Packed

For the first time in an outrageously large number of months, our backpacks are packed.

The only question now is: on a hillside, or beside a roaring fire in a bothy in the woods?

Falling Frost

I didn’t post this photo yesterday because, aside from the power lines, I couldn’t work out why there was a white ‘v’ in the sky on the left hand side.

Mick’s just looked through the photos he took and explained that he waited for a while to capture some of the frost falling off one of the cables.

Hoary!

Walking through the office today, once daylight had hit, I happened to glance out of a west-facing window which affords a view of a field and trees (rather than out of my side of the office, which has a view of other office buildings). Rushing back to my desk I texted Mick: “It’s a gorgeous hoary day out there. Go for a walk. Take the camera.”

I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen such a fantastic display of hoariness combined with lying snow.

And my favourite (albeit best viewed in full size):

And through all this weather, our postman is still wearing his shorts when he delivers the mail!

Productive Mapping Day

Our TGO Challenge route is planned, plotted and printed.

Now all we need to do is to work our way up the stand-by list to get ourselves a place!

TGO Challenge

Arriving home from work after a monstrously epic day, it was with glee that I spotted the A4 envelope on the doormat with the giveaway post-mark which told me that it was news of our TGO Challenge entry.

Ignoring the fact that it wasn’t addressed to me, I ripped into the envelope and scanned the contents. “I am very sorry to tell you'” were not the words I was hoping for.

Picking myself up from the immediate crush of disappointment, I read on, and found good news in the next paragraph: we are high enough up the stand-by list to mean that we will plan next year’s walking on the basis that we will be taking part in the TGOC.

News of our fate with our Challenge entry was supposed to be the deciding factor as to which of two potential walking plans we went with for next year (being the next Big Walk, or a series of shorter walks, including the TGOC). Perhaps we were just using the Challenge to put off making a final decision as a quick chat with Mick this evening has revealed that we’re not greatly nearer to making that decision, but that the current favourite option is the previous non-contender known as ‘Plan C’.

So New; So Close

One of the things I like about Geocaching is how it can drag me to places I wouldn’t have ordinarily have thought to go.

Today was a good example. Last night a visit to the Geocaching website revealed a cache within a sensible jogging distance (on my scale of sensible distances, not on Mick’s rather larger scale!), so this morning, under clear blue skies, off I set to find it.

We’ve lived in this village for over 8 years, and yet as I huffed and puffed my way along, I realised that never before had I been along these lanes. Delightfully quiet lanes they were too. In half an hour I was passed by two cars.

Even better, arriving at the cache site, I found not just a Geocache but a local nature reserve that has recently been established with permissive paths through the surrounding fields. I must go back some time to explore further.

And all without straying more than 1.5 miles from the front door!

The Cabbage Patch 10

The Cabbage Patch is a pub in Twickenham, and each October it hosts a 10-mile run which takes a nice flat route mainly following the Thames.

Mick had decided a few weeks ago to join Juan and his brother Raf in taking part, and so the three of them were to be found loitering around just up the road from the Cabbage Patch just before 10am on this fine autumn morning.

With only a couple of minutes to go until the off, the traffic was stopped and the runners led to the starting line:

where they all waited patiently for about 30 seconds, until the claxon sounded.

With a field of around 1600, Vic & I (spectating, along with baby Tilly) doubted that we’d spot any of the boys as they passed, but we did manage to pick Mick out. He’s in this photo (bet you can’t spot him; Raf is also in this photo, even though we didn’t see him at the time):

Mick’s in this one too:

After a bit of a stroll and a stop for a cup of tea Vic, Tilly and I made our way over to the finish line where I took a photo of a random stranger crossing the line just to make sure that the position of the sun wasn’t going to scupper me snapping Mick as he crossed the line:

See – perfectly possible to take a clear photo! 

Things didn’t work out quite so well when I saw Mick coming as I managed to make him look headless:

It turned out that the three chaps were well matched to run together. There was no loitering around waiting for them all to finish. Raf came in first in 1.21.46. Mick was next in 1.22.38. And Juan was only just behind, finishing in 1.23.41.

