SPRING WALK APRIL 2008
What to wear, oh, what
to wear!
No, not a great ball
or other formal function, something FAR more important – the Spring Walk. And fashion was not the issue! Having had torrential rain the previous week
followed by bitter cold on the Saturday the decision was how heavy a coat or
waterproof should be worn. The day
started cool with mist but by the time we met up with the assembled company it
was bright sunshine and quite warm, such that we left our coats in the
car. Having walked along Hunts Heath
several times we were prepared with walking boots and gaiters, necessary even
on the driest days since some areas are extremely boggy.
As ever, members of the public stopped
and gawped at the mass of 17 red and white spaniels plus 2 honorary Welshies
(cockers) leading their owners and other family off for some exercise. Of course, there was a great deal of
chatteration amongst the humans – after all, we have
so much in common. The going was good to
soft with patches of sticky mud to be navigated – or in the case of most of the
dogs, run straight through with owners bewailing the loss of pristine
coat. Ruth had set up a checking system
– she led at the front, Charles and Richard were floating whippers-in with
Fran, Andrew and myself as Tail End Charlies. There were only a couple of dogs that had a
desire to run back the way they had come but were fielded successfully.
Several of the dogs took great delight in
throwing themselves into the various streams we crossed – fortunately not
shaking too close to the walkers. At the
ford there were several attempts to get the spaniels to swim across, generally
with notable failure. This caused mild consternation
to one rider whose horse categorically would not enter into the seething water
with so many fellow bathers. One old
chap (13years) decided that he would rather stay in the water rather than
return to the crowd but was gently encouraged to leave his play area.
Arriving back at the town we strode
purposefully towards the Methodist Church Hall where a surfeit of goodies were
laid out – cakes, biscuits galore – not to mention the cream gateau that came
all the way from Ely. The dogs tried
their best, but only a few managed to persuade their humans to hand over tit-bits. Cups of tea, good company, plenty of
dogs…….what more could any canine fan want.
The best compliment I heard was from one of the
cocker spaniel owners, she would like to join the Club just to do the walk each
year!
Catherine Jackson