A net gain of only two in the year. I actually bagged three more Marilyns on a trip north of the border but lost Lovely Seat. It would have been more but, whilst descending Dirrington Great Law, I tweaked an Achilles tendon and had to abandon my trip to the Lammermuirs and points further north. Very frustrating as a week of good weather followed. It was over three months before I was fit again so I decided to concentrate on Humps in regions 39 and 42. Generally I was rather disappointed, for some, such as Bedham Hill, had little of interest and I wondered if they were worth the effort. Not so Littleton Down on a pleasant stroll from Upwaltham in warm November sunshine, using part of the South Downs Way. I lunched near the summit by a notice showing where a Lancaster of 617 (Dambusters) Squadron crashed in fog in February 1944. It must have failed to clear the summit trees by only a few feet. The small church (well worth a visit) by the footpath has a memorial plaque to the crew and also that of a Dakota which crashed into another modest hill nearby almost exactly a year later.
I was amused to read in the last Marhofn that the entry qualification to the Humps HoF had been reduced to 1200. For me, that is as realistic as Scotland qualifying for the World Cup finals or, come to that, as England winning, or even hosting, the competition. There may be a lot of Humps but they are very spread out and many of the summits are in fields with crops or livestock and are surrounded by barbed wire or electric fences. Others are in private gardens. Still, they should give this southern based semisesquicentarian some interesting walking in years to come.
