25th: Last evening walk of summer
Well it was already growing dark at 7pm as we picked up our boots
to set off for the last Wednesday evening walk of 2010. Then as we
stepped out of the house the first raindrops fell. But we thought "we
cannot let Steve down, he has already been soaked when he rehearsed the
walk last week."
We arrived at Bramhall Park to find that others had turned out
despite the bad forecast. However it was not raining yet so we assembled
to be given our instructions.
It had been advertised as "Map, Compass, Torch and Treasure" so we
suspected that this would not be an easy, follow the leader, stroll
around the park. And we were right. Steve divided us into teams of 5 and
handed us a sheet of instructions before sending us off at five minute
intervals so that we couldn't cheat. We had to follow the directions,
take compass bearings and answer a few questions as we walked the route.
Some of the questions were easy - who is the bench dedicated to? how
many trees on the little island (if I was setting the questions I would
have asked "how many ducks on the island!!) and so on. Some trick
directions added to the fun - if we turn left we go uphill, not down -
but by reading ahead to later clues we deduced that if we turn RIGHT and
downhill we would come to the lake.
Every now and then we met another group who had either got lost or
had directions which led them in the opposite direction to us or we met
Steve who kept popping out from behind trees to see how we were getting
on.
So far so good but now the directions led us out of the safety of
the park and onto other footpaths and it was growing darker by the
minute (thankfully the rain held off so at least we are staying dry).
Just as our eyes were adjusting to the dark, someone who shall remain
nameless switched on her torch and we lost our night vision!
But we continued until the path seemed to come to a dead end - we
had missed the footbridge, it was getting late, we were getting thirsty -
so we turned back, and met a group that had set off before us coming
the other way! Bravely they decided to continue as we headed back to the
start. Before long we saw torches ahead - the other group had succeeded
in finding the correct route (but only because they met some dog
walkers coming down the hill from the footbridge - so we had not reached
it after all).
Before long we met everyone else back at the Hall, all safely returned.
And now for the really tricky part of the evening - finding the pub
from various sets of directions. But we got there in the end.
thanks Steve for a very good evening - maybe do one in daylight next year?
But hang on a minute - where was the treasure????
