Emsworth - 26th October
Wednesday 26th October didn’t look too good from home - rain and wind, but the weather forecast wasn’t too bad - so we set off for Emsworth and by the time we got there the sun was breaking through the clouds. The weather doesn’t put off Petersfield u3a Strollers.
Nancy and John had checked the tide timetable and warned us that we couldn’t hang about - in fact, we were told it was going to be an exceptionally high tide.
We met up in Emsworth car park - Nancy and John took our food orders and rang them through to the pub - then off we went. As you can see from the pictures, the sky was blue and the sun was shining but the wind was strong. As we walked along the shoreline we watched a lad wind-surfing - he must have had strong arms to cope with the strong wind.
We then veered away from the shoreline and crossed overland to visit Warblington Church, we could see Warblington Castle but couldn’t go and see it as it is privately owned.
On the way back along the shoreline we were almost back when we saw a young family walking towards us but they were clinging to a raised walk because the tide was so high and it was over the footpath. We and other walkers then had to walk through a housing estate to get to the main road and entered Emsworth from the top. It made the walk extra long and we were quite tired by the time we got back to our cars. You noticed I used the 'Royal We' term.
We had our lunch in The Coal Merchant Inn by the car park and we were pleasantly surprised at how lovely the landlady, staff and the food was - couldn’t fault them. Some of us checked our pedometers and were pleased with the fact that we had done about 11,000 steps - now we could go home and put our feet up.
A big ’Thank You’ to Nancy and John. 👏👍👍
The Petersfield u3a Strollers had their first walk of the year at the end of January and we walked from Empshott and along the hill and fields around the back of Le Court. It was a sunny day but a bit muddy, although not as muddy as when I did a recce the week before. We were joined by a lady who is organising the Petersfield Walking Festival which is being held in August.
Chichester - The Strollers On 23rd February Liz Steggall took us around the old Roman walls, and the streets and parks of Chichester. It was a beautiful day and the walk was nice and easy – no stiles to negotiate, and plenty of benches for anyone wanting to sit down for a break, and it was perfect for some of our members because it was their first walk after recovering from Long Covid and other illnesses. I noticed a bit of window shopping going on and one or two members managed to leave the group – naturally, after informing the Back Walker that they were doing so. The Back Walker has a big stick, he usually makes sure no one escapes. The escapees returned and joined us for lunch in The Fat Fig.
Planned Walks
March 30th – Durford Woods.
April 27th – Chichester Harbour area
May 25th – Alresford (combining our very late Post-Christmas lunch)
June 29th – Southsea/Portsmouth
July 27th - Cheriton
August – Hawkley (Taking part in the Petersfield Walking Festival)
September 28th – route to be decided
October 26th – route to be decided
November 23rd – route to be decided
December 28th – No walks but we will have an early and a late walk in January 2023.