Chance Encounters

When they arrived at Wroxall Cemetery on Saturday for the Chance Encounters Walk, the twenty or so participants had little idea what lay ahead. Unusually, this was also true for the walk leaders. In an attempt to escape the modern obsession with controlling our lives and the world around us, those taking part agreed to allow chance to be their guide and to follow a course dictated by the roll of a gigantic foam-rubber dice (that's a die for any purists).

After a shaky start when the whole expedition nearly foundered in a huge lake of mud, fate smiled on the participants and guided them on a course over St Martin's Down taking in shaded paths through the woods, spectacular displays of flowers, open downland and as a final surprise, breath-taking views over the Channel.

Direction was not the only thing to be left to chance. Topics for discussion, styles of walking and mutual personal revelations were all prompted by the bouncing cube.

At the end, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the liberation of letting go of the reins for a few hours and parted by thumbing their noses at each other and stalking off - just as the final throw determined they should.