Well, Guildford Walkfest got off to a perfect launch today with no delays. Ground Zero was West Horsley Place Barn where a wonderful group gathered to take part and celebrate a flying start.
We had celebrity (Guildford Mayor), behind the scenes workers who made it all happen, leaders of other Walkfest walks and – of course – members of the general public. We also had a guest appearance from the Estates Manager of West Horsley Place who gave us lots of information about the house & grounds and, incidentally, allowed us to route our walk across the front of the house – something that third party groups such as ours are not normally permitted to do.
I’ve commented before on the synergy between walks and refreshments. Today we had the services of the Tiger Lily coffee stand in the Barn courtyard – and their team even set up early to support our event. A big thank you to them too.
Having got the drinks and formalities out of the way, we set off on our first walk of the season. 36 of us headed off for the initial stage on fairly flat land around the back of West Horsley Place so that we could show off the scenery on the northern side of the A246 Guildford – Leatherhead road.
Reaching St Mary’s church, our walkers then had a choice. Those who were less agile or time constrained headed back to the Barn Courtyard (where I’m sure that more coffee was drunk!).
The remaining 18 of us headed up onto the Sheepleas where the group excelled themselves in arriving up at the Viewpoint without being particularly out of breath. We then continued right to the top of the slope and partly down towards Green Dene to continue our route through the wonderful Yew Avenue before heading back to base.
So, this morning was a mixture of great socializing and networking, wonderful scenery and, for good measure, fine weather. Our group got back to base within a few minutes of target and didn’t have anyone drop out or suffer mishaps – Beat that NASA!
There are plenty more Walkfest walks to come during September so why not take a look at the programme and reserve your place on a few of them.
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