Saturday 1 April 2023 - A brief visit to the TGO Challengers' Spring Reunion in Hayfield

Sue and I turned up at the Sportsman Inn at around 4:30pm, expecting to find some Challengers in the bar. It seemed that our own booking had gone adrift somewhere, so our early arrival was fortuitous in that we were able to add onto the 24 already booked in for a meal without difficulty. Louise and the other staff here were excellent, dealing with several largish parties with aplomb.

No other Challengers were there.

So we walked up the road 2km to have a look at Kinder Reservoir, which appears healthily full just now. We perused some information provided at the time of its centenary. Either the 'clean-up' team is good, or the graffiti artists haven't got this far yet...

Click on the image for a readable version

After admiring the views, we set off back down to the pub, taking a pleasant woodland path for some of the way. It was lined with an inconspicuous carpet of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage plants.

The Sportsman was regained, and to our amazement it wasn't until after 6:30 that the other Challengers started to drift in for our 7:30 meal.

I was too lazy to get up and take photos of all 26 attendees. Here's our table though - Ali, Alistair, David, and two Sues. My new phone does appear to take better low-light pictures than the old one.

The late arrivals were due to most of the attendees going on Graham's walk, which whilst not particularly long proved to be an exhausting experience for some of the aging breed of Challenger...

We do hope that those of us who are entered will be able to cope with the real thing in May.