Walk Parties

Nicholas Albery

This is my suggestion for a cheaper, simpler, healthier alternative to a dinner or drinks party, and one that I find suits all ages from about 9 to 75: for the last two or three years I have organised a walk party for almost every Saturday. On Mondays I spend some three quarters of an hour sending out to about 25 friends (and to people I need to meet for work reasons) an invitation to a walk, within an hour or so by train from London. I send them a photocopy of the walk details and a map - normally culled from one of the walk books (the best is the 'Which?' book of walks), or from looking at possible footpaths in the Ordnance Survey. We go rain or shine, and normally there are between 4 and 17 of us, the numbers depending mainly on the weather.

'A cheaper, simpler, healthier alternative to a dinner party, and one suited to any ages from about 9 to 75'

We tend to walk about 8 miles, stopping for lunch at a pub and having a cream tea somewhere afterwards. It is a wonderful day out, with the walking stimulating conversation and an anarchic spirit. Sometimes we have medium fast walks just for the adults, and other times leisurely rambles, accompanied by dogs, children, even babies, and (once) a parrot. Since everyone pays their own way, my total outlay each week in organising the party is about L7-50 for stamps, envelopes, labels and photo-copying. It has to be a Saturday not a Sunday, as there often seem to be engineering works on the railways on Sunday and the pubs tend not to serve meals.

Nicholas Albery, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 081 208 2853; fax 081 452 6434).

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