After a splendid New Year’s Eve party, hosted again by Dave and Pauline, we decided on a walk for Monday 2nd January 2006. This was arranged by Dave C and resulted in meeting at Castle Square in Melbourne.

After “booting up”, we proceeded to walk to Breedon via Melbourne Pool. We picked up the footpath at the end of the pool and skirted Quarry Wood. The going was pretty muddy underfoot but the weather was fine. We eventually crossed the small stream at Paddock Pool and climbed up the incline through Gorse Covert. It was then a muddy walk to the edge of the golf course.

Kelvin instructed us to look out for stray golf balls for his collection. One ball was quickly found, the second took a little longer. On finding the second ball it was deemed too difficult to retrieve due to a particularly hostile hawthorn hedge. Undeterred by this problem Ged, decided to “go for it”. He managed to dislodge the ball and Dave M retrieved it from the other side of the hedge. Ged then started to extricate himself from said hedge and emerged with a bloody ear and scalp. This mishap required major surgery, consisting of a good slug of scotch from Kelvin’s hip flask. This was carried out during our snack break on Breedon village green. We continued up the hill out of Breedon and met the golf course again, finally making our way back to Melbourne.

We visited the Crewe and Harpur for debriefing and a welcome pint. This finished off a very enjoyable walk of approximately 4.5 miles. Our thanks to Dave C for arranging it.

Ged Archer