2013 Winter – 2014 Spring Newsletter

Future Activities

Friday 4th to Sunday 6th April 2014 – Spring coach weekend to Hand Hotel, Llangollen. Already two thirds of available places have been reserved.   The total cost for 2 nights’ dinner, B&B, packed lunches, coach travel and gratuities is £149 per head for a shared room and £178 for a single.  To reserve your place, please send a non-refundable deposit of £30 per head to Alex, with cheques payable to Cambridge Rambling Club, the balance to be paid by 21st February. Car parking will be available at the CURFC Grange Road for a donation of £10 to be included in your final balance.  The hotel is well situated above a beautiful stretch of the River Dee and very close to the centre of the pretty market town of Llangollen.  There will be a choice of 3 walks each day, including a short walk on the Friday afternoon.  The walks include the North Berwyn Way, Llantysilio Mountain, Dee Valley as well as the Llangollen Canal and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.   Please let Alex know if you are willing to lead a B or C walk.

London walk Saturday 26th April David (01763 242677) is leading a walk of around 8 miles in the Richmond Park area. If you are interested phone David  and full details will be sent to you.

Map reading course, Saturday 7th June 2014 at 1.00pm at Royston Heath (finish by 5.00pm). Norman is providing a map reading course for anyone who wants to improve their skills! Please bring along a good compass (Silva, for example) and preferably the 1:25,000 map for this area. Please contact Norman for more details (see programme for phone).

Sunday 22nd  June: Coach outing to Suffolk: Felixstowe and the rivers Deben and Orwell. The cost is £15; please send cheques, payable to Cambridge Rambling Club, to Angela. Offers of help with leading to Angela, please.

Lakes week – your help needed! Norman will not be organising the Lakes trip in 2014. If anyone would like to do this could they please contact Jill Tuffnell? An option is to set up a small group to look at other ways of organising the trip – which might involve using Ramblers or HF for example. This would overcome the perennial problem of finding walk leaders, especially for the ‘B’ and ‘C’ walkers. The downside is significantly extra cost, typically £700-750 for HF but this includes all food, local transport and a good standard of accommodation, as well as guiding at up to 3 grades. Ramblers are considerably cheaper but only operate from Hassness and provide one leader. Norman is  happy to be the point of contact to look at alternatives and can pass on information he has from 2013. He has quite a large library of walks stored in GPX format which he can give to anyone to upload onto their gps.

Friday 17th October to Sunday 19thth October 2014, Coach Weekend, HF Malhamdale,  Newfield Hall is a grand 19th century Country House, situated on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We can follow the valley north to the village of Malham and the immense cove and beautiful tarn. We plan A, B and C walks. The house has elegant public rooms, an indoor swimming pool and new dining room.  The total cost for 2 nights’ accommodation including dinner, B&B, packed lunch (Sat), coach travel and gratuities is £203 per person for a shared room and £213 for a single. There are 22 places remaining in shared en-suite rooms. To guarantee your place please send a non-refundable deposit of £50 per head to Meg, with cheques payable to Cambridge Rambling Club.

Hostel (& similar) TripsHostel trips are informal affairs and, if a long way from Cambridge, are often for 3 nights or more. ‘A’ walks are guaranteed; ‘B’ walks depend on a volunteer leader – please do offer! Travel is normally in cars and we try to arrange car sharing. All bookings are handled by Jill Tuffnell, with cheques payable to ‘E G Tuffnell’. Please book with deposit or payment well in advance as the full balance must be paid at least 8 weeks before the trip. Offers to drive or requests for a lift to Jill please.  You are very welcome to book your own accommodation and join us on walks.

*Castle Acre, Norfolk – Old Red Lion Independent Hostel, Friday 7th to Sunday 9th February 2014 (2 nights). We have sole occupancy of this hostel in the centre of beautiful Castle Acre, near the priory and castle. Accommodation is on a self-service B&B basis, with use of a kitchen (and a pub nearby). The cost is £47.50 per person. Some double en-suite rooms still available.

*Tunbridge Wells, Kent (North Downs): Friday 14th to Sunday 16th March 2014 (2 nights). We have arranged a weekend’s stay at the Travelodge in central Tunbridge Wells. Family rooms have 2 separate beds and there are also double rooms, (all en-suite). Rooms booked by Jill and notified on the Club’s website have all been taken. Please book directly with Travelodge ASAP if you want to take advantage of cheap advance booking rates. B walks’ leader required. Train travel is a good option as car parking is charged as an extra.

*Brecon Bunkhouse, Thursday 1st to Monday 5th May 2014 (4 nights). Again, we have sole occupancy of this independent self-catering hostel just 4 miles south of Talgarth, close to the Black Mountains and Hay-on-Wye for the bibliophile! There is excellent walking straight from the door and a pub nearby for evening meals. There are 3 rooms for two people at £70 per person; beds in larger dorms cost £60 per person. Please send deposits of £20 to secure a place. The balance is payable by 1st March 2014.

