Introduction
The Hertfordshire group walks on the 2nd Saturday of each month and the occasional additional walk.
The group covers all of Hertfordshire, sometimes organises invasion parties into neighbouring counties and advertises its events on the programmes of neighbouring branches of GOC, where there is a reasonable nexus.
This page defines Herts GOC and, at the bottom, presents up-coming events, recent news and recent event reports.
Co-ordinators
The current co-ordinators for Hertfordshire GOC are Martin T and Khris R.
Martin joined GOC in February 2007, after discovering that Herts GOC had organised a walk starting from his back garden (well, nearly: it was actually three minutes drive away). After becoming Caretaker Co-Ordinator in 2009, a re-branding of GOC in 2016 triggered the dropping of the by-then farcical title of "Caretaker".
Khris joined GOC in 2018 and became a joint co-ordinator for the Hertfordshire GOC in July 2020.
Supplementary website
Herts GOC has its own supplementary website containing:
- miscellany tangential to the core audience of this main website;
- planning guidance for walk leaders;
- walk route archives.
The supplementary website gives a (very) short history of Herts GOC, a calendar for planning events, a map of Herts GOC walk area and a verbose overview of Herts' geology and geography.
A typical walk of Herts GOC
In general, a basic walk of Herts GOC is:
- between 8 to 12 miles (exception being the Challenge Walks)
- starts at 11am (subject to limitations);
- often includes an optional pub at the end of walk;
- normally requires walkers to bring their own packed lunch, water and something to sit on; be prepared for any weather.
- typically includes a visit to a church to admire the architecture and squiggle in the visitors' book.
For reasons that nobody can remember, Herts GOC still reports the numbers of golf courses and sewage works that it passes by/through. In 2022, Herts GOC decided to count the number of London Waitrose stores that it passes by/through. (No, we have no idea why, either.)
Herts GOC is also open to do the occasional special interest walk or mixed event, which have included:
- "art walks" - meticulously planned and designed by our walk leader, racing through London to see public works of art, and wondering why we run out of daylight to see them;
- museum visits - a visit to a museum of up to 2 hours, followed by a short walk of ~6 miles;
- "Bah Humbug Anti-Xmas lunch walk" - a short walk of 5 miles followed by a pub lunch, typically anytime of the year except December;
- brunch and indigestion walk - a brunch at 10am from a local cafe, followed by a basic walk.
- Challenge Walks - a single walk of up to 20 miles, divided into two sections of 10 miles;
- guided tours - researched by our walk leaders, the tours explore artefacts of historic stuff in London and the business cases behind and the design innvations of Hertfordshire's Garden Cities and New Towns.
- late afternoon and evening walks (two sections of up to 4 miles each), followed by a pub dinner.
Herts GOC is open to similar suggestions from walk leaders.
Planning events for 2023 and beyond
If you have a walk that you would like to offer, please contact the group using the contact form below.
Dates available are listed on Herts GOC's planning website.
Herts GOC has mapped an area where it will typically start walk events. The map applies the general rule of thumb, that the start point must be no more than 60 minutes travel (by car) from the middle of Herts (near Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence). The area is surprisingly vast.