THAMES VALLEY GROUP Long Distance Walkers Association

Anyone available to take this walk off me? initially i thought this was going to conflict with a lake distict trip but now it won't as i'm spending from now until the middle of December in a little country called Qatar! so my long distance walking is going to be slightly curtailed. Sorry, hope someone can fill in.

I reproduce without comment the following item from Charles Moore's column in last week's Spectator:

"Neighbours told me of a walk they took last weekend through a pretty piece of country near us. As their footpath approached a carefully tarmac'd drive, they were confronted by a large notice. "Please wipe you boots before walking across this drive", it said. For some reason, this small piece of information made me feel more depressed than news of flood, famine or war."

Would anyone be interested in attending the Local Groups Meeting at Middleton (Village Hall; GR278556)Derbyshire on Sunday 12th October? Please contact me or Nicky Wood (contact detail in Strider)for more information.

There are a few Oxon 40/20 "thank you's" on the LDWA's website. Go to www.ldwa.org.uk/forum/forum.php and follow the links to Event Reports -- Oxon 40/20

Keep the 40 route tough. Show the buggas out there that we can organise a really scenic & challenging challenge walk on apar with anything up North.
Social walks must take into account Conditions of the day & new people, etc. but challenge walks, that is something else. they have to be challenging!

Lee Brimmer led a superb 20 mile walk for the TV groupin this relatively unknown part of the Chilterns, a walk which Yvette & I really enjoyed.
I was slightly perturbed that, out of the 6 walkers, we were the only TV members. Lee put a cheerful face on it & said he would still lead again for the TV group, so come on you lot & venture out of your immediate area occasionally & discover new places & encourage others to lead walks.
Comments invited.

I'm quite happy to allow Duncan free reign on the route.

For the record: The GPS data I have on 4 of the past 5 Oxon-40 walks shows total ascents in the range 1,048m in 2004 up to 1,416m (2006) compared with 1,324m for 2008. Yes it was hilly, but isn't that part of the challenge?

During the walk I did bump into 1 or 2 people who'd taken advantage of the early release of the route description on this website to pre-walk parts of the route. Perhaps we should also publish (aprox) total ascent in advance?

Does anyone need re-united with their boots?? If so reply to this topic - I have them!

There were a number of comments that the Oxon 40 was very tough this year. This can be tackled in future by a flatter (but probably less scenic) route. Would be glad for views on partipants on this as I set the roure!

Just wanted to express my appreciation to this wonderfully organised event. I was 'talked' into running the 20 miler by Ted and Jackie from the Surrey group and I can only say how impressed I was by the enthusiasm and commitment of all involved. The CP's were fantastically supplied and it was very tempting to dwell too long just for the food and the excellent location. It is not an area I know at all and I can see why it is so popular. I have joined the LDWA and,even though primarily a runner I am sure I will be back 'here' and probably elsewhere also! Thanks to all again.

Firstly, thank you for all for a lovely day on Saturday. An amazing team effort - you are an impressive bunch! Secondly - I left my walking poles propped up on the rail outside the sports pavilion..... i'm lost with them and would be so grateful if some kind soul noticed this lonely pair of sticks and put them in a safe place.... Oh! guess what, our leader Pat Endacott has just called to say Duncan has the poles so I'll be reunited with them soon. THANK YOU LOTS AND LOTS... xxxxx

I thought the Britwell Hill checkpoint site location was ideally situated. The sickly smell of flowering rapeseed in the field over the hedge easily masked the odour from the pig field across the road. You must have had a really nice day, Martin & Yvette!

Managed to finish my 4th Oxon-40. So, in return, a big vote of thanks for the Oxon 40/20 Marshals on the big day.
It was especially nice to see the Azerbijani cultural atache accompanied by his first lady at the Britwell Hill pig farm!
I'd hazard a guess that more than a few walkers retired just to enjoy the catering at the checkpoints.

