Ramblers
75 Years of Ramblers – let’s do Kinder again
The Manchester and Salford Ramblers like a good celebration. One of the newest groups in the country looking forward to celebrating 75 years. We’d had our exhibition in February, which had been a great success, and collected lots of material about the Kinder Trespass. April was our baton month so we thought “why not do it again” and chose the 24th April - by chance the actual anniversary date of the original trespass.
So – good idea what to do next? We met up with our friends in Get Walking Keep Walking because we wanted to bring in some of their walkers too. We agreed two walks – one up Kinder and one round the reservoir for people who wanted to join in with the celebratory spirit of the walk but who could not manage the strenuous climb up Kinder. One of our members, Stewart, a hardy walker had done Kinder several times and agreed to lead the walk.
We had no idea how many people would be interested. GWKW printed off flyers for us which we sent to all members of the Area with our spring mailing. We booked a coach. Two weeks before we were prepared to cancel the coach and hire a mini bus so few people wanted to join the coach. But we did get lots of media coverage (thanks to Ramblers Central Office for doing this for us) and the phone calls came in thick and fast and we filled our coach.
The day dawned bright and sunny. What a day to tackle Kinder. Mags welcomed people to the coach.
“Everyone was really excited about tackling Kinder and the atmosphere on the coach and walk was great,” she said. “35 of us arrived in the coach and the other 60 or so had made their own way there. We were very keen to get to the top and unfurl our birthday banner”.
70 went up to the top and some did struggle but finally made it, while others did the 7 mile scenic walk around the reservoir with Netty, one of the Get Walking Keep Walking outreach workers.
We had lots of positive comments on the day, including:
"I was really surprised by the number of people who wanted to climb up Kinder which just shows the enthusiasm and determination amongst us on the day." (Mags)
“I think the one thing I felt about the lower walk is that we had a real mix of people from Get Walking and the Ramblers alike. Everyone mixed well and looked out for each other no matter what their walking ability or experience.” (Netty)
“It’s a lot easier than when we did the recce in the snow and cold. Whose mad idea was this? we thought, but now we are here it has been worth it.” (Stewart)
At the end of the day when we had all got back down safely we celebrated our achievement in tackling this iconic walk and celebrating 75 years of the Ramblers.
