Rusper - The Plough

Bogeys, Balls and Bogs

Tuesday 12 October

Walkers: Farty, T.B. (Vet), Windy, Clat and Judy, (who we shall call Lil ).

Distance: 8 miles - wow

Weather: Perfect for walking - light, bright, and clear, and a temperate temp.

Find of the Walk: an abandoned motor bike -Honda City no less, and a blue ironing board

The others were absent - for all sorts of reasons, but we do know that 12 legs' Mum had a chinese dental appointment - at toof hurty, and Sue has knee problem (get well soon).

Clat doing extreme ironing!

While I am on preliminaries, if a walk is cancelled any week, then the proposed venue for that date will be carried forward to the next walk - a sort of rollover so to speak. Right, now that that is 'sorted' we shall proceed.

And so we did - through the tiny hamlet of Rusper and out , along, and downwards in a southerly direction. Beautiful weather, and the skies (well, full of aircraft mainly, as we were close to LGW ). We encountered some chicken runs, where our new proud parents (Farty and T.B.) oooooo-ed and aaaaaaah-ed over the feathery occupants of the runs. Their new babies are called Marcy, Miranda, and Joanie - and they have settled in well and proving to be a good lay - hmm hmm. We passed Rusper Court Farm, through fields and on into Furze Field, which was in fact a wood, full of firs- and we had to do a zig zag walk, with mushrooms galore, which eventually brought us out onto a farm track.

Along this we stopped for our refreshments by some old farm equipment. All was well, until a dog began to bark generously, and a hippie/hooker/druggie type woman appeared, and said 'can i help you' in a Lurch-type voice. We should have asked for 5 coffees, but said we were stopping for a break, if that was o.k. At this, she just turned round in a ~Stepford Wife fashion and walked away - how odd, and this keeps on happening in these areas around the airport - is it the jet fumes? have they been hit on the head by ice from the wings? or is it just good old-fashioned inter-breeding? We didn't stay long ..............................

Further on we saw lots and lots of pheasants -all getting ready for the shooting season - they have to learn to duck - ha ha ha .

The track led us into urban areas, and a few unsavoury types were encountered. This could be such a pretty area - but it isn't. We were walking beside Ifield Mill Pond - and ended up at the Mill itself (open on the last Sunday in the month). We proceeded up the Rusper Road, and due to some silly signage, ended up in someone's front garden. Retracing our steps, we continued on to the Ifield Golf and Country Club. Determined to claim our right of way we carried on through the car park, where we heard men comparing their bogies (how unsavoury). After the club house, we were soon on the fairway and playing hit and miss with the players who were playing hit and miss with their balls. They missed a few 'cos we found 3 of them once we were on the outside of the course boundaries. A dead tree took T.B.'s attention, and we stumbled on to Stumblehome Farm. Here, Lil stumbled onto some spectacular mud which looked flat and firm - wrong. A very impressive imprint followed, of her boot and her lower leg - a homage to the miners trapped in Chile.

Lil also spotted a deer, and we saw herons, chooks (again) and llamas. A very friendly donkey came over to us, and after giving us a very loud heeeeee-haaaaawing welcome, let us cuddle and stroke him for as long as we wanted. His coat was a bit like a dirty carpet - every time we patted him, he produced clouds of dust.

We were nearing home and picked up the initial part of our outward journey, but this time it was uphill - so the pub was a very welcome sight. The pub serves food all day now, and the landlady was friendly and welcoming. Here are the scores: Food 4 (chips cannot beat Bletchingley), Service 5, Ambulance 5, Value 5. A cracking 19 points.

Next week - Clat and Lil are away so Farty will be letting you know what and where. If she forgets, then please get in touch with her.