April 11, 2016, by Laura Estrop
RAMSOC’s Exmoor exploration
By Patrick Hardern, RAMSOC 2015/16 Vice President
In February, RAMSOC headed to Exmoor for a weekend of walking and exploring. With this being a mere two weeks after the end of exam season, we were naturally all excited to escape Nottingham for a weekend, as a chance to catch our collective breath. My first impressions of Exmoor (months before we went) were already positive – from the photos, I could see it was a beautiful area by the coast with some dramatic, rugged scenery, possibly enhanced by the delightful weather conditions.
After a nice, smooth journey we arrived at our hostel in Minehead, which was situated at the top of an unmade track just outside the town itself – I think awkwardly located hostels have a certain charm, though I’m not sure whether our drivers would agree with me. We rose the next morning bright-eyed and enthusiastic (aided by a caffeine injection) and set off on our walks, ready to explore.
I can’t really put a gloss on the weather conditions we had on Saturday (they were less than delightful is all I’ll say), but being RAMSOC, we don’t let that stop us (well, nine times out of ten anyway) and we had a great walk along a part of the South West Coast Path and thoroughly appreciated the scenery we were so privileged to see. Though I must admit I was quite pleased (read: elated) to see the minibus again, but I will concede that RAMSOC wouldn’t be quite the same if every day were clear, still, and dry. After all, there is no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothing!
We spent the evening by the fire, chatting and singing songs (there wasn’t actually singing but I thought the image sounded rather nice) and enjoyed some well-deserved cider. Ram, our beloved mascot, greatly enjoyed this as he was very wet after our walk.
Sunday morning saw us up and away again, not willing to concede defeat to the British weather so quickly. Fortunately, it was somewhat kinder today, which made for a lovely walk, before setting of back to Nottingham, happy to have sampled the delights of Exmoor with the added sense of achievement that came from battling the elements.
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