guide (which avoided us having to queue up and pay for visas). We then went by mini coach on the long journey to the hotel. Where there was a warm welcome and comfortable very reasonably priced clean rooms and a cold buffet breakfast was included. (There is also a space where visitors can sleep in dormitory accommodation at budget prices.)

SABA'A HOTEL
We slept for a few hours and then walked down to buy our two day tickets into Petra. It was a beautiful warm day and we literally took hundreds of photos between us marvelling at the sights and realising there is far more to the archeological site than the usual view or two usually associated with it. The gorge up to the treasury is a marvel in itself.

One of the first sights which greeted up on our way into the Petra Site.
Just part of the gorge called As-siq.

Some of us couldn't resist having a ride in the horse drawn cart.
That iconic building, known as the Treasury where there had to be a group pic.The whole place is huge, I can only add a few photos to give you a taste of what we experienced.

In the evening we all went out for a meal in an establishment which offered to do us a tasty buffet and desserts for about £6 each. Most places are not allowed to sell alcohol and it prohibitively expensive in the Middle East.

On day two we took our coach to an area called little Petra and walked from there back to the other end of Petra site to walk back through and up to our hotel. Again the views were magnificent. Some of us went back to eat at the same place, but several of us went our own way, but the food was still very reasonably priced.

The Jordanian people we came across were very warm and friendly and seemed to go out of their way to try and be helpful, many of them were also very keen for us to see the wares they had to sell as well!

Next day we were taken once again by a guide in the coach to the desert where some of us took the chance to ride a camel before walking over the sand past the area made famous by Lawrence of Arabia with some amazing rock formations to the Bedouin camp at Wadi Rum where we spent the night. We were treated to a fabulous feast, entertainment and pots of their very sweet black tea with sage and mint infused in it. We got up at about 5.30 am to watch the sun come up over the enormous rock formations surrounding our encampment.Sun rising over the desert.

It was a nice temperature for walking during the day, but it soon got extremely cold, not only at night but the following day was pretty chilly as well.
Some of us in our Bedouin tent. Notice they don't possess chairs.

We went back to Petra where we explored the town some more before having an excellent meal cooked by Gail and Ibrahim and then walking back to old Petra to sample the experience of the gorge and treasury lit by hundreds of candles and to sit listening to what is reputed to be the oldest sort of instrument known plus some others with traditional singing and a bit of Jordan's history.

Early the next morning most of the group went by bus towards the mountains where we climbed for about 7 hours up a huge valley up to the Dana nature reserve where we stayed two nights. (Others wimped out and arrived later with the baggage).
The steep valley we walked up to get to Dana.

It had become overcast and the wind got up and we were very glad we had brought lots of layers. Boy did we cosy up to the stove and disappeared to bed very early. The coach was delayed getting to us by the "snow" which was probably large hail stones. However the following day's walk and the incredible views and sunsets were enough to make up for the cold.

Last day again it was very cold we travelled to Kerak Castle which was very impressive with amazing views and then down to the Dead Sea. We couldn't believe that within the space of a few hours we had gone from literally freezing at 1500 meters above sea level to about 460 below sea level where we went from 5 layers of clothes to sunbathing and swimming (sorry floating) in swimwear. We visited an impressive Dead Sea hotel complex with lots of facilities for a huge buffet lunch before going to the airport for our return flight, which once again went without a hitch. A trip that will live in our memories as an amazing experience.
I have only added a few photos, for more see our gallery. https://picasaweb.google.com/117786250921657920836/JordanMarch2012.

A Weekend at Tanners Hatch

On the weekend of 10th February 9 of us went hosteling in the snow.

Some of us went down during the day and did a 5 or 6 mile walk after walking from the road down a long steep snowy track through Ranmoor Wood (As seen below) to Tanners YHA in Surrey carrying everything we needed including food. It is eco friendly Green Beacon Hostel in National Trust woodland.

The hostel is situated on the outskirts of the wood with rural facilities, i.e there is a generator, cosy log fire, and outside toilet and shower facilities. Yes that did mean getting your shoes and coat on to go to the loo. If you look closely you can see the hostel amongst the trees in the photo below.

The others came down on Friday night. The sat nav takes you to the wrong side of the wood, and in the dark and icy conditions some of us had quite an adventure finding the car park, let alone walking through the wood the dark. Good job most of the roads had been cleared of ice and snow. However they were rewarded with a great hot meal when they eventually found their way to us. As a matter of interest there were young people in tents camping in the hostel grounds in what was about -8 degrees!

We did a decent sized walk on the Saturday, which involved several detours as footpaths are not too obvious when covered in snow, but it was an amazing experience walking through the snow, with beautiful views, sunsets and often brilliant sunshine. We did find a couple of pubs on our travels and arrived back when it was virtually dark for another home produced meal (Thank you very much Sandra). We did another short walk on Sunday before returning home.

As per usual with our trips, not everyone did all of the same walks and some of us either shortened a walk, or opted out and did their own thing (there's nothing to stop hostelers going shopping, spending the afternoon in the pub or visiting nearby attractions, there are no prizes for walking mileage do what suits you! For more photos click here to get to the Bogtrotter's Gallery.

Winter Walking

We walk in all weathers and in some ways its better to walk well wrapped up when its cooler than to slog along in the sweltering sun, here are a few photos.
The photos below were taken on 4th February, when 20+ of us walked from Dunstable to the Plough in Wingfield for our post Christmas meal. This was before the snow came and it was a glorious crisp bright day.

If you look carefully you can see the golf balls sitting on the surface of the ice at Wingfield golf club.
We stopped at Houghton Regis Church to enjoy refreshments before continuing our walk.
Others of the group just met us at the pub and about 35 of us had a meal there.


Although it doesn't look it, it was December and absolutely freezing not far from Cheddar, the group went there to see the starling murmuration and it was well worth it.

The photos below were taken in February 2009.


This is the group arriving at Tanners Hatch Hostel. Cosy with log fire, but with outdoor ablutions!
This one of the views from the hostel. We weren't too sure whether this was weather for walking but we found lots of other people in shorts and t-shirts doing a sponsored run that morning!



An extreme example of cold walking, the ones above were taken on a group visit to Iceland back in 2005.

The ones below were taken on our traditional winter trip between Christmas and New Year these are in Shropshire.

This is All Stretton Bunkhouse. It came with mod cons including underfloor heating.
This is the Long Mynd.

The three above were taken on another Christmas trip this time to Cumbria. However we have been there in April and had heavy snowfalls.

Nearer to home these were taken in the heavy snow in 2010
Aldbury pond. The cafe at Ashridge.Taken on a walk near Aldbury.
The pub in Totternhoe.Totternhoe Knolls.

For more photos see the albums in the gallery.