Here they all are looking fresh as daisies a few minutes later:

 

Based on the enthusiastic discussion of the event afterwards, I suspect that they’ll be posting entries off again next year.

On The Limestone Way – Again!

Yesterday evening I did as I usually do when I get home from a walk – I measured the route and added it to my log. Then I looked at my mileage for the year to date and realised that I’d finished the day just 1.5 miles short of my previous highest annual total.

The obvious thing to do would have been to just pop out for a little circuit from home this morning, but the thought that immediately struck me was that I hadn’t had much time with the chaps on the Limestone Way yesterday afternoon, and therefore we should get up early this morning and go an join them again.

With Roger (plus Dalmatian Rollo) also swelling the numbers, there were six of us today as we left The Miners Standard and almost immediately yesterday’s participants were stunned to find clear ‘Limestone Way’ signposts.

The clear waymarking continued, allowing swift progress to be made without time spent poring over the maps.

Soon we started encountering D of E groups, of which there were lots and lots today. Other signs suggested that today’s plethora of D of E groups wasn’t an unusual occurrence:

Interesting features were passed on our way to Youlgrave, with the big craggy bits above the Hermit’s Cave and the twin boulders of Robin Hood’s Leap.

Some attractive woodland and some more fields (with more of those awkward stiles) took us to Youlgrave, which is where Mick & I were to leave the group to form a circuit back to Winster, but first I had my sights set on a tea room.

The cafe at the YHA served our purposes, and the drinks and sandwiches went down well as we all optimistically thought that the pause in the walking would give the sun the chance to burn through the greyness.

It didn’t, and it was still grey when Mick & I parted company from the group a few minutes later:

Everyone grins at our departure, except for Mick who pouts a little

Off went John, Gill, Viv, Roger and Rollo, following the river to the west, as we followed it east for a short while. Lovely it was too, if a touch busy (two more D of E groups met in the half mile stretch we walked). All went quiet as we turned away from the river.

The bit of the outward route that went past Robin Hood’s Leap and the Hermit’s Cave was followed again on our return, except this time we took a detour up to see the cave.

We weren’t at all sure what it was that we were looking for, with ‘cave’ being used to describe anything from an overhanging rock to a proper big cavernous thing, but after brief consideration we discounted the first opening we came across:

Following our instincts, it wasn’t long before we came across what was indisputably the cave, albeit we couldn’t quite work out why the railings were needed to keep people out of a cave that must only measure something like 4 feet by 15.Perhaps the big crack in the ‘ceiling’ rock has something to do with it?

 

Just to the right of the cave men were clambering up rocks and we paused to watch:

Leaving our outward route once again off we headed towards Upper Town, albeit on our way there a short distance was covered in the wrong direction before we realised the important difference between ‘up’ and ‘down’ (‘up’ being the direction in which we were meant to be going).

A joint award was given for ‘most unexpected animal encounter’ when we came across a field containing sheep, a tiny horse, two ostriches and two emu (for the avoidance of doubt, it was the latter two species that were unexpected!). This chap came over to us at a trot, making us most appreciative of the tall fence separating us:

The sun was just starting to break through as we headed back towards Winster:

And by the time that we left The Miners Standard (where we had been sampling the beer that came highly recommended by the chaps who stayed there last night), the blue sky was winning.

The stats for the day were just over 9 miles walked with 1700 feet of ascent and a ‘good day out’ rating of 100%.

On The Limestone Way

Having achieved a pass-out from his household duties, off set Mick yesterday morning to meet up with John, Gill and Viv for a jaunt on the Limestone Way.

Rocester is the starting point of the Way and, after a public transport adventure (which went like clockwork) that’s where Mick met up with his companions for the day to set off in a generally northerly direction.

The late start demanded so as to allow people to travel to Rocester also gave the early misty greyness chance to burn off, so it was quite a nice day by the time they were underway:

In the meantime, I was sitting at my desk, looking out of the window and thinking ‘Nice day for a walk’. A few minutes later I had requested a half day’s holiday for today.

After a pleasant afternoon’s walking, featuring donkeys:

coos:

giant red toadstools:

and (most importantly) good company:

the party of four pitched up at Bank Top Farm in Fenny Bentley where they soon established ‘green tent corner’:

before hot-footing it to the better of the two pubs in the village for beer, food and beer.