Yes thanks Huw - and you will all be glad to hear he will be doing it next year again and is taking orders for what type of chocolate bars we like!!

I agree with Nick completely

Huw Jones deserves a BIG VOTE OF THANKS for providing excellent "checkpoint" refreshments on the Oxon 40 marshalls walk last Saturday. At three "checkpoints", Huw produced from the back of his car a host of goodies including crisps, chocolate bars, fruit, tea, water and even a table to lay them all out on! I can honestly say that it beat a good few checkpoints on challenge walks I have been on lately. And all single handed! MANY THANKS, Huw - appreciated by all on Saturday's walk, I am sure.

Hi Paul
Just to say sorry I could not make your walk on Sunday (6th) I was talked into entering the Three Towers Hike on Saturday 5th. Starting at 8.03 on Saturday and finishing at 21.30 the same evening, trying to keep up with Nick, Julia, Maria, and Brian over 70km was a tough call. When you have put the time and effort into planning a walk it,s a bit disappionting when only a few turn up, however I can understand the weather issues with transport.
How about you repeat the walk later on in the year, I am sure you will get better support, it's very unlike TV group not to support it's walk leaders.

Hope to see you on the Marshal's walk on Saturday.

I know I seem to be monopolising this forum at the moment but that's because I can't get out on the social walks at the moment due to other commitments and it's the only way to stay in touch with the group, but I just wanted to reassure the group that I will still be leading the walk on the 6th April. It's a great walk with lots to see and I look forward to seeing you there.

Paul.

Hi Paul

I can put any photos you'd like to send onto a photo gallery page on the website. I've emailed you separately with a few more details. For anyone else with photos or anything else for the website there's a link to some notes on how to send stuff on the Journal page.

Have moved on now, am in a backpackers lodge in Lake Wanaka in South island New Zealand, have already walked the Abel Tasman coastal path over 3 days and have climbed over the Franz Josef glacier and tomorrow is heli-biking! How exactly do I display photos? are we gonna have a photo gallery? See you all soon.

looking forwards to the pics.

Presently in Cedar City, having done Zion Canyon and Kolob Canyon, will be skiing at Brians Head today, conditions are perfect, just wanted to say hello, hopefully will post some photos when i get back, see you soon. Paul.

I've shifted it - is that better? I've got a sneaking suspicion your grid ref may have suffered from "digit creep" :-)

hmmm! there's me saying the car park is not the high st car park and the google maps is showing it as the high st! must be my grid reference! it's actually just off frogmore street.

I should have mentioned - depending on your browser settings you may find you get a warning message when you try to view the maps, or even a complete refusal to load the page. This is because Google Maps contains so-called "active content". It's absolutely OK to tell your browser to go ahead and load the map page. Better still, I suggest you set the Thames Valley website as a "trusted" site in your browser settings, which should avoid this and any future problems.

Any queries, please get in touch.

I've changed the map links in the walks programme. Instead of showing you a small 1:25000 OS map when you click the grid reference link in the walk details you now get a nice map from Google Maps®. These maps have a control which lets you zoom in and out and pan E-W and N-S, or you can drag the map around with your mouse. You can also switch between road map, satellite image, and a combination of both ("hybrid"). I hope you like this new feature. Apart from the maps being better (in my opinion) they are under free licence, which means I can give links for all the walks in the programme at any time - the OS terms and conditions restrict a website to no more than 10 free maps at any one time.

You can print any of the map views in the usual way. It's best to set the page size to A4 landscape.

If you would still like to see maps like the previous OS ones, go to this link http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/, click on the big "I want to Get A Map now" button, and copy the grid reference (2 letters and 6 figures) into the search box.

Thanks to Jeff and his hard-working and loyal staff for the latest and last Newsletter. I'm sure we'll discuss future arrangements at the AGM, but for now don't forget you can use this Forum to post your comments, thoughts, tips and rants. If anyone wants to send a longer piece just email it to me and I'll be glad to find a place for it on the website.