Happy New Year!
Look out for the exciting (and free!) new venue we have secured for our Annual General Meeting on Thursday 15th March, when Cotswold Outdoor are opening their Victoria Street shop just for us. We will be able to hold our usual business meeting upstairs, with a glass of wine afterwards as usual.
Browse the great selection of outdoor gear on offer there and receive a discount of at least 20% on anything you choose to buy – so save up your Xmas presents! Plenty of parking at the rear of the shop, at the side or on Victoria Street itself. Kick-off at 7.30. Fuller details will be with our March 1st issue.
We have some big events coming up this year, with Wainwright’s Coast to Coast and Picos de Europa already fully booked. Do contact the organisers if you would like to be on the reserve list. Meg is now asking for deposits for her long weekend in Dartmouth, so send her a cheque now to confirm your space.
We would still like a few more of you to join us for Rockingham Forest and the Nene Valley in March, however. This promises to be a lovely weekend in unspoiled countryside just as it begins to break into spring colours. Great value for money too, in a really nice hotel.
And a new long weekend has been added to our programme in April when we’ll be visiting Llangollen under the leadership of Pat and Ray. As well as some excellent walking, we’ll be taking a dinner cruise along the canal and crossing the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a World Heritage Site. However, we must book this in January, so if you want to come contact the leaders right away.
Our final weekend of the year will be in the Derbyshire Peak District, run by our local members in October. We are hoping that the new hostel at Losehill Hall will be open in time for us to be among its first occupants.
Plans for 2013 are already in development so if you have ideas or would like to help manage an away event do let the Events Team know.
Volunteers needed – as always
Plans for 2012 are now pretty well developed, but we are already looking at away events in 2013. We have lots of great ideas, but Committee members, who already give a lot of their time to SAR, cannot run every event. If members don’t volunteer to assist, we cannot run the full programme we want to!
If you are not too confident about what needs to be done, we can pair you up with an experienced leader to show you the ropes.
Everyone benefits from a wide range of leaders os we can all bring forward new ideas. And, more important, you get to tailor the event to be just what you like most.
Monro baby
Try not to feel too ashamed ... A ten-year-old from Kendal has become the youngest person ever to climb all the 283 Monros (Scottish mountains over 3000 feet). Ben Fleetwood took three years to complete the task – meaning he must have begun at just seven – and says he relishes the challenge. He already holds the record as the youngest ever to climb all 214 of Wainwright’s Lakeland Fells.
Something or us all to aim for before it’s too late!
And after Dale Farm…
Ambitious plans for Britain's longest coastal walk are under threat after gypsies complained that it would invade their privacy. The project to link up a 870 mile walk around the entire Welsh coastline from the Dee to the Bristol Channel is in jeopardy as a result of a dispute over a half-mile stretch bordering a 21 pitch camp near Cardiff. Council chiefs have tried to solve the problem by offering to pay for a 16 ft high screen around the camp, but residents complain that this would be 'like a prison – we have got children on this site and who knows what kind of people could walk past. Nobody wants strangers looking into their homes, so why should we be any different?'
A spokesman for Cardiff Ramblers has said 'I have a pavement outside my house; how is this any different? You can't control who walks the road outside this house, and you wouldn't expect to.'
The Countryside Council for Wales has said that no further work will take place until consultations with the gypsies are complete.
And going back to Dale farm, evidence has been found that bats are living in the remaining caravans. Needless to say, this has stopped all clearance of the site, pending further investigation!
Pembroke comes third
In case you missed it, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path has been named the third best walk in the world. The 186-mile path, which attracts some one million walkers each year and is famed for covering almost every kind of maritime landscape from limestone and volcanic cliffs to sandy coves and estuaries, beat even the Inca trail in Peru and the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
SAR visited some years ago now, but don't worry as we are planning for another visit in 2012. (For the really adventurous, it is expected that by April next year Wales will be the only country in the UK with a completely walkable coastline). And not to be outdone, the Welsh county's beaches have also been named as the second best on the planet by no less than National Geographic.