The stats for the day were 11.5 miles with 1700 feet of ascent.

Today dawned as grey and misty as yesterday, but with a greater degree of dampness and, unlike yesterday, it didn’t burn off by late morning.

The ‘Phreerunner Effect’ didn’t have its usual effect today, and it was still murky when Martin and Rick joined the party for the day. By 10am off they had all set in a generally northerly direction … or at least that was the plan.

A bit of the Tissington Trail featured to get the group back onto the Way (having detoured to Bank Top Farm last night), and having reached Tissington it would have been rude to shun the tea room there, so in they all popped for some light refreshment.

They were still there when I left work at 11.45, and when I reached the car park at Winster (having done a thorough tour of the place looking for the very pub I had driven past as I arrived) they were just having a few navigational issues in leaving Parwich. It is, of course, understandable on a not-sunny day that six people can walk for some distance in a southerly direction before realising that the direction doesn’t feel quite right for a south-to-north walk.

A lunch break soon after called for another pause, all of which was to my benefit. I had been concerned that by the time I arrived they would have all but arrived at their night-stop, but as it went I got all the way to just-north-of-Brassington before I met them.

Around I turned, and finding our way across the fields became simple until we reached Grangemill as we were retracing the steps I’d just walked. The stiles didn’t get any easier, mind. The stiles on the Limestone Way were definitely not designed for ease of passage!

A golden orb vaguely tried to make itself visible through the murk, but the best it achieved was causing faint shadows for a few three-second stretches, and so the views were still curtailed as we past some massive quarries and crossed more fields to reach Winster.

The party split at The Miners Standard pub, where those completing the whole route were to camp the night, whereas Mick, Martin, Rick & I made our way back to the car park and thence home.

Mick’s stats for the day (excluding the leaving-Parwich diversion) were 13 miles walked with 2200 feet of ascent. My stats were 9.75 miles walked, with 1300 feet of ascent.

All of the group photos taken outside of The Miners Standard would imply that I wasn’t there, whereas the reality was that everyone trusted me to be photographer:

From my point of view it was a very pleasant leg-stretch after another few weeks of inactivity, and it was good to catch up with the others (and to meet Gill for the first time). From Mick’s point of view it was his first night spent with Connie, and (believe it or not) his first ever night of solo camping, and it seems that he had rather a good time too.

A Walk Up Waun-oer

It wasn’t the most organised we’ve ever been for a walk. We arrived in Barmouth yesterday morning with no firm plan as to where we were going for a walk in the afternoon. Over a late second breakfast in the Milk Bar, Mick suggested Cadair. Admittedly we’ve been up there before, but with the top having been free from cloud as we’d passed by half an hour before, it seemed like a good day for a repeat visit.

On our way back out of Barmouth an hour or so later (having taken a quick trundle up and over Dinas Oleu and back again to fulfil the mission that had taken us to Wales in the first place), Mick changed his mind as to where he wanted to walk, and Waun-oer was where we ended up.

It wasn’t a long walk, and part of the ascent had been achieved by driving up to the parking area at Bwlch Oerddrws (which I’m not counting as being cheating, as it was directly on our route home in any case).

‘Steep’ is how I would describe the first chunk of our route (my steep-o-meter being perhaps a little out of whack having not been near a hill in months), which quickly got the lungs working and the legs turning to jelly (harrumph – so much fitness lost yet again!).

Gaining height pretty quickly, the views soon started to open up. The Rhinog tops were the most obvious feature to the north-west of us, then Mick pointed out that the ridge we could clearly see was the very one that we have walked more than once. As is so often the case with my snap-shots, it’s not overly clear on the photo:

In reality, we could clearly see the sea in the dip on the left of the photo. That’s Rhinog Fach and Fawr on the right.

Again a poor image. In reality Snowdon and the surrounding hills (on the right of this photo) were perfectly obvious.

Where the upness levelled out there was a bit of a ‘wow!’. That’s one steep-sided valley behind me.

