I lead a walk around Calstock

I had volunteered (or been volunteered perhaps to be more accurate) to lead a special interest group around the village of Calstock as part of their outdoor evening event programme. Well yesterday evening was when it happened. In an earlier post today I described the less than sunny weather that we are experiencing right now but in fairness the worst of the rain had temporarily relented by seven o'clock, the start time of the walk, and although very grey throughout I was able to keep the brolly down for most of the time.

The intention had been to do the whole thing in an hour and a half. Who was I kidding? A good two hours I think it took and even then I skated over a lot of the detail. Really and truly one can't do justice to this particular walk in just one evening but at least it gave the participants a flavour of what Calstock is all about. I have to say that I was unnecessarily nervous at the start not helped by me getting a 'frog in the throat'! Once over the initial talking bit and on the road so to speak when I could point out various features things got better and my audience were very kind to me and posed one or two questions which demand further research on my part! Fortunately I don't take myself too seriously and am able to inject a little humour into the proceedings which always helps.

I think the thirty or so in the group went away fairly happy and thanks to their visit I am now able to give our Parish Archive a cheque. During the course of the walk I was able to talk to some members on a one to one basis - unsurprisingly this was more into my 'comfort zone'!