*South West Coast Path, Friday 23rd to Friday 30th May 2014 (7 nights). We plan to walk the wonderful South West Coast Path from St Ives to beyond Lizard Point over the Bank Holiday/half term week. We have booked the first 4 nights at Penzance YH (23rd to 26th), then transfer to the new Lizard YH for 2 nights, (27th and 28th), returning to Penzance for the final night on Thursday 29th May. This makes it easier to travel by train to/from Penzance! We will use a mix of taxis, buses and hired mini-buses to enable us to walk the best parts of this National Trail. There are 2 double rooms and 12 dorm beds booked. The double room price is £150 for 7 nights per person; the dorm bed cost is £130 per person. Please send deposits of £30 to Jill; the balance is due on 20th March 2014. Please contact Jill if you want to book for a shorter period.

*Northumberland coast & hills, Thursday 7th to Wednesday 13th August 2014, (6 nights). We start with 3 nights in Rothbury, a small market town next to the fabulous NT Cragside estate, staying at the new ‘Tomlinson’s Café & Bunkhouse’, with opportunities for breakfast and evening meals on site. All rooms are en-suite and finished to a high standard. We move on to YH Wooler for 3 nights (food available). We plan to visit Alnwick, the coast and possibly Lindisfarne, depending on tides. There is one double room at Rothbury and two at Wooler. The cost is £108 per person for the double rooms and £105 for dorm beds. Please send deposits of £20; the balance is payable by 1st June.

*Much Wenlock, Shropshire, Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th October 2014 (2 nights). We have sole occupancy of the 16-bed Granary at Stokes Barn, close to Much Wenlock and Wenlock Edge. There is one two-bedded room, with dormitory accommodation in a mix of single and bunk beds. The cost is £40 per person for the weekend. Please send a deposit of £15 with the balance due on 1st August 2014.

*Stow on the Wold YH, Friday 31st October to Sunday 2nd November 2014 (2 nights). The hostel is right in the heart of this beautiful Cotswold town, with excellent walking straight from the door. Only dormitory rooms (4 or 6 beds) available but you can book separately into one of the many nearby hotels or pubs. The cost is £30 per person at the hostel for the weekend..

News and Notices

AGM: The turnout this year was rather disappointing but those who came enjoyed an excellent talk from Carol Laidlaw, the Conservation Grazing Ranger for the National Trust at Wicken Fen. Carol talked to us about both the Highland cattle and Polish horses now established on the outlying land as well as long-term plans for extending the fen. Life membership was awarded to Pam, in recognition of her sterling work for the Club. Jenny finished her term as a Committee member and we welcomed Norman, Christine and Paul as new Committee members for 3 years. The Wednesday ‘B’ Programme Secretaries are now Derek and Linda, replacing Pam.

Next of kin details. The Club’s Committee has agreed that it would be very useful for anyone going on a Club trip to provide ‘next of kin’ details – name, address and phone/email. Hopefully this will never have to be used! Please let us know your details – via our Membership secretary or weekend/hostel/outing trip organisers.

Membership cards for ‘online’ members! Over 100 members now receive their programmes and newsletters via email – but once a year we need to distribute membership cards. All Committee members will hold some cards to hand out on walks – but if you miss out we can still post a card to you. Please contact the membership secretary if you would like a card sent. Cards provide a discount at several Cambridge outdoor stores, including Open Air, Hobbs, Cotswold, Mountain Warehouse and Simpers.

Wednesday ‘C’ walk: Barbara Anne reports that the ‘regular’ C walk leaves (after meeting at 10.00 for coffee) at 10.30 and covers around 4-5 miles in 2 hours. There is often an additional shorter, more leisurely walk on offer! If interested in this option, please phone the leader to find out what is available. Previous Secretary Sheila is the guest of honour at the 2013 Christmas lunch.

Sunday ‘C’ walk: Shirley writes: ’We have been pleased to welcome a few faces who have found us via the website. Some are trying out walking, or returning to walking, but don’t yet feel confident to take on a longer walk, while others have too many commitments to be able to walk for a full day’.

Sad to report. Adrian Best, who for many years led for and organised coach weekends for the Club, died in November 2013. Our thoughts are with his wife Jane.

Car parking places:  Jenny has compiled a very useful list of car parking places for walks’ leaders. This is available on the website, giving parish, description, grid reference and postcode where available. Information on charges, contact details etc. are also provided. (Pubs are excluded).

The Walking Partnership: If you are going on a Ramblers Worldwide Holiday the Club can benefit. Just contact RWH by phone or online, give your holiday booking reference and nominate the Cambridge Rambling Club under The Walking Partnership scheme. We receive £10 for a UK holiday, £20 for European holidays and £30 for every long-haul trip. We earned £630 last year! The funds pay for leaflets to promote the Club, circulated to all GP practices in our area.

For sale: Garmin Oregon 450 walking GPS in original box, complete with whole of GB Ordnance Survey 1:50k Maps, £220. For further details please contact Peter on 01353 777626.

George’s Seat was officially installed in September at the Coton Nature Reserve. Please visit and enjoy it, with great views over Coton Village!

Next Committee Meeting is on Tuesday March 18th 2014  at the Wesley Church, King Street, at 7.30pm.

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