6 showed up. Although 4 had expressed an interest in the full walk to St Ives, we all did the main route with only 1 venturing further, as far as the Hemingfords.

There is still major reconstruction outside the station but we managed to find the onward route ok (probably helped by having the walk's author with us). Before long, we had encountered our first buttercups. The first of many. The afternoon's meadows were truly awash. Other delights included daisies clover, yellow rattle., the occasional butterfly, herons, and a flotilla of little baby geese.

Lunch was taken in the Three Jolly Butchers, a protracted wait, thanks to a retirement party but the food seemed pleasant enough - as was the Orchard Pig cider..

I have memories of Houghton Meadow being interesting with wild flowers and stuff but I found it a bit disappointing. Mainly grass.all the way round with tantalising glimpses of a buttercup meadow on the other bank. Maybe it's rare grass though.

Houghton Mill has reopened and can now be visited without booking. Our lot were more interested in the tea and cake.

Then the rain started, just light rain, but it was there for the afternoon.

On we went, through buttercup meadow after buttercup meadow, past lakes, over countless bridges, until, eventually, Huntingdon was reached. Time for more cider in the George, then home.

That weather - partly sunny am light rain pm

For me, it will be the 09.15 train.

Austen

I'm liking the later start👍

Like the sound of this..anyone else going?

6 on this walk, weather perfect for walking in morning and then really sunny at lunchtime when 2 members of group swam near Houghton Mill. Several other places on afternoon stretch of walk looked possible swimming sites too. Group divided in afternoon with some doing short cut, some long version, some possible extra-long option. Idyllic (even bucolic) scenery, particularly in afternoon - small groups of cows (Holsteins possibly) wandering across water meadows edged with purple loosestrife, rosebay willow herb and (I think) coltsfoot. Sandals fine for walking today though I imagine much of the walk would be very muddy or even under water in winter.

6

I'm pretty sure the yellow flower would be fleabane; coltsfoot is a spring flower. See Peter's nature blog for pictures.

Your coltsfoot was almost certainly common fleabane yes. A lovely flower despite its name and very common in late summer.

Coltsfoot does indeed look similar but is only found in early spring. I have photos of both on Flickr but unfortunately our webmaster's anti-spam measures mean I can't post links to them here. But Google would doubtless bring up good photos of both flowers.

Now I might do the Walk on Sunday. But I can't Guarantee I will. But I just wonder. When we stop at that Pub Restaurant. How much do the prices cost. And when are you going to Download it on PDF. So that we can Download it on our Mobiles?

The menu for the first pub (Three Jolly Butchers) is on their website: http://www.thejollybutchers.co.uk/sunday-restaurant-menu/4561284735

The menu for the 2nd pub (Three Horsehoes Inn) is not available on their website.

5 walkers, according to a comment on the walk's Feedback page.

why did you change it AD ?

is ticket to Huntington very dear?

Rail ticket price enquiry

The full price Day Return ticket is £26 50p. However if you have a railcard, you will get a substantial discount (about £18 if you have a Network Rail Card I think)

The National Rail website will give you full details of prices. There are also a plethora of other web sites (Qjump,Thetrainline and so forth where you might find a better deal).

One of our train aficionados may be able to suggest other ways to save on the fare.

I hope this is helpful,

AD

AD is correct, the best you can do with a railcard is £17.50 from London, or about £13 from Zone 6 if you've got a Freedom Pass. Thameslink and Great Northern have some good value Super Off-Peak Day Returns (eg. £11.55 from London to Huntingdon), but these are only available on weekends and Bank Holidays.

hope to go on this but without Max as he has injured paw. M

are people still going on this ?...supposed to be a gale or something ..

Weather for this walk

Apparently the gales will pass through quickly and will be over by the wee small hours of Wednesday morning.

So providing there's no trees, or other disruptions on the line, I'm intending to go.

I suggest folks check the National Rail web site in the morning before setting out just to be sure.

The Beeb says it'll be a dry and bright in the morning, but a little blustery from midday to 3:00pm with a band of heavy showers starting at about 2:00pm

4 on this walk with the weather as advertised, bright in the morning becoming blustery with half an hour of rain .

Not a walk I'll want to post regularly with road noise from the A14, but nevertheless Wyton, Houghton Mill and the water meadows along the Ouse were well worth the effort

Is it just me or is the 3/10 for a 24.5km, albeit flat, walk a little odd if last week's 31km, with some ups and downs, attracted a wapping 10/10?

Ok, it 's a detail. looks fabulous walk, nice along lots of water. Now see whether my sister from Paris can be persuaded to ditch London galleries for some fresh English countryside with a 'passionate' group of walkers? My daughter was bemused at our intense exchange of opinions online and thought we were passionate. Not a bad reputation to have at all, I think.

Pia: I use a walk's toughness rating (T) to estimate how long a walk will take (not counting stops for lunch and tea). My rule of thumb is to divide the walk length by my normal speed (a moderate 3mph) and add 10 minutes per T. So I'd expect this walk to take me 15/3 = 5 hours plus 3×10 mins = 5½ hours. Last Saturday's walk would have taken me 19/3 + 100 mins = 8 hours. To my mind T should reflect both the amount of climbing and the walk length (because you slow down on longer walks). A few of our walks have anomalous ratings but I would have said that these two were accurately rated. My rule usually works quite well and gives me an idea of which bus/train I'm likely to catch.

