Riverside Walk 2017

Paddington Bear™ - At Warnham LNR 

This weekend saw the annual Riverside Walk around Horsham's beautiful countryside take place. This fantastic event is run by the Horsham Town Community Partnership and the charity chosen to support in 2017 was Action Medical Research.  The walk began at Horsham Rugby Club and passed through three of the Countryside Teams sites. The first stop was at Chesworth Farm for a well deserved drink and toilet stop. As you can tell from the photos below the blisters had not set in to any of the participants yet!

The Friends of Chesworth Farm Drink Stop

The Friends of Chesworth Farm were on hand to replenish liquids and offer a toilet break before the 250+ participants of all ages carried on their 13-mile mission. From here the throng of walkers, joggers and disabled ramblers meandered their way around the outskirts of Horsham to Warnham Local Nature Reserve where the lunch stop and live music from The Toons were provided and very well received. Paddington Bear™ also made an appearance here to meet and greet and give moral support to the participants, he of course was accompanied by his trusty marmalade sandwich! The 1st Roffey Scout Group also did a fantastic job with providing the range of marquees and tents for the fatigued walkers to enjoy a well-earned perch!

                                                           A well earned lunch break at Warnham LNR

The walkers then continued on their merry way taking in the wonderful countryside and wildflower filled meadows as they neared the end of the trek. Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods was the last of the Countryside Sites that they visited and by now the peleton had diminished somewhat as people started to feel blisters, aches and pains of a hard days exercise! There was still lots of smiley faces which is the main thing and everyone seemed to have enjoyed the day.

Owlbeech Woods - Nearing the end!

This was yet another brilliant event and I would like to congratulate Jane and her team from the Horsham Town Community Partnership for running such an well received event. In total over £1500 was raised for a very worthwhile charity by the walkers with Frank Talbot raising over £800 on his own! What a star! A truly brilliant effort by all and a pleasure to be involved with the event once more.

WELL DONE WALKERS!!!