Evesham Ramblers :"Isbourne way part 3" 19 July 2026

6.6 miles. Start 1000 end 1320
 

Malvern Footpath: "Martley North and West" 18 July 2026

 9.1 miles 4 hours 20 minutes

Railtrail 3: Honeybourne to Evesham Reccy 17 July 2026

 As I was guiding this walk in mid August it seemed a good idea to do a reccy. Due to the current unreliability of GWR I decided that I would do the published route in reverse. So i went to Honeybourne and started it there

The walk goes through the centre of the strawberry farm which had lots of strawberries very few of which were ripe (by design?). The fleet Inn in was passed in Bretforton, then  through Badsey and the orchards then through Evesham to the station

I only met 5 people on the route, including an American trio who were off to the Fleet for lunch before flying home

7.8 miles in 3 hours. 

Worcester Ramblers: Powick Circular 16 July 2026

 I volunteered  to lead this walk, which should have been easy as it was done on May 2 by the Saturday group, It was not to be THAT easy!

I did a reccy on July 10. The steps down the west end of ham hill (part of the 3 choirs way!), which had been challenging on may 2 were impassable due head high brambles and nettles. I devised a diversion via ham lane, but that had the same problem, making it impassable for a group, so I retreated

I returned on July 13 to try another route, bypassing Powick. by going down old malvern road. The first footpath was blocked by a locked gate, but even overcoming that the footpath was non existent. Following the route on the OS map it came to a halt when blocked by an enormously wide/high/deep blackbeery coppice. A retreat was made and the second footpath nothbound tried. This allowed the route the to be completed even though the steep descent of ham hill was challenging

By the time the walk started on 16 July the temperature was more tolerable than the previous 7 days and the walk was completed without incident by 16 walkers despite the overgrown undergrowth in places

Worcester Ramblers: Railtrail 2: Pershore to Evesham 27 June 2026

 We met at Evesham station at 0930. We were met with walkers from the Evesham walking festival who were catching the train for a walk in the other direction, Unfortunately their train was cancelled before we left at 0935 for  Pershore. The good news was that the ticket machine at Pershore had been fixed and one can now buy a one day parking ticket!

There was  a headwind so the heat was less of an issue. The biggest challenge was attracting the attention of the ferryman who was on the opposite bank. We did start the alternate route into Evesham but that was so overgrown to make it unusable. Luckily I heard the sound of chains behind us as the ferry man brought the ferry across to our side!

9.3 miles 4 hours

Worcester Ramblers: Eastnor Park and Gospel Oak 23 April 2026

 This was my second walk as walk leader for Worcester Ramblers. 

We started at Swinyard car park promptly at 1000 (despite the parking ticket machine being faulty) and walked up past the Gullett Quarry to the Obelisk on the Eastnor estate. 

Continuing across the estate we passed the new addition, part of the Berlin wall! This was chosen as the coffee break

The walk then continued out to the railway tunnel to Ledbury entrance,  along the Ridgeway and back over the Malverns through News wood , passing the Pink cottage back to the car park (to be greeted by the sight of the car park machine being fixed....obviously the number of phone calls they got earlier in the morning forced them into action!). Some of us went to the Duke of York pub again for lunch

Total 6.8 miles

Railtrail Foregate Street to Pershore 18 April 2026

 I decided it was time to revisit the Cotswold line Rail Trails and offer it as a Saturday Walk to the Worcester Ramblers. The first leg would be a merging of the Foregate street to Parkway and Parkway to Pershore routes to form a Foregate street to Pershore route, as was originally done during the Malvern Walking Festival in 2023

A reccy in late February showed there was a diversion near Millhouse (Peopleton) as the wooden bridge was closed for 6 months to be repaired. Fortunately Worcestershire CC confirmed 3 days before the walk that the repairs were completed before Easter so the detour would not be needed

Four of us parked at Pershore station (actually in Pinvin! but beware, the GWR ticket machine on the platform only sells weekly Parking tickets for £20!!) We caught the train to Foregate street and met up with another 3 walkers.starting the walk at 0920

