A final walk for 2024 saw a dozen of us ignore the discouraging forecasts and meet at Tring for a circular walk to include Aldbury Nowers (a small hill overlooking the vale) and two reservoirs.
The freezing fog that had gripped the country gradually dissipated during the day so while our one high vantage point afforded no views other than swirling mist, later in the day we were treated to a glorious hour with sunlight dancing on the water and the optimists who had come prepared reaching for their sunglasses.
The circuit included the quaint village of Aldbury complete with duck pond and stocks (but sadly no hot water in the village shop’s coffee machine for the caffeine-deprived), a little uphill to work up a suitable appetite, College Lake complete with visitors centre and (by then) much needed caffeine and then a flatter, though somewhat muddier, second half around the edge of Marsworth reservoir. The PR had set the tantalising prospect of such rarities as bitterns but we had to content ourselves with peering myopically at ducks, geese and shags and learning to differentiate coots from moorhens.
A good mid-winter sortie nonetheless, very convivial, as always, and back in good time for trains home well before dark.
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