This is the most relaxed of the three groups, and our walks are short, in the range of 2 to 3 miles. We have many long-standing club members in this group who once did the long walks. That said, we like to make everyone welcome who comes along, and we are by no means a closed group. We are very social, and the emphasis is on having an enjoyable time together rather than achieving a particular distance in a particular time.
We always start by meeting at the Bath Hill East car park in Keynsham (which is free on a Saturday). From there, we drive to our start location, with sharing of lifts. Some of our members do not drive, and so they will always rely on having a lift, which is an integral part of the way we run things. And we always start here in case we need to switch location at the last minute for whatever reason. (Some of our members are not on the Internet and do not have e-mail, for example, and can be difficult to contact at short notice.)
We usually start by having a coffee together before setting off on what often feels more like a guided tour. Some of our members are quite knowledgeable of the local area, and we enjoy hearing about the history and other interesting information. Many of our walks are exclusively on tarmac, and this benefits people using wheeled assistance. The pace is gentle but not frustratingly slow; we do need to cover the distance in a sensible amount of time.
Afterwards, we almost always have lunch together at a pub (or café or farm shop). If the weather is bad, we still typically meet and go out to walk when things clear up a bit. We have been known to spend the whole morning in a café when it has been bucketing down the entire time, but this really doesn’t happen very often.
Our numbers do vary, but we have found this group to be quite popular, and we sometimes have as many as 18. This does not detract from the atmosphere of the group, though.
We do not have dogs on these walks.
If you are reading this with someone else in mind, be assured that Internet access is not a requirement for taking part in this group, and they will not be alone in this regard.