Great Western Coffee Shop

On a sunny Saturday morning, Peter Gould welcomed a group of enthusiastic walkers to Bristol. With many of them wearing hiking boots and carrying rucksacks, they met outside Temple Meads station in a rather unlikely setting for the start of a ramble. But these were the Wessex Wanderers - members of a growing number of organisations that rely not only on their own two feet but also the rail network for their days out in town and country.

Each walk starts with a train journey to a stop somewhere between Bristol and Weymouth - known as the Heart of Wessex line - where they are met by a guide and led on a hike of anything between about seven and 17 miles.

See http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145191&contentPK=21070225&folderPk=83726&pNodeId=144922

Good to hear use of train for rambling, that's one of teh easons we're pressing for a Sunday service to Taplow to promote is a starting finishing point for ramblers along the Thames, Jubilee River and Clivenden.

Wonder if we'll ever get back to the days of the Rambler Specials. the Southern used to run them most weekends in Summer.

There is also a BTF film of the 1950 s of a cyclysts' excursion from Euston and stations to Watford for Rugby with a number of BGs in the formation for the bikes.