Pudding Plod - Worston, Saturday 19th. December 2015.

The Pictures:-

To see who was on the walk, click on the following pictures:-

To view all Stan's pictures click 'Here' then click slideshow and full screen.

To view all Brian Fisher's pictures click 'Here' then go onto slideshow.

To view a video of ITV weather featuring Tom (Father Christmas) Lyons click 'Here' then click on the arrow in the middle of the picture.

The Walk:-

The "Pudding Plod" as we call it, is usually held on the Saturday before Christmas, and takes the form of a light hearted walk followed by full Christmas dinner. Traditionally it was put on by the Group as a thank you for walk leaders and helpers at our events. This still applies, but has now been extended to other Group members and guests.

Today as we busied ourselves putting on our walking gear, on the car park of The Calf's Head Hotel in Worston, who should join us? No other than Father Christmas himself! What a surprise! That called for a few pictures.

The walk itself was a fairly simple affair, starting from Worston and passing through Worsaw End, Barkerfield, Hookcliffe, Lane Head, Hecklin Farm on the way to our half way point in Twiston. It was here that John (E) and Susan were kindly waiting for us, with a good selection of Christmas cheer and mince pies.

The second half of the walk took us down to Twiston Beck, which we followed down past Twiston Mill to Torrid Bank Wood. Here we turned abruptly up hill to cross Wooly Hill and along the line of the old Roman Road and into Downham, with it's very originally designed loos. No longer walking cross legged, we then continued on our way, past Worsaw End again, back to Worston.

I think it's fair to say all 21 of us, were amazed it stayed fine for the duration of the walk and for the extemely mild temperatures (mid teens centigrade). They were probably even more amazed Father Christmas stayed with us for the whole of the 7.5 mile walk. Mud? Yes we found some, but given the wet weather we'd been having, many places (as we've recently experienced!) would have been much worse.

Christmas Dinner:-

As in recent years this was held at The Calf's Head, Worston, where we had earlier started our walk from. Here we were joined be a further 20 members and guests, bringing our numbers up to 41 who sat down for the meal. The pub was warm (almost too so) and the beer and the meal were excellent. If the level of noise coming from chat and laughter are anything to go by, all had a good time.

Thanks to all who came and for the hard work and devotion of our leaders and helpers, who make events like this possible and keep our group alive. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Stan.