The walking group does a short walk every month on the 4th Monday of the month, and this continues to be well supported, with the number of walkers usually being in double figures. We meet at the public car park on the way into the Community Centre for car share (£2) to the starting point of the walk, and have a pub or café lunch afterwards. Short walks can be from 3 to 5 miles and in the last year we have staged walks from Rowlands Castle, Selsey, Itchenor, Chawton and West Marden. The photograph comes from our most recent walk to see the bluebells at Clanfield.
Long walks have also taken root, and there is now a long walk every month, on the 1st Friday. There are generally 6 to 10 people on each long walk. In winter we walk for 6 or 7 miles, followed by a pub lunch. In summer we tend to go further afield, walking up to 11 miles, with a picnic lunch and maybe a drink at the end of the walk. A highlight of last summer was a trip to the Isle of Wight for an invigorating walk across the highest point of the island from Shanklin to Ventnor. We have also had long walks to Hambledon, Marwell and Goodwood in this last year. As with other U3A activities, we are dependent on people to offer to lead, and we are grateful to Nicole Faith, Jacky Storey, Marly Jones and Roger & Vicky Baker who all led a walk for us for the first time in the last 12 months. We are also pleased to have several other established walk leaders who all lead 1, 2 or more walks every year.
The walking group is open to all Hayling u3a members Well-behaved dogs are usually welcome, just check with the walk leader. So hopefully we will see more of you on our future walks.
Richard North