Had we looked at the map in any detail at any point before embarking on this walk, we might have been slightly less surprised to come across some old quarry/mine workings:

Beyond the entrance a big hole in the ground had Mick warning me to keep away from the edge (like I didn’t already have my late mother’s voice in my ear telling me the exact same thing)

It seems that I didn’t take any photos for a while, but by-and-by the path got fainter and fainter and we indulged in a bit of yomping with some good-and-proper bog obstacles thrown in for good measure.

A bit of down was necessary between Cribbin Fach and Waun-oer, followed by a rather steep climb on the other side. Our path ran in between the trees and the fence on this photo and (in case I didn’t mention) it was Steep:

I knew it had been a good choice of hill before we got to the top. Waun-oer may not be big, but its position gives excellent 360 degree views. The weather helped, of course (even if it was a bit of a fresh breeze on top).

A quick look at the map at the top didn’t reveal any obvious route back down that was wildly different from the way we had come, although we didn’t exactly retrace our steps. Having made our way back down the madly-steep bit, a cross-country yomp saw us pick up our outward route out just below the mine workings.

I can’t be sure about how far we walked, because we paid so little attention to the map, but it must have been somewhere between 4 and 5 miles, with 1800 feet-ish of ascent. A little outing, but a good stretch of the legs and lungs.

I was glad that I’d carried lunch the whole way. We ate it when we got back to the car.

Waun-oer

A fine day to be atop a fine hill. Behind Mick in the middle distance the Rhinog tops are clear to see and beyond those there's the distinctive shape of Snowdon.
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Stormy Running

It was a horrible journey home from work tonight, with rain that overwhelmed even the crazy-speed setting on the windscreen wipers and drainage that couldn’t cope with the surface water.

Lightning was still flashing and thunder still crashing all around when I got home, but the rain had passed by, so into our matching Ron Hill Tracksters Mick and I changed, ready for a short jog-ette over the local estate (landed-gentry sort of estate that is, in case you’re picturing streets of matching houses).

Mick had already been for his proper run this morning, but volunteered to come out again to accompany me on my trundle. He even had the decency to say that he would run, rather than walking alongside my pathetic attempts at speed.

I’m not quite sure how 90% of the circular route came to be uphill, but I was once again proud of myself for making it up the Big Hill without stopping or walking (well, except for crossing the cattle grids – I draw the line at running over cattle grids!).

That’s three jog-ettes this year now, all of which have fallen in the last 10 days. Even better, there’s no grumbling from the achilles at all.

Sore Thighs On The Chase

Yesterday’s fast walk on the lumpiness of the Chase (after 2 weeks of doing nothing and 2 months of no hills), followed by my small jogette last night, followed by another couple of hours at a blazing pace on the Chase this morning may have been a bit much. I’m not sure that the gardening I did when I got home was entirely wise either. My thighs are protesting quite vocally just now!

As I wasn’t causing Mick to have to loiter in a car park for me today, I took the time to take a few photos.

My attempts to capture the colour of the heather and the greenness of everything else (the bracken is only just starting to die off) failed pretty miserably in their intention:

The colour was much more vibrant than this photo would suggest 

Heather, greenness and blue sky – a good combination

 

Taking a different route to usual today I passed this man-made pool in the beck

Sometime during our Big Walk earlier this year, a series of new signs appeared on the Chase. The bit at the top sets out various useful information for the event of emergencies, and that I understand. But why, if there’s all that text, is there not a short description of the route being marked by the arrows? Apparently, where I had just come from was the long route:

But where I was heading was apparently on the short route:

If only I knew to where it was the long or the short route!

Checking The Progress Of The Seasons

Having bumped along a bumpy track to not-our-usual-car-park on the Chase, Mick and I both set out in the same direction, but at different speeds. As we had driven up, it had been obvious that there was some sort of an orienteering style event going on (since Googled and found to be the final Questars event of the season), and soon Mick was in amongst a group of runners who were clutching laminated maps, whereas I was simply being overtaken.

Mick’s mission was a 5-mile run. I was out for an 8-mile walk. Given that we weren’t on a Welsh hillside as we should have been, my second choice had been to see the change in colours on the Chase – namely the prettiness of the heather in flower before it gets overtaken by the the leaves changing colour.

