Hi everyone.

Welcome to another newsletter. Having been hiking in Salzburgerland in Austria earlier last month, it was good to get out yesterday on an 18-mile walk organised by the London LDWA. A small group traveled down from the capital, to be greeted by more than twenty members from four other groups, including Dorset, Thames Valley and Wessex. There were a couple of new walkers in the mix as well. Having lived in Shaftesbury twice, I was keen to return for a long walk in an area that I am particularly fond of, and which passed Old Wardour Castle. Another favourite place of mine. It was a lovely day out in the undulating landscape, in very pleasant company, including that of our leader, Jerome Ripp. Despite the increased pace towards the end - to catch the train back - it was a fabulous day out.

Committee News

We've held a committee meeting since the last newsletter was published. Here are the 'highlights':

• It was agreed that all volunteers at the Hunnypot 100 should receive £100, using the £500 received from the NEC and the group’s funds;
  
• The next Pewsey Downsaround will take place on Sunday 25th April 2027;
• PDA start times will be updated to ensure entrants arrive when checkpoints are officially open. Instructions for entrants will be explicit in this regard;
• A PDA marshal's walk was proposed and agreed. Volunteers will now be sought;
• The storage and transportation of equipment was discussed;
• PACER will continue to be used at next year's event. We'll be contacting other groups to discuss how best to use it in the field;
• Janette offered to revisit the division of labour for the event;
• The committee agreed to having two WhatsApp groups available on the day, i.e. one for catering and the other to help track entrants;
• Volunteers have already offered to help the Dorset group run Checkpoint 2 in Lyme Regis at the Jurassic 100 next year;
• We're still waiting to hear what checkpoint we've been allocated at the Millstone 100 in 2028;
• Lucy has offered to attend this year's LDWA Local Groups Weekend;
• The West Yorkshire group are interested in organising an 'exchange' visit;
• We discussed how we might deal with future heatwaves, e.g. starting walks earlier;
• Finally, we agreed the AGM will take place on Sunday 6th December 2026.

Our Walks Programme

As you can see, we only have six walks to look forward to currently. A seventh will be added once we've confirmed the arrangements for our AGM. We need more walks to take us to the end of year, particularly the north of the county, South Gloucester and North Somerset. Although I am still to recce my walk on Sunday, I've decided to reduce the distance by a couple of miles, to include a stretch of the Ebble Valley. I'll update Meetup etc ... after the recce.

Forthcoming Walks

Finally, here's the usual look ahead to all the group walks and challenge events that are taking place within a 50-mile radius of Chippenham.

That's it for this newsletter. All our newsletters will be available via the Wiltshire LDWA website. If you have anything to contribute to future editions, please can you get it to me or Sue by the 20th of each month. I look forward to seeing you out on this month's group walks.

Warmest regards

Clive

Chair of the Wiltshire LDWA
wiltshire.chair@ldwa.org.uk