Well, headed off to Warwick at the weekend to meet up with a fellow walker I met on my recent Poland trip. Wasn't quite sure what to expect but in the true spirit of adventure jumped on the train Friday night and headed off for what turned out to be a fantastic weekend.

We had planned to go walking in the Peak District on Saturday but the weather wasn't great and with a two hour drive each way we thought better of it and headed into the Cotsworlds instead. Didn't mind as I haven't walked in either place before. We were joined by another of Emma's friends and headed off, route details in hand, to Ilmington for a gentle 8 mile stroll. And therein lies the fundamental flaw in our plans. We'd found the walk details on the Internet (route 2408 on the Walking Britain site) but didn't have an OS map to accompany it. I had my compass and we had our enthusiasm and optimism and undeterred we made it to the start point, pulled on the boots and headed off.....in the wrong direction. Half an hour later and we were back where we started, well, almost but at least we did, eventually find the first elusive gate. Rejoicing, we strolled across the fields taking in the scenic views or, rather, the mists. We managed the first part of the route surprisingly well from here although I was being taunted in true Pythonesque style by Emma's friend, Neil, who decided he was going to be 'the worst walking group member' he could be, challenging my would-be-walking-leader skills to the max. Thankfully, I knew he was only teasing and the hills were only alive with the sound of laughing for most of the way. We had a great lunch in Ebrington where the local pub is very welcoming to walkers and muddy boots (can recommend the local beer and cheese ploughmans!) and then we headed off once more. The second part of the route took us to Hidcote Manor then up onto the hills and close to the highest point in Warwickshire. Shame the directions weren't exactly clear as we seemed to lose the plot at bit looking for Hidcote Bartrim, which turned out to be a lot further down the road then we had thought. Still, we found the Manor House and other key sites and I learnt a useful skill in navigating with a compass and a dodgy, hand-drawn vague route but with a direction marker, thanks the useful(!) comments of my 'demanding walker'. Mind you, I'm a believer in Karma and later in the day, as we made our way across a very, very muddy bridleway, said walker had close encounter with the clay - in a gentle fashion and without injury, and if we hadn't been incapacitated by our laughter we would have run to his aid - honest! Mind you, Emma and I were starting to resemble hairy footed Dutch Bantams (cute chickens with fairy feet) due to the amount of mud sticky to our boots! As evening began to close in we eventually made it back to our car after resorting to heading for the nearby road and walking back into Ilmington. Somewhere along the last section we had lost it completely and without a map we could only really tell we were heading in vaguely the right direction.

So, what did I learn? First and foremost, that it's great walking with others - haven't laughed so much for ages. And when things go wrong it's great to be able to share the blame - er - work things out together. Second of all, don't try to follow route cards without a proper map BUT if you do have to, as long is there is a directional marker you can still figure out roughly which way you should be heading as long as you have a descent compass and know how to use it. If we had been on the Peaks I would never have attempted to walk without the map but, as it was, we were never far from a road with clear signposts back to town. Thirdly, that routes change. On a couple of occasions we found warning signs warning us to 'stay out', including one very strongly worded and rather scarey notice on what was obviously the footpath - which was why we ended up on the muddy bridleway playing in the mud.

All in all we estimate that we covered closer to 10 miles on Saturday and by the end of it we were happy to head back home ready for a nice meal out in Warwick. Thanks to Emma and Neil for their company, their humour and the occasional bit of help! Looking forward to taking you out on some of my routes! Hee, hee, hee!!!

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