Avon Heath Country Park
The leader
General concensus
Who Turned Up
Wendy, Trudy, Sue, Jackie, Beatrice and Tony H, David (Joined for lunch by Diane and Tony)
The Walk
Regular readers of this blog will have been disappointed over the past three or four weeks. The blogmaster was enjoying day after day of Mediterranean sunshine while his co-walkers were battling against snow and ice at home. Today we tried to make amends for our blog absence, but with little success.
The snow had melted during the past two days but the air was still damp and misty. Nevertheless, we set off to park in the car park near the junction of Boundary Lane and Matcham's Lane. For our overseas readers, I should explain that this is a small, unmade car park in a forested area, and it is off the beaten track. There is little reason for people to go there regularly. But we were astounded to find that parking was limited to motorists who had bought a £17 season ticket. Somewhat miffed, we drove to the Avon Heath Park information office where it was confirmed that we could not park at our chosen spot on a single-day basis. Furthermore, the charges for parking in the Country Park were exorbitant. So we drove back to the St Leonards Hotel and left our cars there while we made the most of a short walk in the Country Park. We returned to the hotel just as it started raining.
The rest of the day's intended walk was taken up with an extended lunch.
The Pub
The St Leonards Hotel. There are two attractions here. One is the very reasonably priced two-course carvery. The second is a segment of the wall that was signed by fighter pilots and others who were stationed at nearby airfields during WW2. The management have had the sense to embed the section of wall in glass.
Diane and Tony joined us for lunch at which most of us opted for the carvery. As on previous visits, it was judged well worth the money. As we sat and chatted, we decided that (a) the weather was too miserable to warrant continuing with the walk, and (b) we couldn't think of anywhere else to walk anyway. So we made the meal last over two hours and then returned to David's house for tea and coffee.
Next Week
Meet at David's for a New Forest walk.