My intention had been to take lots of photos, but given that there was clearly going to be quite a mismatch of timings between Mick’s run and my longer walk, as I set out I resolved instead to do the walk at top speed, leaving no time to dig the camera out repeatedly.

I was about 5 miles into my walk when Mick texted to tell me he was in the tea-room by the Katyn Memorial. “I’ll be there within 20 minutes” I texted back. And that’s where it all went wrong.

A very nice egg and mushroom sandwich was had with a pot of tea (during which I found out that even though our routes had not been massively dissimilar, the rain was so localised that Mick hadn’t been caught in the short-but-incredibly-heavy shower that had drenched me). And, having enjoyed the food and drink, I found that I could quite bring myself to let Mick sit around in the car for another half an hour or so (or was it just that laziness prevailed?), and so into the car with Mick I got.

Although shorter than intended, that was my first outing on The Chase since the beginning of July, and it reminded me that I need to get over there more in the next couple of months to enjoy the changes that this time of year brings.

(Post Walk Note: although I only covered 6 miles on the Chase, I did run down to the local shop this evening (yes, RAN!), which, together with the walk back, did add on the 2 miles I’d missed earlier)

 

Salomon Exit Aero

Just a quick recap: the nice chaps at Fitness Footwear said “Would you like to try some Salomon shoes” and I said ‘Yes please!”. Mick got the aesthetically unusual after-sports-recovery RX Mocs, whereas I plumped for something more useful for walking: Salomon Exit Aero.

Apparently the colour I got is “Autobahn, Detroit and Ciment Blue”. Personally, I’d call them grey on grey, and that suits me just fine.

Given my reputation for being fastidious about weighing kit, it’s surprising that I didn’t weigh them straight away, but a bit of research on the scales just now has revealed that they weigh just over 330g per shoe, which is within a few grams of being the same weight as my Salomon XA Pros. That meets my initial impression that they’re light as well as pretty flexible. The main differences, to my mind, between my favoured footwear of this year (Inov8 Terrocs and Salomon XA Pros) and the Exit Aeros is that the sole of the Exit Aero is much firmer and the ‘foot opening’ more padded.

The first thing I did after taking them out of the box was to remove the insole – which was no easy job as it was quite comprehensively glued at the toe end – never come across that in a walking shoe before - but then it was also the least shaped version of a footbed I’ve ever seen. Once I’d battled with the footbeds and replaced them with some volume reducers and my Superfeet, the fit was spot on. I didn’t fanny around with easing in to trying them in action: within ten minutes I was out on a 9 mile walk.

Half an hour in and I had completely forgotten that I had new shoes on, which is unheard of for me. I usually obsess about the fit of new footwear for far longer than that!

So, they were quickly established as being right up there as some of the comfiest shoes in my possession, and for three weeks they barely came off my feet. For testing purposes I wore them on every walk, and for comfort purposes they became my choice for knocking-around shoes.

All remained rosy for those weeks too, because the weather was dry, the earth was cracked and the soles appeared to be just fine in terms of grippiness.

Then it was a bit damp underfoot one day (the same day that I battled with cobwebs in my face the whole way along the tow-path, if memory serves), and suddenly I was slipping all over the place on the stoney bits of the path. It didn’t bode well for grip on hillsides, which tend to have more challenging slopes and terrain than the local fields and tow-paths.

Then came the walk when I nearly landed in the canal. I’d just passed under a bridge where the tow-path takes on a bit of a water-wards camber before it flattens out. It was on that camber that one of my feet shot out from under me. With a few other, less significant slips, in the same walk I was unfortunately coming to the conclusion that these shoes are a little lacking in the grip department.

All is not lost. I’ve continued to wear them for local walking, but with an increased degree of care when it’s damp, albeit I might hesitate to choose them for a hilly backpack.

I have no doubt that I will wear them to death in any case. As comfy as they are, they can happily take the place of my (almost worn out) old XA Pros* as my general wear shoes. I’d even go as far as to say that I’d likely choose to buy the same again in the future for general wear.

So, for dedicated walking shoes, there are better options out there, but for knocking-around shoes that are also good for a limited type of walking, I rather like them.

