Britain – Page 26 – Where is Phil now?

SWCP Walk day 3, Lynton to Combe Martin

Saturday 08 August 2015 – Combe Martin, Devon.

13.5 miles.

Another cold, cold night, even worse than Thursday. I was freezing, and I had more clothes on, including a beanie! I also resolved to buy some earplugs when I next had the opportunity as two couples nearby decided that last night was a good night to sit outside and drink until 2 am. Rude pricks! With the cold and the noise I don’t think I drifted off until 6:00. I was up at 8:00, cooked and ate breakfast – warm food was great – packed up and out the door into some lovely warm sun for 9:00. It takes me an hour from horizontal to walking off, though I am sure I can do it more quickly if I really tried.

The Swiss woman, whose name I discovered is Sandra, and the family group, arrived in the campground after me last night, and I said a sprightly hello before leaving. I see all of them again over the next couple of days.

I stopped in Lynton to buy some sausage sandwiches and a coffee to drink from the only open cafe, there is nowhere to stop for lunch on this long leg so taking food was essential. I am carrying a few emergency rations that I can cook if for some reason I have to stop somewhere. I also picked up a couple of bananas as I started to get some very slight hints of cramp yesterday and the potassium in bananas helps to keep it at bay. Like a lot of other towns on the path that I have visited, getting out and back on the path is confusing and sometimes frustrating. It was not too bad here, but I did take one wrong turn before finding the right path.

Just outside of Lynmouth is the wonderful Valley of the Rocks. I would like to come back and explore here one day, as it is quite interesting and totally different to anything else on this section of the coast. The path is also quite narrow here, having mild vertigo and a large pack I took this slower than some, and didn’t look up and down and around as much as I should. I did, however, take a few photos.

And I did spot a couple of goats as well.

Sadly the walk out the other side of the valley is on the road, though this did allow me to make some really good time as I got up to a cracking pace. I caught up Sandra walking out of the valley and we walked together for half an hour before she had to beg off as my pace was too fast. I wanted to keep going, so we bade farewell for the morning and I sped off into the distance.

Not sure what this is for or why it is where it is, but good to see New Zealand referenced on the path…

I stopped for a snack bar and to admire the view and spent a few minutes talking to a couple of blokes (Rob and Rich) from London who are also walking the path, but like the Dutch Ladies they are having their bags carried and are staying in guest houses.

This is another lovely section of Exmoor forest which also includes Hollow Brook Falls, one of Britain’s tallest waterfalls, though sadly the 200 metre drop is over a 400 metre distance so it is not quite like Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia ! it is still nice though.

Out of the forest, the view back along the coast is wonderful, just before dropping into Heddon Mouth. There was some quite tricky walking here and I am glad I had my poles. The path was quite narrow and where it was right on the cliff edge I was a wee bit nervous. I think if I did not have the pack on I would have run these sections with no worries at all. Well, maybe a small worry Smile

The Hunters Inn is in Heddon Mouth, but about half a mile up the valley from the bridge, I met Rob and Rich, who decided to go there for lunch, but as I had food and was not keen to add any more miles I declined to join them and carried on going.

The walk out was tough! The steepest section on the path so far, I was passed by a young couple on an afternoon walk, he was wearing jandals (flip-flops) on the rough and steep terrain. I thought he was mad ! The kindly took a picture of me from the top of the climb.

I love the view back over the path I had walked down into Heddon Mouth.

Though the view forward was less lovely… OK, it was lovely, but it also looked challenging!

There was a long section of wonderful rolling cliff top walking from here, I stopped for lunch on the cliff tops and just sat and admired the view for a while, and tried to snap a photo of a hunting kite.

The moors are really nice here, wild and scrubby and colourful, though ahead was the big climb of the day, the highest coastal cliff in the UK, Great Hangman, at 318 metres. I knew I had to drop down a way, only to walk back up it again. I pulled my pack on tighter, drank some water and carried on going.

I saw the most unusual thing here, and stupidly I did not sneak a photo. I was stopped as I walking by an English gent, who was heading to Hunters Inn for lunch. He was dressed semi-formally – better than I do for work – and he was pushing a bike. Not a mountain bike either. he was going to ride back to Combe Martin on the road. I have no idea how he got the bike down the hill. It was such a surreal experience.

I soon arrived in Great Hangman park, and prepared to drop down into the valley.

Over the other side I could see the path climbing out. It looked steep, but not as steep as the path down. I was really glad it was dry as it would have been quite slippery on the clay and grass path down to the river in the valley.

I stopped for a drink in the valley and a chat to a nice English couple who were out for a couple of days walking. We were joined by a German woman who I had said hello to a couple of times over the course of the day as we occasionally passed each other. I stupidly forgot their names.

The climb out of the valley was brutal, after a tiring day carrying a pack. I was shuffling up the steep section, leaning on my poles as I went, and it was some relief to get to the flatter section towards the top, and even more of a relief to get to the top. There were some more walkers there when I arrived and one of them took a photo of me on the top of the cairn as I mimicked their more youthful celebrations.

My destination for the night, Combe Martin, is down there, in that bay somewhere and just under another hour’s walking. It was quite a tough walk, going down hill can be harder than walking up, especially if you are carrying a heavy load.