In case you really want to know, first place went to the Appalachian Trail in the USA, and second to the pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The whole list is at http://news. cheapflights.co.uk/2011/07/top-ten-hiking-destinations-around-the-world/
Mountain high?
Done the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk? Then start planning for London’s newest guided walk ... to the roof of the O2 (Millennium Dome) in Greenwich. Local councillors have just approved a plan to take groups of 90 people at a time to the 60 metre roof of the Dome, passing between the famous yellow pylons. Walkers should enjoy stunning views to the Olympic Park nearby and a unique perspective on the London skyline. O2 owners AEG plan to open the route before the start of the Olympic Games next year.
Don’t fall off the radar!
The Ramblers Association has launched a campaign to ensure that all ambulance services in the UK can handle grid reference locations when provided by callers in the event of an emergency.
In the past ambulance control centres have asked for a post code when caller regarding an emergency in the hills -- not much use when a country post code might cover many square miles.
If you would like to add your voice to the campaign go to http://www.ramblers.org.uk/ and click through to the e-mail message.
Diamond Jubilee trees
Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee next year and to mark the occasion The Woodland Trust plans to plant 6 million new trees throughout the country.
If you have 60 acres to spare you can apply to plant one of 60 Diamond Woods. Perhaps more practical would be to buy a sapling for planting in your own garden. Native British trees only are supplied, in a variety of sizes.
For more information visit http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/.
Fitter at 50+?
A poll of the over-50s suggests they are taking more exercise and eating healthier food than they did in their 20s. Freed from the pressure of working life and raising a family, the aging baby boomers have more time to exercise and are paying more attention to their diet, eating more fruit and vegetables and fewer fat-rich take-aways!
True for some maybe, but obviously the pollsters didn't poll many of us who are (a) still working; (b) responsible for the grandchildren; and (c) still overindulging now and again at the pub or the local Indian or Chinese.
Look out for the exciting (and free!) new venue we have secured for our Annual General Meeting on Thursday 15th March, when Cotswold Outdoor are opening their Victoria Street shop just for us. We will be able to hold our usual business meeting upstairs, with a glass of wine afterwards as usual.
Browse the great selection of outdoor gear on offer there and receive a discount of at least 20% on anything you choose to buy – so save up your Xmas presents! Plenty of parking at the rear of the shop, at the side or on Victoria Street itself. Kick-off at 7.30. Fuller details will be with our March 1st issue.
We have some big events coming up this year, with Wainwright’s Coast to Coast and Picos de Europa already fully booked. Do contact the organisers if you would like to be on the reserve list. Meg is now asking for deposits for her long weekend in Dartmouth, so send her a cheque now to confirm your space.
We would still like a few more of you to join us for Rockingham Forest and the Nene Valley in March, however. This promises to be a lovely weekend in unspoiled countryside just as it begins to break into spring colours. Great value for money too, in a really nice hotel.
And a new long weekend has been added to our programme in April when we’ll be visiting Llangollen under the leadership of Pat and Ray. As well as some excellent walking, we’ll be taking a dinner cruise along the canal and crossing the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a World Heritage Site. However, we must book this in January, so if you want to come contact the leaders right away.
Our final weekend of the year will be in the Derbyshire Peak District, run by our local members in October. We are hoping that the new hostel at Losehill Hall will be open in time for us to be among its first occupants.
Plans for 2013 are already in development so if you have ideas or would like to help manage an away event do let the Events Team know.
Volunteers needed – as always
Plans for 2012 are now pretty well developed, but we are already looking at away events in 2013. We have lots of great ideas, but Committee members, who already give a lot of their time to SAR, cannot run every event. If members don’t volunteer to assist, we cannot run the full programme we want to!
If you are not too confident about what needs to be done, we can pair you up with an experienced leader to show you the ropes.
