Walking for Stiles

Hardcore Four's second full team walk took us to the village of Sherfield-on-Loddon, between Basingstoke and Reading.  The walk was another found by Jo on that very useful resource, the Internet.  This time the walk was found from a walking leaflet on the Hampshire County Council website.  We went for the 7 mile option which was elevated to 8 miles when we went in the wrong direction, but nevertheless it took us just over three hours to complete.

Poorly Gem finds a place to rest up

Gem, Jo & Julie check out the mud

Gem had spent the end of the week feeling a little worse for wear as she has had a cold, but determined to train she joined the team for the walk. By the end she was looking forward to curling up on the sofa with a blanket, but well done Gem for the commitment.

Though not as bad as last Sunday, this was another muddy walk.  It started to rain about half way though which made the muddy bits muddier.  However we all managed to stay upright with no comedy slips.

That's a 5 on the stile index

"I'd give that stile a 1.5" says Julie.  This is our introduction to The Stile Index.  It is a grading of stiles on a scale of 1 to 10.  Now, anyone who has crossed a few stiles in their life will know that they can vary wildly in their design, even within a few hundred metres, such as today when we cross three different styles of stiles in that distance!  Julie seemingly a stile expert now, has got to a point where she is able to rate each stile by its stirdyness, its ease of use and availability of hand support among other things.  She is even considering a book on the subject.  Watch out for that in all good bookshops in the not too distant future.  Just for your information, the stile shown in the picture in this blog was considered to be a 5!

The walk took us past a lovely newly thatched cottage which we decided to take a picture of so here it is!  Snowdrops out in bloom too, how picturesque!

That's all for this weekend.  Keep a look out on our Facebook page for more pictures of the walk.  We will add more through the week.  Even if you haven't got a Facebook account you are still able to see these.  If you have got a Facebook account, why not 'Like' us to be notified of updates and new pictures.