Saturday 1 March 2025 - Severn Bridge parkrun

As we were staying nearby, it would have been inappropriate not to take part in a local parkrun. This one promised to be a bit different. We assembled in a huge underpass tunnel for the 250th running of this event.
 

The briefing turned out to be inaudible. Not to worry, we know the score. Except that in this case it wasn't clear where we started. Anyway we made our way up a long ramp, at the top of which I set my watch - nearly a minute behind the people who went through the start first. Never mind.

The mist slowly cleared as we ran over the bridge to a turnaround point.

On the return leg I met Carol and Melinda, who were walking, so as to conserve energy for the walk that followed.

After the run, Sue B kept warm by jogging out to join Carol and Melinda. They are pictured below descending the ramp up which we queued at the start. We made for quite a large welcoming party.

The finish is in the tunnel, where Keith has just cheered through the two walkers.

Someone kindly took this group photo before we all adjourned for breakfast in the Chatterbox Cafe.

The 5km route is shown below, the green blob being my interpretation of the start, and the red blob is the finish. (Click on the image for a better version - as always). The full results are here.

Here are our team's results. There's not much data for Melinda as she didn't have a bar code with her.

Friday 28 February 2025 - May Hill

For a second walk of the day, Sue and I stopped in May Hill Village and enjoyed a stroll up and down May Hill. A very pleasant clockwise circuit on a warm, sunny afternoon.

More woodland paths, similar in many ways to the ones we had enjoyed earlier in the Clent Hills.

Near or at the 296 metre summit, a trig point on the edge of a small wood.

Time for a coffee and cake break.

We continued over the crest of the hill and headed back down via some nice forestry paths in Newent Woods, eventually reaching the village hall where we should have parked - there was lots more room than in the muddy spot we chose a bit further down the hill.

There are lots of road/pathside flowers just now, mainly snowdrops and also lesser celendine and wood anemones. It's very spring like as we move into March.

Here's our route - 6km with 200 metres ascent, taking about a leisurely hour and a half.

Friday 28 February 2025 - Walton Hill

This was a little more than an hour's walk from a National Trust car park (Nimmings Wood) and cafe in the Clent Hills. Just a short break on a journey further south, a few minutes to the west of Juncion 3 on the M5.

I set off on an anticlockwise circuit and soon came across Phil and two Sues. By coincidence they were doing a similar walk in the opposite direction.

I left them to their snacks and continued on from the viewpoint that provides fine views over the Midlands. Albeit rather hazy views today.

A little further up the hill I encountered The Four Stones. These  may look ancient and mysterious, but they were actually created in the eighteenth century for Lord Lyttleton as a folly to be viewed by visitors from down in the valley. 

My 5km circuit followed undulating paths like the one in the next two pictures.

There's a trig point on the 315 metre summit of Walton Hill. I'm still not good at selfies.

A broad path led back to the car park, where Sue was waiting and a latte and a cheese toastie went down well before our journeys continued.

Here's my route - 5.6km with 200 metres ascent, taking little more than an hour.