Everyone benefits from a wide range of leaders os we can all bring forward new ideas. And, more important, you get to tailor the event to be just what you like most.
Monro baby
Try not to feel too ashamed ... A ten-year-old from Kendal has become the youngest person ever to climb all the 283 Monros (Scottish mountains over 3000 feet). Ben Fleetwood took three years to complete the task – meaning he must have begun at just seven – and says he relishes the challenge. He already holds the record as the youngest ever to climb all 214 of Wainwright’s Lakeland Fells.
Something or us all to aim for before it’s too late!
And after Dale Farm…
Ambitious plans for Britain's longest coastal walk are under threat after gypsies complained that it would invade their privacy. The project to link up a 870 mile walk around the entire Welsh coastline from the Dee to the Bristol Channel is in jeopardy as a result of a dispute over a half-mile stretch bordering a 21 pitch camp near Cardiff. Council chiefs have tried to solve the problem by offering to pay for a 16 ft high screen around the camp, but residents complain that this would be 'like a prison – we have got children on this site and who knows what kind of people could walk past. Nobody wants strangers looking into their homes, so why should we be any different?'
A spokesman for Cardiff Ramblers has said 'I have a pavement outside my house; how is this any different? You can't control who walks the road outside this house, and you wouldn't expect to.'
The Countryside Council for Wales has said that no further work will take place until consultations with the gypsies are complete.
And going back to Dale farm, evidence has been found that bats are living in the remaining caravans. Needless to say, this has stopped all clearance of the site, pending further investigation!
Pembroke comes third
In case you missed it, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path has been named the third best walk in the world. The 186-mile path, which attracts some one million walkers each year and is famed for covering almost every kind of maritime landscape from limestone and volcanic cliffs to sandy coves and estuaries, beat even the Inca trail in Peru and the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
SAR visited some years ago now, but don't worry as we are planning for another visit in 2012. (For the really adventurous, it is expected that by April next year Wales will be the only country in the UK with a completely walkable coastline). And not to be outdone, the Welsh county's beaches have also been named as the second best on the planet by no less than National Geographic.
In case you really want to know, first place went to the Appalachian Trail in the USA, and second to the pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The whole list is at http://news. cheapflights.co.uk/2011/07/top-ten-hiking-destinations-around-the-world/
Mountain high?
Done the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk? Then start planning for London’s newest guided walk ... to the roof of the O2 (Millennium Dome) in Greenwich. Local councillors have just approved a plan to take groups of 90 people at a time to the 60 metre roof of the Dome, passing between the famous yellow pylons. Walkers should enjoy stunning views to the Olympic Park nearby and a unique perspective on the London skyline. O2 owners AEG plan to open the route before the start of the Olympic Games next year.
Don’t fall off the radar!
The Ramblers Association has launched a campaign to ensure that all ambulance services in the UK can handle grid reference locations when provided by callers in the event of an emergency.
In the past ambulance control centres have asked for a post code when caller regarding an emergency in the hills -- not much use when a country post code might cover many square miles.
If you would like to add your voice to the campaign go to http://www.ramblers.org.uk/ and click through to the e-mail message.
Diamond Jubilee trees
Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee next year and to mark the occasion The Woodland Trust plans to plant 6 million new trees throughout the country.
If you have 60 acres to spare you can apply to plant one of 60 Diamond Woods. Perhaps more practical would be to buy a sapling for planting in your own garden. Native British trees only are supplied, in a variety of sizes.
For more information visit http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/.
Fitter at 50+?
A poll of the over-50s suggests they are taking more exercise and eating healthier food than they did in their 20s. Freed from the pressure of working life and raising a family, the aging baby boomers have more time to exercise and are paying more attention to their diet, eating more fruit and vegetables and fewer fat-rich take-aways!
True for some maybe, but obviously the pollsters didn't poll many of us who are (a) still working; (b) responsible for the grandchildren; and (c) still overindulging now and again at the pub or the local Indian or Chinese.
