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After yet another week of torrential rain, we weren’t holding out much hope for nice weather for our weekend of beer festivals and walking. But we weren’t going to let Mother Nature rain on our parade… we had Russ and Rachel (Darren’s brother and sister-in-law) coming down for the weekend and we were determined to have fun!
Friday night Darren and I took it easy, ate some pasta, drank beer, chatted (a lot – I love how we can do that) and got a relatively early night. It was good to chill out and wind down at the end of a busy week.
Saturday morning dawned and there was — shock horror — no rain, in fact the sun was peaking around the clouds! It was a relaxed morning waiting for Russ and Rachel to arrive, which they did at lunch time. A quick sandwich and cuppa, and we set off for the Twyford Beer Festival. None of us had been before so we were a little unsure as to how good it would be, but as it turned out it was a good little festival with a tasty selection of ales. The only down side was that the organisers hadn’t anticipated how popular the festival would be, perhaps it was the good weather that drew people out but it was packed and the organisers were soon having to limit the number of beer tokens you could buy. Still we were there for a good couple of hours, standing outside with our brews and drinking in the sun, whilst catching up on what we’d all been up to.
When we had had run out of beer tokens we walked home to freshen up before catching the train into Henley for a couple of pre-dinner bevies in the Angel on the Bridge before a delicious meal at the Spice Merchant.
By 11pm we were all home and in bed catching some zzzzz’s before our planned walk to the top of Watership Down on Sunday. The weather forecast wasn’t looking great; rain, rain and more rain. But when we woke up the rain was nowhere in sight; there was thick cloud cover but no rain. After a hearty breakfast of scrambled egg on English muffins, we jumped in the car and headed for the countryside around Newbury.
Dandelion: [looking at the countryside from Watership Down] O Frith on the hills! He made it all for us!
Hazel: Frith may have made it, but Fiver found it. ~ Richard Adams
The highlight of this great weekend was a walk over Watership Down that fulfilled the childhood dream of a dear friend, family member and lovely lady – Rachel. Rachel had mentioned wanting to do the Watership Down walk sometime ago, but neither Darren nor I realised just how much it meant to her… until we were on the way through the lush green countryside.
I have to be honest, I didn’t even realise that Watership Down was a real place! I haven’t read the book but I watched the film as a child, and my girls enjoy watching it from time to time, so I was intrigued as the next person when I found out you could actually walk the countryside that Richard Adams depicted in his novel and that was sketched faithfully for the animated film. Rachel brought along her copy of the book and inside the cover was a map showing where all the action took place, we were able to find our way over to the North East corner of Watership Down where (if I’m not mistaken) the rabbits made their eventual warren.
There was once a beech tree that stood on the North East corner of the beech hanger on top of Watership Down into which a fan had carved the name “Bigwig” and which had become a place of pilgrimage for fans. Alas it appears the tree was destroyed in a storm but after a bit of googling (thank the Lord for the iphone and google maps) we managed to find the remains of the tree and the beech hanger for Rachel. She was stoked and had her photo taken by the largest tree with her copy of the book.
All in all we walked 6.89 miles and amazingly (despite the poor weather forecast) avoided the rain. A lovely few hours of walking.
After the walk we found what looked like a local pub called the Carnarvon Arms — but turned out to be a Marco Pierre White restaurant/hotel — and settled in for some lunch. The food was delicious and not too pricey given the owner! But I was a little put off by the decor, which consisted of a small zoo of stuffed wildlife. Still, it was nice to take the weight off and enjoy some good grub after the walk!
Back home we all chilled out in front of the TV for a few hours. And despite not having any children with us, we watched How to Train Your Dragon and Madagascar… what are we like!?! Then sleepy after a day of fresh air, exercise and good company, we headed for bed.
Another fabulous weekend!