Of course, one thing I’ve not been able to establish yet is longevity. I’ll report back again in some months time.

(*Should I blush to confess that I have three pairs of XA Pros on the go at the moment?)

Salomon RX Mocs

A month ago a large parcel arrived. Receiving a parcel is always good and exciting, but it’s even better when it contains two pairs of shoes that have been sent to you for review.

A week or so earlier the nice chaps at FitnessFootwear had offered us a pair of shoes each in return for our thoughts on them, and this was the awaited parcel. No time was wasted in ripping through the outer packaging and we swiftly sorted out which box was for who. I had requested some good and sensible walking shoes (more about those soon), whereas I volunteered Mick for the rather ‘striking’ Salomon RX Mocs.

Odd looking things, aren’t they? This is what the product description says:

“The RX Moc is a lightweight and comfortable shoe which has an elastic mesh upper which is mated to a cushioned mid and outsole this makes the shoe easy to slip on and off. Very light shoe with a breathable mesh fabric, these are intended to be worn as an after sports shoe, but are also great for relaxing and walking in”

He’s been wearing them for a month now (attracting quite a range of comments, both solicited and unsolicited), and here are his thoughts on them:

As I have been in training for a marathon, it seemed an ideal time to use and review these shoes against the claims made by Salomon that they will assist in recovery after exercise. So the question to be answered was: will they work? And the answer: I think they did. The shock-absorbing, wedge-shaped heel appears to reduce stress on the legs post exercise. They do feel like a comfortable pair of spongy slippers but I doubt that these are the reasons that they will be attractive to any prospective purchasers.

Perhaps a review should be a bit more objective: the shoes are called Salomon RX Mocs, are aimed at the sports market and designed to improve recovery after exercise. They are very light at just over 460g per pair (for a size 8.5 in Salomon sizing), have a wedge-shaped, shock-absorbent heel and come in only one colour – fluorescent yellow. And as a lightweight pair of shoes designed for a limited purpose they are not cheap at almost £50 a pair.

Of course, at this weight they would make a very comfortable pair of camp shoes for backpacking purposes, which would help your feet recover after a day of pounding, and for that purpose the colour and design wouldn’t be such an issue - but I’m not sure that the ‘help your feet recover’ claims could really compete with the cost and weight of the Croc-like shoes that are usually chosen for this purpose.

Would I go for the same shoes again once I’ve worn these out? Well, they’re very comfortable, they fit nicely and they do look, well, interesting. But, I can’t quite get past the obstacle of the colour! They are the same colour as a yellow highlighter pen or the hi-vis jackets that the police wear, which makes ones feet stand out somewhat whenever they are pulled on: they look like you are wearing Day-Glo scuba diving shoes. I have, therefore, in the main, only used them around the house; however, on the occasions when I have ventured outside wearing them I noticed the stares of others at my feet. Maybe it was me just being overly sensitive, but I think not.

I’m sorry, Mr Salomon, I love your shoes and boots. I have many pairs of Salomon shoes for running, hiking and backpacking and used them over thousand of miles. I have put up with some of Salomon’s whacky designs in materials and colours but these are just one step too far for me.

He Made It!

Came 12th in his category too. And achieved a Personal Best*.

(*Okay, so it was his first marathon, so by default it had to be a PB)

 

Marathon Update

Mick was last seen at 1300, at 22.5 miles, looking pretty fresh (and a whole lot fresher than many of those passing at that point), but reporting that "it's hurting now".


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Wolverhampton Marathon

He's getting ready for the off in 15 minutes ... apparently by engaging in the Ministry For Silly Walks
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Carisbrooke Castle

If there's a castle nearby then I want to visit it, so this morning (with Mick still in a state of slight-fuzziheadedness after last night's festivities) we were off bright and early to Carisbrooke Castle.

The castle doesn't disappoint, giving a particularly good visual impact as you enter via the gatehouse.

With a desire to make a brief appearance at the day-after-the-wedding garden-party, and a ferry to catch, our visit was only a couple of hours, but we managed to do a whistlestop tour of most of the features.

And now we're chugging back across the Solent, having not seen the sun (but having experienced plenty of rain) since our outward journey on Friday.
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