Henry Moore Studio

19 October. The experienced, seasoned Sally, the planned leader, had an unfortunate fall the day before (she is thankfully  fine now). She asked me if I could lead the walk as I had done the recce with her and had done it again (part of it) with a friend. This was going to be my first ever walk as a leader. I think a few were wondering if we would reach our destination this side of Christmas!

There were two parties. A bus party (of four) who started later, and a party of six who walked from St Margaret. We went through the fairly pretty village of St Margaret and picked up the Hertfordshire way.

Rain and sombre skies …

… and of course rain’s partner, mud, mud, mud.

But the rain eased up after a while

Sally had planned a longish morning, with lunch al fresco as a break, but there was not a tree trunk or a wall or anything to perch on and nobody fancied a standing lunch or very wet picnic. So we soldiered on, meandering among gentle hills and following some rivers (I still have not ascertained their names). Although the rain stopped, the mud and wetness was making the several wooden footbridges we had to cross very slippery.

The inevitable happened. I missed a turning. Thankfully, armed with his app, Richard came to the rescue and confirmed we were indeed off piste …in Wareside. The group decided they preferred to go along the road rather than slipping back in the mud to the planned route. The road had a pavement … and it had the advantage to be mud free. We soon rejoined the point where we would have arrived with the planned route. 

After more meandering (but this time I was quite sure of the way) we arrived at Bourne Lane that took us to Henry Moore sculpture park. By then the sun was venturing out.

We had our lunch in front or indeed on the plinth of the lovely sculpture.

People then wandered around…

… and went to the visitor’s centre for tickets …and tea. And we rejoined the four others from the bus party.

We walked back to  Much Hadham in plenty of time to catch the every two hours bus. The return journey was blissfully uneventful apart from the ones who got off at Tottenham Hale who faced a suspended Victoria line…

Christine M. Thank you to Sigrid for her additional photos …and her enthusiastic cheerleading encouragements