From prison to hospital

The choir walkers undertook a rewarding outing on 19 October, visiting choir stalwart Martin Perkins in hospital en route and setting a possible new second-longest walk record.

Tony and Hazel skirt Downview Prison

The walk began at the Woodman in Woodmansterne,  where early arrivals heard the familiar sounds of Saints, rendered by a trad jazz band playing for a funeral wake. We resisted the temptation to upstage them with My Lord, What a Mournin' and settled for a beer.

Navigator Dave led the nine walkers on a route that had been revised to include a visit to former walker Martin "Polly" Perkins, temporarily residing at the Royal Marsden Hospital. The route started westwards before swinging north along a narrow track and winding through farmland.

After crossing the busy main road we skirted the foreboding walls surrounding Downview and High Down prisons and followed a woodland track to the hospital.

At this point the confusion started, as we were directed to meet Polly at Maggie's Centre. After touring the entire hospital campus, we finally found the centre, but not Polly. Navigator Dave was dispatched to find Polly in his ward and was allowed to escort him down to meet the group in the cafeteria. Polly was pleased to see us and catch up on choir news.

Polly greets his admirers in hospital cafe

Navigator Dave became overconfident on the return journey and failed to consult his map, so that the walkers traversed three sides of the prison complex rather than just the one. This, added to the extended tour of the hospital grounds, made the whole walk quite long.

However the group resisted the temptation of taking the 166 bus back to the pub. They returned to the Woodman for dinner, where it was noted that the they had clocked up 6.9 miles, just shy of the record 7.28 miles in April 2017. 

There was much discussion over whether this deserved to be ranked as a new second-longest walk, in view of how much of it had been taken up with wandering around the hospital and following the wrong return route past the prisons.  The adjudication committee has promised a verdict in due course.  

Dick's route map shows 11.07kms - an impressive 6.88 miles, but is it a record?