Rotary Walk from the Royal Oak, Cogenhoe

Rotary Walk

THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2018

THE ROYAL OAK

Whiston Road, Cogenhoe, Northampton NN7 1NJ

01604 890922

Meet at 10:15, as usual, for the walk

Through wildlife woods, across fields, through a quarry and down Jerusalem steps, but no stiles.

Brian Dickens

Rotary Walk from The Royal Oak, Cogenhoe

I set off for Cogenhoe with the windscreen wipers going, wondering just how wet was this walk going to be.

The nearer I got the less they wiped until they finally stopped. Result!

The seven hardy souls, plus Charlie the dog, assembled in the car park and following the elf and safely talk were on our way down the hill towards Castle Ashby. Carefully crossing the road we headed through the fields towards Cogenhoe pocket park, a densely wooded area on a hillside with a number of streams and dog walkers.

On exiting the park we proceeded around several recently harvested wheat fields until we arrived at the top of a flight of steps which the recent rain had made quite treacherous.  Were these the famous Jerusalem steps which we were promised at the outset?  Possibly. Either way we were relieved to all make it to the bottom safely.

Skirting round several more fields we arrived slightly disoriented at the foot of another flight of familiar looking steps.  Were these the same steps we had already negotiated?  Had Brian led us round in a circle? Are there two sets of steps leading to Jerusalem?  Don’t ask me or Brian for that matter.  Nobody knows!

Arriving at the top of the steps we gathered our breath and set off around several more fields, playing spot the blackberries and sloes in the hedgerows. Peter and Neil were quite keen to return on a berry picking expedition, even though the chances of them finding them again seemed a bit remote.

We eventually arrived back at the road and with a final slog up hill made it back to the pub, for a welcome pint and a delicious steak pie, as recommended by John Evitt.  There only remained the small matter of presenting the walker of the month trophy, which Brian May had kindly delegated to your scribe, who had no hesitation in presenting it to our walkmeister, who had organised an interesting walk as well as some mild dry weather.

David Allitt