The Wednesday Walk 16th January 2013

The Plan
A walk across Ferndown Common

The Leader

Trudy B

Who Turned Up

Trudy B, Sue, Trisha, Beatrice, David, with Tony joining us for lunch and the afternoon walk.

The Walk

We met a Haskins Garden Centre for coffee before moving our cars to the nearby layby. We had a few doubts at this point as a large car transporter was loading up in the layby. An odd place for cars to be loaded up. Would our cars be waiting for us on our return? Or would they be on a ferry to the continent? We crossed our fingers and hoped.
It was a cold morning. The rest of the country was experiencing snow but we had yet to see the first downfall on East Dorset. Would it happen today? We set off across the common and, within a few minutes, a light flurry was settling upon us. We were, however, more concerned with the trail across the common which was, at times, covered in sheets of ice. Careful attention to where we put our feet was needed. Thankfully, we reached the Wimborne Road without any accidents.
After lunch we set off on a longer route that took us to Award Road and then back onto The Roughs after skirting past Trehane’s Nursery. The going was impeded by icy patches. At one point the path was a sheet of solid ice and Tony took the initiative to divert us across someone’s front lawn. We then continued across the common until we came back onto Angel Lane. To our delight, our cars had not been exported to Eastern Europe.

The Pub

The Pure Drop, Ferndown. The beer was cheap: £2.50 for a pint, which was a good start. We then discovered that we could have a free bottle of wine because our joint expenditure exceeded £15. Not bad. The food was good, the most expensive meal being a nicely-done pork steak in apple sauce at £8.45. Most walkers were satisfied with a meal at below £5.

Next Week

Meet at Beatrice and Tony’s at 10am for a Verwood walk