2016-12-29 52 0

Location

The corner of a field (surrounded by public footpaths/byways) near the village of Barrington, south-west of Cambridge.

Participants

PaintedJaguar
MrsPaintedJaguar
Benjw

Plans

PaintedJaguar and MrsPaintedJaguar plan to get the 1025 train from Ely (1055 at Cambridge) to Shepreth (arriving 1108), and then walk to the hashpoint via the public footpaths to the south-east of Shepreth Wildlife Park and then through the centre of Barrington village. We'd then head to The Royal Oak in Barrington for lunch, before returning to the train station. It's approximately 2.5 miles from the station to the hashpoint via our proposed route, so we'd probably be at the hashpoint around 12:15, and then a further 1.5 miles back to the pub, so, allowing for a bit of faffing time at the hashpoint, we'd be at the pub sometime between 13:00 and 13:15. Others are welcome to join us if they wish to work off the Christmas excesses with a short stroll, and/or then replace the excesses with a pub lunch.

Planned walking route to hashpoint

Just spotted this nearby hashpoint. I'll be at work tomorrow so will, with regret, decline to join you for the stroll and lunch, but I'll do my best to meet you at the hashpoint at 12:15! — Benjw _{talk} 23:38, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

Expedition

PaintedJaguar and MrsPaintedJaguar

It was a classic winter's day: clear skies, low sun and cold (but not too cold). Any ground in shade was still rock solid and covered in overnight frost, whilst any that had been exposed to sun had thawed and returned to excessive mud. For most of our walk there was nobody else around, with only the chimney from the nearby Barrington Cement Works providing an ever-present visual accompaniment. As we got to within a half a mile or so of the hashpoint (where there was alternative road access), we suddenly we started encountering families and dog walkers, who were obviously out for a shorter stroll than ours.

We took a slightly different route to the one we had originally planned, but reached the hashpoint at the corner of the field as expected, making use of a very convenient access point from the adjacent track into the field (for a while as we approached we had been thinking we might have had to cross a ditch). A fallen branch from nearby was inserted into the ground to mark the hashpoint, and a chalk marker message written on one of the nearby trees lining the field. Benjw had texted us to say that he wasn't going to be able to make it at lunchtime after all, so we didn't hang around, and instead headed to the pub. We took one wrong turning around the edge of a field, but made it to the pub without any real difficulty.

Benjw

I had hoped to meet the Jaguars at the hashpoint this lunchtime, but work intervened and I had to come later instead; I must have missed them by about two hours in the end. Unlike them I drove to the hashpoint, as I was coming in my (late) lunch break from work. It was in the corner of a field I'd been past before, while geocaching, so I knew there was a handy parking area very nearby. The field had been planted up, presumably, with tiny grassy plants, but there was plenty of room to step between them to get the hashpoint. I did so. I noticed that what looked like a small tree was located almost exactly at the hashpoint; it was only afterwards, while reading their expedition report, that it occurred to me that it might have been placed there by the Jaguars!

I took the usual photos from the hashpoint, and a series of photos from the path nearby which I managed to stick inexpertly together to make a sort of panorama. The sun was very low and shining through the trees, making for a lovely winter atmosphere. It was a very pleasant day, but unfortunately I couldn't linger, as I had to return to work.