As Ramblers UK celebrates 90 years of campaigning and rambling, the dry and warm start to our UK summer this year has lent itself to perfect walking conditions. The mud and rain of summer 2024 have (at the time of writing!) been replaced by clear skies and dry paths, making the countryside a joy to walk through. In Winchester, your local Ramblers Group is marking this 90th year with a series of special events: we invited the public to join us on a series of Walks with Artists on the South Downs in April and May, and laid on a free Walking Weekend in June, both of which were a huge hit with local residents and visitors alike. Next in line, a mini-festival of free Jane Austen walks will take place in early August, in places where Hampshire’s famous author lived, wrote, and walked.
As well as the regular programme of 140 walks we have put on this year already, we’ve also been out monitoring the condition of our local footpaths across the 30 parishes in our area, and taking action to report or fix problems that we come across. We always welcome volunteers who can help by “adopting a parish” to keep an eye on, or get directly involved in path maintenance, but everyone can help by simply reporting rights of way problems that they come across (and view existing issues) in Hampshire by visiting:
www.hants.gov.uk/landplanningandenvironment/rightsofway/reportaproblem
Winchester Ramblers will continue to run our programme of 6 walks a week throughout the rest of the summer, locally and further afield, from 3 miles up to 15 miles. We are always open to new walkers, so why not come along and discover the beauty of the Hampshire countryside, enjoy the health benefits of walking and being outdoors, and maybe make some new friends along the way”. You can come with us for three walks before deciding whether to take out a Ramblers membership and join your local Group. We also organise walking holidays and other events for our members, and members can choose to walk with Ramblers Groups all over the country, as often as they like.
Details of Ramblers, our upcoming walks, and recommended routes all across the UK can be found at Ramblers.org.uk. Make the most of this summer – it won’t last forever!
