Asri – our eldest – asked me to help out with her first Langtree sponsored walk. This is a walk they do every year, where the entire school goes on a hike in the surrounding Chilterns countryside. And when I say the entire school, I mean the entire school! All of years 7 to 11 take part to raise needed funds for the school.
When she asked me if I’d help out I said that if I was going to take a day off then I’d really like to do the walk, and not just stand at a marshal point round the route. Thankfully they agreed – phew! – and so I ended up manning the first marshal point with Alistair (one of the TAs) and once everyone had passed we walked behind at the back picking up any dropped litter.
Each year group set off from the school with a 15 minute gap between them and by the time the year 11 group – the last group – went by and we started walking it was 10:45am.
One thing that made me laugh as we waved the groups up the road was how unprepared some of them looked, especially the Year 11 girls. Knowing the route we would be taking and the woods we’d be strolling through, there was no way that their chosen plimsoles would survive the walk unscathed!
The weather was fantastic and Alistair and I had a riot at the back playing with the litter pickers. Clearly we were both on the same mental level – about 5 years old! – and we had a lot of fun pretending they were guns, looking for “Charlie” in the corn fields, and generally being completely silly.
We even made some “modern art”, balancing sticks on a tree – using the litter pickers, not our hands – finishing it off with a large branch that needed us both to pick it up. We did it though!
The countryside was lovely. I’d walked a lot of the paths we were taking before. Not all of them though so it was nice to see something new in the woods/fields surrounding the village.
I was pleasantly surprised how well behaved the children were, and also shocked at how little litter we had to pick up. I think we actually picked up more litter that was already on the paths, i.e. not dropped by the children. Alistair and I both agreed though that it was probably a good idea because someone would more than likely blame it on the children knowing that they’d been through that day.
As expected the woods were pretty wet and slippery with thick mud in places. I had a little laugh to myself knowing some of the shoes the children were wearing. Asri had her proper walking boots on so she would have been fine.
With all of the check points, where the children had to be ticked off as being present, and the hold-ups at gates, it was a much slower pace than one of my normal walks but after 4 hours of walking we made it back to the school.
Asri picked up a couple of blisters along the way but she made it round without too many problems. I don’t think the blisters helped with the enjoyment levels much though. Proud of her for getting to the end though! She wasn’t happy to find out that she’d have to do it every year for another four years though, bless her.
It was a great day out. Roll on the next one!
Photos
Route Details
If you’re interested you can download the KML file and/or GPX file of the plotted route. Please be aware though that the route was hand-plotted and so may not be 100% accurate.
Walk Statistics
| Miles | Start (HH:MM) | Finish (HH:MM) | Breaks (HH:MM) | Walking (HH:MM) | Pace (MPH) | Steps Taken |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.64 | 10:45 | 15:05 | 00:20 | 04:00 | 2.16 | 20,291 |
Route Map
Elevation Details
| Start Elavation (m) | End Elavation (m) | Max Elevation (m) | Min Elevation (m) | Total Climb (m) | Total Descent (m) | Climbs on Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 165 | 165 | 186 | 96 | 188 | -188 | 0 |
More information about climb ratings can be found at Map My Walk.