After a long period of rain, it was decided that for this Survey Walk we would revisit Walk no.1 in the Survey Walk Pack, the object being to limit the amount of unpaved paths traversed - but unfortunately, life's not like that!

Starting next to the Scout Hall at the end of the Barn car park, the 7 participants walked south to the Middle path and followed that eastwards, eventually ending up at the junction of Meadow Road and Old Street. On the way we found a slightly overgrown hedge, the protruding brambles of which we trimmed back, and a couple of fences in need of attention.

Turning left, the route took us to the Town Council offices where we turned right to take us up to the Cinder Path behind Highdale Avenue. The signage on the path by the Town Council offices has not improved since our previous walk up there last autumn.

Working our way up to and along Old Park Road, we admired a very tall Aloe Vera plant, before proceeding via Kings Road and The Avenue to the Golf Club, where our problems started. Firstly the path starting at the entrance to the Golf Club car park was very churned up by farm vehicles, and when we ventured along the footpath towards the coast path, it was very muddy and the steps down were in no better state than the last time we walked this path in 2019.

The icing on the cake was the closure of the Coast Path past Ladye Bay, the diversion of which required that we return on the path just taken...

A 4.25 mile walk with was ended in Teatro Lounge for some well-deserved lunch.

Report by Jeff Eastmond
Photos by Jeff, Veronica Hobbs and Jenny Ellis