Hike report - 1992

This year’s outing was, without taking anything away from the walking, more memorable for other reasons.

Firstly, we had a new recruit – Brian an ex member of the 6th Finchley and 22nd Finchley. Next, Howard had decided that he could only spend Saturday with us – his wife Jacqui had just come out of hospital and was convalescing.

And finally, Geoff Wright making a late decision not to attend. A couple of weeks before the event he did something to his back, but after a visit to a chiropractor had hoped it would get better. However, on the day of the hike it was still very painful and it became obvious that he would not be able to hike with a full rucksack. As it had become his job to provide the tents (from his Cranleigh Scout Group) he decided to drive over, stay for a drink, deliver the tents and return home.

So, on the Friday evening five of us met Geoff at the Crown and Garter in Inkpen, caught up with the news and after bidding him farewell, retired to our tents in the pub garden for the night.

With Malcolm Rush also being absent, John ended up taking the lead role with cooking the breakfast. Others were quite happy to stand around taking photographs or pose for the camera.

Fortunately it was a dry morning and there were picnic tables available for John to make full use of.

Howard, who had spoken to Graham on the telephone the previous evening, to establish our whereabouts, turned up at about 7am – in plenty of time for an early morning cup of tea and then breakfast.

After packing up we headed south, five of us carrying our usual heavy rucksacks and Howard with a lightweight day sack.

It was not long before we joined the footpath that lead us up Inkpen Hill to the east of the peak. From there the plan was to descend through Combe Wood and head for Vernham Dean, where we intended to spend our Saturday night.

However, progress was slow and as it started to get dark we were well short of our destination. So, despite not having travelled very far we decided to start looking for somewhere to stop. Fortunately we did not have to look far – upon arrival in Little Down we managed to obtain permission to camp in the garden of the local pub – The Boot.

At this point Howard turned around and made his way back to Inkpen, got in his car and drove back to the pub in time to join us for the evening meal.

Although he had taken a different route back it certainly highlighted the short distance we had walked that day.

As things turned out The Boot, a lovely thatched property in the middle of nowhere, was an excellent place to spend the night.

First of all the garden had picnic benches – just the thing for us to gather round to cook and eat our evening meal. And secondly, they not only served beer by gravity from the barrel that kept Drew happy, but also had a great selection of whiskies enabling Graham and John to experiment liberally.

Alas there will be no return trip – The Boot is no longer a Public House.

Howard stayed until closing time and then drove home, as the rest of us crawled into our tents for a good night’s sleep.

Sunday was another nice day and good for walking.

Nevertheless, even we realised that to cover the remainder of the original route would have taken quite a bit of effort.

So, instead of continuing south through Vernham Street to Vernham Dean and then west to Oxenwood before travelling north to Shalbourne and east back to Inkpen via Ham, we planned a new route that would follow roughly the same directions but not the same distance.

We set off and zigzagged west and north past a small hamlet called Henley and then followed the footpath northwards. It was a steady climb up to the top of Rivar Hill but a steeper one down the other side as we met the road that went through the village of Rivar to Shalbourne.

Then half a mile up the road, on the edge of the village, we took a right hand turn down The Lynch, a lane that started as a made up road but continued across country into Ham.

Here we had a spot of lunch and something to drink in the local.

After lunch we took the footpath roughly north-east to meet Bitham Lane, where it changes from a made up road to a pathway. It was then east along this lane and then a short distance by other paths and road back into Inkpen.

Another hike had been completed which, despite being fairly short, had included three counties – Berkshire, Hampshire and Wiltshire.