Thank you so much for explaining Sean, very helpful.

Little Draculas

Please everyone be careful and vigilant, I found a little Dracula aka a tick burrowed in my leg on Tuesday am which had been there at least since Sat pm, so a good 60 hours. very likely caught on Saturday's fabulous Midhurst walk going through the current high vegetation. I also walked near Chichester on Friday but mostly along coast and canals, so possible but less likely.

It came out spontaneously, having overgorged itself on my sweet blood. I noticed a small black spot, thought it was dried blood from an earlier scratch, but when I put it on the side of the bath, I noticed the 'spot' had little legs and started to move about. yikes! panic! It's given a whole new meaning to little monsters.

After some Googling and lots of frightening prospects mentioned there, took myself to GP who told me to 'wait and see' if a red ring will form around the now vague red mark its bite has left behind; however the ring will only form in 50% of cases of Lyme disease anyway. Has anyone any experience of being bitten by a tick? and should I insist on prophylactic antibiotics? Not keen on those, but Lyme's is a lot worse and there are other frightful diseases possible as well (I won't bore or frighten you here). Let me know if you have any helpful ideas.

Advice: check your body every night for alien blood gorging parasites!!!

The South Downs are known to be a risk area for ticks (and Lyme Disease), Pia, so keep an eye on the red mark as directed by your GP. If it gets wider, I would insist on antibiotics. There is also a test for Lyme Disease but it is notoriously unreliable. I once read a leaflet (in an information box on the South Downs) which said GPs are not well informed about Lyme Disease.

It would be interesting, btw, to know if you were wearing shorts at the time. Or did the tick crawl up your trouser leg? I always walk with my trousers tucked into my socks, though I am not sure how much protection this gives.

I did wear my cut off trousers at 3/4 length on Friday but that was mostly along sea inlet and canals; however on Saturday I wore them at full length more against nettles and thorny bushes; a tick never crossed my mind. however, looking at the speed it walks, it wouldn't have taken him/her 5 min to crawl up my lower leg, where I found it on the shin. so indeed, tucking trousers into socks sounds very wise. and yes, frequent inspections and keeping an eye on my general health will be a good thing to do for the next few weeks.

Thanks for your and some other co-walkers advice by email. The realistic chance of getting something nasty remains low. I just wanted to warn others because it's a countryside hazard that has not been a particularly hot topic recently, unlike long versus short; sea versus land; swim versus walk, pub versus picnic...oh stop it.

Would a 09.22 train not be more sensible?

Austen

NO! me and partner like the 10.22 trian

On the subject of ticks: I've also had a tick from a Saturday walk this year, from the Frant Groombridge area.

No need to worry unduly about them. Lyme disease can usually be shifted by Doxycylcin, which is a mild antibiotic casually prescribed for malaria prophylaxis.

But you do need to watch out for the symptoms, and don't be too confident that the NHS knows what it's doing.

If you are really concerned then if you visit a travel clinic and say you are going to a mild malarial area then they will prescribe Doxycyclin, though to be morally correct you should only be doing this if you really are going to a malarial area.

Andrew

Re train time: It doesn't seem sensible to change the posted train time less than 24 hours beforehand - not everyone does a last minute check of this page. In any case the 09:22 train is too early for the lunch pub on the shorter options.

If you decide to announce that you're getting a different train and invite others to join you, bear in mind that some people are put off by the thought of the group being fragmented right at the start and the prospect of few (if any) companions. But I often catch a later train than the one posted so who am I to complain if others take an earlier one?

From Thursday morning I started to show some of the classic symptons of the start of Lyme's disease: flu-like as in having a red, sore throat, runny nose and light coughing, and feeling a little listless; no red rings though. So off to very sympathetic GP, herself an avid walker, and very keen to prescribe the max 2 weeks of 2x100 mg a day of doxycycline. so hopefully that will nip it in the bud. thanks for all your concerns and excellent advice.

I ll take the 10.22 with my sister from Paris who is keen to meet you all. w'll do the shortish version.

12 sunny with some cloud cover and breeze in the afternoon

The Stats:

3 off the early train (9.22), 9 off the 10.22.

9 walked the long version (24.5 km), 3 the middle one (18.5 km), incl. a guest walker.

4 went swimming (all women), 8 didn't (all men).

Of the 9 off the scheduled train 3 were of British nationality, 6 weren't.

The Nationality mix of the 3 off the early train remains unreported.

All went to the first pub en route, The Three Jolly Butchers, as far as known, which was just fine, with a large garden. 4 had an ice cream stop quayside in St. Ives. Only 1 of those had two scoops though. At least 6 had a tea stop at the NT-owned Houghton Mill (and the 3 medium-length walkers as well, surely?).

This walk suffers a little from road noise close to Huntingdon, and overall from a high tarmac count (those cycle-friendly riverside paths), but is nevertheless a very nice walk on a perfect day for this type of walk: lots of watermeadows, riverside paths, small villages, beautifully placed churches, old bridges, boats, the Hemingford Regatta (between two neighbouring villages), plenty of pretty thatched houses, a detour through a Nature Reserve on a river island in St. Ives (one SWC-stalwart had actually volunteered there to lay down the boardwalks 15 years ago).

Back in Huntingdon there was just about time for a swift one at The George Hotel, before the 19.00 train for all but one of the long walkers off the 10.22 train.