SUNDAY, March 29, the first day of British summer time started off as cold, wet and miserable and it stayed that way until about 4pm when there was a small improvement - it stopped raining.

Despite the conditions 15 members of Stroud Rambling Club joined Paul for a Sunday afternoon walk across Minchinhampton and Rodborough commons.

We met up at the Stroud Leisure Centre car park and after arranging car sharing, set off for the short drive to Minchinhampton, a good place to start a walk as it has ample free parking, a shop should you have left your refreshments behind and most important a public loo which was open and clean.

We set off, past the church and out onto the common to an area called The Park.

As there are no paths (as such) we aimed for an area to the west of Jacob's Knowle and then continued to to The Bear of Rodborough.

Due to the poor weather we did this part of the walk very quickly so from here it was a more relaxed pace.

We had a short DIY 'tea break' near to Rodborough Fort and then started making our way back to Minchinhampton via Amberley.

This is wonderful walking, with ever changing views on the outward journey we looked down to Thrupp area, at Rodborough Fort you can see for miles and miles and on the homeward leg you have the Nailsworth Valley and Woodchester Valley to your right.

Best of all there are no stiles and it's also mostly level.

When we got back a member announced that we had covered 6.7 miles according to her GPS.

Stroud Rambling Club arranges a walk for every Sunday during the year.

To get details of everything that is going on visit our website or go to your local library where they keep a copy of our programme.

New members are assured a warm welcome - why not come and try us out.