Hike report - 1990

Selecting a route for the Winter Hike is not an easy task, considering there is the whole of the country to choose from. That’s why there is a planning meeting, held in the previous December, where the big decision is made.

As usual Graham turned up with a bag of maps and as nobody had any ideas for a location a ‘lucky dip’ was made. Having selected the map it was then a question of exactly where. Langford in Bedfordshire was chosen as the starting point and before long the whole route had been sketched out.

When we got to ‘transport’ on the agenda we realised that there was no van – ‘Jennifer’ was no longer available and Curly was not going on the hike.  Cars were therefore used.

The start day of the hike finally arrived and before long seven of us were in the pub at Langford enjoying a refreshing drink. The eighth member was Robert (ex 6th Finchley Scout and 22nd Finchley Venture Scout) who was making his debut appearance and had made his own way north, was unfortunately sitting in the other pub in Langford (not marked on the map), awaiting our arrival. We did of course eventually meet up and did as usual camp in the pub garden.

After breakfast the following morning, we set off following the footpath in a westerly direction towards Stanford. Unfortunately this crossed a lot of swampy land and Robert paid the price for not having a proper pair of hiking boots.  It was not long before his feet were soaking wet.

Our next obstacle was to cross a ditch, using a rickety old bridge. In Graham’s words:

“Using the Cox rating, established on the Rutland hike, it received a very low score.”

Despite some precarious moments we did all manage to get to the other side successfully.

After Stanford we continued north-west to Southill, where we stopped for lunch at The White Horse.

Our route was taking us over mainly agricultural land and the main crop being grown was sprouts. It fact we were to see quite a few more sprout fields on the way, including a harvesting machine that initially cut the stem and then stripped the sprouts off.

The scenery got a bit better after lunch as we headed north past Old Warden, the location of the Shuttleworth Collection – a unique flying collection showcasing the first one hundred years of flight.

However, all was quiet and there were no aircraft to be seen. In fact all that we could see from the footpath was part of the airfield and some of the hangers.

We followed the footpath all the way to Ickwell Green, and from there we continued on the road a bit further north to Northill. Here we made camp on the village green, pitching the tents behind some bushes, out of sight from the locals.

Our curry was prepared as quickly as possible and after clearing up we made our way to The Crown to spend the rest of the evening enjoy the warmth, a few beers and a game of cards.

The next morning, after breakfast and packing up, we headed back to the pub – Graham had left his cards and backgammon set behind the previous evening. Having retrieved these treasures we finally set off, taking the footpath heading east to Upper Caldecote.

The Sunday morning sessions of our hikes have become notorious for not actually walking very far, and this year’s hike was no different. It did not seem long before we had arrived and were in the Rose and Crown for our lunchtime break.

The afternoon session was, by comparison quite a distance. Following footpaths and minor roads we headed south, first to Broom and then back to the cars at Langford.

This had been a fairly uninspiring hike which is probably one of the reasons Robert did not join us again. With hindsight, Graham should perhaps not have included this map in his bag, as it had in fact turned out to be an ‘unlucky dip’.