News
A year ago, we were in the middle of a month-long national lockdown when we held our first ever virtual AGM.
We restarted our Walks Programme on 2 December 2020 only to close it down just a few days into our Festival of Winter Walks on 26 December.
Optimistically we prepared our March to June 2021 Walks programme, even though we were still in lockdown. Frances worked her magic again to produce an interesting newsletter including booking forms for events that we had no idea if they would happen. Ramblers kept us on hold until 24 March when they announced that we could restart on 29 March. The committee felt this was too short notice and decided to opt for a restart date of 14 April. This gave time for Walk Leaders to prepare and allowed for booking to take place. We had a very successful restart averaging 15 walkers over 23 walks in the first four weeks.
Our Ramblers year started off so well. We had a fantastic run-up to Christmas with two Christmas Lunches and Festive Refreshments with Jan and Paul, including a sing song with the G&H pop-up choir. Our Festival of Winter Walks was well supported with 11 walks and an average attendance of 22. We enjoyed our New Year Lunch, a walk in Fitzrovia and a Quiz night. At the end of February our membership was at 447, three away from our target. The Walks Programme was in fine form with the potential for 275 walks being offered in the year and then everything stopped.
When lockdown began, we roamed alone from home. Once strict lockdown eased many members joined together in informal walking groups of six. One member, Keith, continued to follow the walks programme as a solitary walker.
The Walks Programme is our major achievement where we have offered 255 walks and had 4,438 people out walking. Our two Wednesday long walks continue to be the mainstay of our programme. These were joined last year by a third, shorter more leisurely paced walk that has attracted a strong following. Thursday morning walks continue to be popular and we have increased our Sunday walks with a morning walk every week and an additional long walk every other week. Our Friday summer evening walks were not well attended this year and we plan to re-launch them as Friday evening pub walks next year. We also enjoyed a number of special walks such as on the IOW, a breakfast walk, a supper walk, Secret London and a number of walks ending with Christmas or New Year Lunches. We also hosted London Blind Ramblers in June.
The Ramblers recently introduced free first aid courses for members. These are run by the St John Ambulance and are tailor-made for walkers.
On a hot day at the end of July I went on the first one to be held in Guildford. Places were limited to twelve and the course was soon fully booked. It took place in the SJA HQ and lasted three and a half hours with a ten minute break in the middle. Five from G&H attended. The venue was spacious and comfortable; good air conditioning ensured that we stayed awake.