The rain it raineth…
The recently re-started LALG trailwalkers group have managed 3 walks in utterly glorious weather, over the past few months. It had to change I suppose. My goodness it did, Tuesday 14th September dawned wet, very, very wet, so wet; that apparently a month’s rain fell in the one day.
Suffice to say, 8 trailwalkers met at Little Wymondley, for 09:45 and put on full wet weather gear (it can’t be called waterproofs, as in this case, over the walk no-one remained dry, the challenge was too great for even the best gear) ready to head off on our first leg of the Hertfordshire Way.
The Hertfordshire Way is a 195-mile circular route. The map below shows the route and the sections to be walked over the course of the next year. We were heading the “wrong way round” starting at section 2, Little Wymondley to Wallington as this is within easy reach of Letchworth Garden City. Chris was our guide once again, with Ken, from the “Friends of Hertfordshire Way” joining us and also guiding.
Before we set off, we congregated in the road for a group snap, thanks so much to the floor covering van driver who pulled-up on the junction and took a snap, hanging out of his window, not leaving the warm/dry van (I did say it was very, very wet). The route takes us under the A1M, (underpass for a break from the rain) to Graveley, then through "Forster Country" to Weston past very soggy Alpacas in the fields, using the Churchyard for lunch. Thanks to Weston Church for having a large, open and dry porch, in which we sought sanctuary from the incessant downpour and were able to consume our lunch in the dry.
In the churchyard is the famous grave of the local giant Jack-o-Legs. The legend states that he was a ruthless robber of travellers, when the men of Baldock finally caught him near their town, before they slew him (no trial for him when caught in the act) They granted his request that they would bury him where an arrow, which he shot from his bow, fell. The arrow soared three miles to Weston and glanced off the church tower to rest where you now find his giant grave. It is approx. 14’ in length, so a very tall giant indeed…
The walk then moves on out of Weston, across beautiful countryside of rolling hills, fields and woods to Wallington. One field particularly challenging as it had recently been ploughed and all of us ended-up looking like "old school" deep sea divers, with masses of extra weight and volume on the bottom of our boots. We did enjoy a feast of local blackberries, which rejuvenated us all post the clay and straw clinging to our boots for 400 yards. We finished up a few metres from where George Orwell lived in a small cottage for 4 years. It is said that the farm close by was the inspiration for Animal Farm, so quite a literary and local mythological walk.
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