The route took us out of Worceter via the Country Park (coffee break)  to Lunch which was had at the lake near Peartrees  listening to the birdsong. The route then continued through Peopleton to Pershore station arriving at 1420, just in time for those who wanted to catch the train back to Worcester

11.8 miles

Second attempt to Reach the Canadian Lancaster Crash site 26 March 2026

After spending the previous day walking the four waterfalls dodging the hail storms the weather turned fine so I decided to have another go at reaching the Canadian Lancaster crash site. To avoid the need to wade across the stream again I decided to start from the Talybont reservoir 

The route starts with walking up Twyn Du then it is fairly flat until you reach Carn Pica where you are greeted with a steep walk up some steps to the marker.

Continuing along Waun Rydd you turn left at the pathway intersection to the Memorial which can be seen glinting in the distance

There are a lot of aircraft pieces still on site (the engine rolled down the hill!)

Having got to 700m i decided to keep walking at this altitude going along Graig Fal Las turning right at the Cairn to cross the very Boggy path to Craig cwmoergwm, The views of the snow capped big 3 was impressive but i decided to go to Fan y big (which i had previously visited up the very steep Western slope) for Lunch

I took a different route back along the ridge at Craig Cwareli and Bwlch y Ddwyallt with fine views of breacon and Sugar Loaf Mountain nearer Abergavenny before descending back to the reservoir down Cairn Pica

7 hours 15.4 miles total ascent 3200'

Four waterfalls and Porth Yr Ogof Cave 25 March 2026

 As the forecast looked to be continuing damp, and not wanting a repeat of the previous days conditions i decided to go and visit the four waterfalls trail. Having a lot of trees it would at least be sheltered

I went to the Cwm Porth Car park  (very efficient parking machine in the middle of nowhere...they use Starlink!) where the attendant was just setting up for the rush starting at Easter. He was very helpful and suggested a route which would visit all 4 waterfalls , including avoiding the path closure

The four waterfalls are Sgwd Clun-Gwyn, Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn, Sgwd y Pannwr and Sgwd yr Eira. The first three waterfalls are on the Afon Mellte (Mellte River) while the last is on the Afon Hepste (Hepste River).

After walking along the well signposted  track from the car park enduring two hailstorms, Sgwd yr Eira, (the ‘waterfall of snow) was visited first as you can actually walk behind the water sheet  and I wanted to avoid the crowds. Need not have worried there were just 3 of us and a dog there!

After walking behind the waterfall

Working Northwards Sgwd y Pannwr was next walking through another hail storm!

Sgwd y Pannwr

Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn was next although it was a bit hard to see as the footpath that goes by it was closed. This resulted in walking from Sgwd y Pannwr to a deadend then walking back again

Sgwd Clun-Gwyn was the last waterfall 

I then returned along the trail to the car park 

7.44 miles 3.5 hours

Having finished my HF holidays picnic i discovered there were caves nearby at Porth Yr Ogof which has the widest opening of any cave in Wales so I decided on an afternoon walk especially as it was now sunny blue skies!

Inside the cave

Outside the cave

First attempt to get to the Canadian Lancaster crash site 24 March 2026

 

This walk was to see  the Memorial on Waun Rydd marking the location of the 1945 crash of a Canadian Lancaster

The weather was damp but it shouldnt get any worse according to the forecast. I parked at Blaen y Glyn Isaf upper car park and walked down to the stream at Blaen y Glyn walking up towards the waterfalls. There was no safe way to cross the stream when the path changed sides so i had to remove boots and paddle across! I left the stream and headed up the slope to the Cairn at Gwalciau'r Cwym. The rain then got worse accompanied by high wind making it difficult to see through my spectacles. It would only get worse as I got higher so the decision was made to retreat (before reaching the Cairn) I took a shortcut across Waun y Gorlan back to the stream and after removing footwear again to cross the river returned to the car park for Lunch . The crash site would have to wait!

5 miles in 3 hours