I arrived in Combe Martin just after 4:00, which really surprised me, it was way quicker than I expected after yesterday’s slow walk. Maybe the time I spent walking quickly on the easy sections made up for it. El had booked me into a guest house and luckily it was right next to the path. The owners welcomed me with a cup of coffee and a piece of cake – wonderful…

I was knackered with really sore shoulders and a good rub down with some Volterol after a hot shower was just what they needed. I took a bit of a rest, had loads of water to drink and in the early evening I ventured out to one of the local pubs to look for food. I have the day off tomorrow so was quite happy to have a beer or two to go with an unhealthy burger and fries. I was craving the salty chips. I obviously chose a good walking pub to go to as I was soon joined by the English couple and the German woman I met today and the Dutch Ladies popped in later on as well. It was a great evening of chatting and sharing some of the joys of three or four days of walking this wonderful coast path.

I did wobble my way back to my guest house room about 11:00 pm. It was a tough day, not as tough as I expected it to be, but it was great to end it with some good company over some nice food and a glass of merlot.

SWCP Walk day 2, Porlock to Lynton

Friday 07 August 2015 – Lynton, Devon.

14 miles.

It was not a good night’s sleep. I expected that, but hoped for otherwise as I was physically tired from the walking. I was really surprised with how cold it was in the early hours. I was freezing. Colder than I had been when I camped out much later in the year. I knew I should have bought a new sleeping bag!

It was a clear night, which led to the cold temperature as well as quite a hefty morning dew on the ground. I learnt my first lesson of choosing a tent spot. Always look for somewhere that gets the early morning sun so the ground and the tent dry off as quickly as possible. I had chosen a good spot, but my neighbours moved their van in the night and created a long shadow right across my tent.

I was up at 7:00 and had my first camping breakfast. I had brought with me some packaged oats that just need boiling water added. My stove is really just a water boiler – a really fast water boiler. Two minutes, water boiled for oats and coffee, and not too bad a breakie either.

When I finally got out of the tent and vertical I found I was a bit stiff, but otherwise fine, walking up to the supermarket to buy some sandwiches for lunch was enough to shake out the stiffness, and by the time I stripped my camp site down, loaded up my pack and headed off I was feeling OK with the world. The sun was warm, the day just starting and I had about 14 miles of stunning coast to walk.

Leaving the campground I immediately (probably) took the wrong, and longer path down to Porlock beach. A narrow band, nicely hedged off from the road.

The path goes through the inland side of a marsh area that comes and goes over the centuries with a skeleton forest that is significantly old, the remains date back 5000 years. Cool !

The final section before the small village of Porlock Weir was along the top of the stony beach and was quite tough to walk on, after yesterday’s small wobble on an uneven rock I took extra precautions walking across the stones.

Porlock Weir is tiny and cute and also has the last coffee stop before my destination at the end of the day – Lynmouth. So I made use of the facilities and had a final coffee before finally setting off on the trail at 10:00, with 12.5 miles to go. The book says it is moderate to strenuous…

The walk out of Porlock Weir is quite nice, up a hill, but quite nice. Once out of town there is another nice long section of shaded woodland, I did not realise there was so much tree cover on this early section, I expected the moors to be far more open, but apparently Exmoor has one of the largest coastal forest sections of any park in the UK. It is really nice forest – and I was also glad of the shade.

The lovely old toll gate at Worthy Toll collects a small fee for cars wishing to use the private road, built in the 1840s to provide an option for travellers to avoid the steep Porlock Hill road. The gate for walkers passing by is free Smile

Ashley Combe house has long been pulled down after being in ruins for many years. The grand house was built for Ada Lovelace (look her up, she is very interesting, especially if you are interested in computing) by her husband and included a series of tunnels linking the tradesman entrances to the house so that they and their guests could look out over the magnificent gardens without having to see the servants and tradesmen. A few of the tunnels remain and are part of the coast path, it looks like some of them must have been quite long.

Culborne Church was the next stop, for a long drink of water and a nut bar, as well a look around. I did not linger here too long as there was an incredible amount of flies, an unwelcome feature of most of the rest of the day. I caught up with the Dutch ladies here and as I was leaving the family group I saw last night were arriving. It is good to know there are people on the path – just in case !

There is an unproven story that suggests the steeple on Culborne Church may have come from the missing section of the steeple at Porlock Church…

Culborne Church is the smallest parish church in the UK, it has a capacity of 30 and still has weekly services. To access it you have to make the hour long walk from Porlock or risk driving down what is essentially a four wheel drive track. There has been a church here for many many years – in fact it is one of only a handful of buildings mentioned in the Doomsday Book which was written in 1086, so as well as being old it must have been quite significant. It was a shame about the flies as it was a really nice place to relax.

The walk out of Culborne was all up hill, up hill, up hill and more up hill. It started off through some nice woodland which was great.

Finally breaking out into a long rolling hilly section through farmland, which was probably the worst section of all the walking I did. It was just a bit dull, long sections down narrow roads with high hedges and walls on either side. Frankly, it was just boring. There was also a very large and unavoidable mud hole full of cowshit to cross so I also ended up with wet and smelly shoes, socks and feet.

I did see some sheep – and some deer.

Once I was back under the forest canopy there were plenty of little waterfalls and streams for me to stick my feet, it did not fix the wet socks and shoes, but it did mean I got to clean the mud and cow shit off. Thankfully.

Somewhere in this section I passed from the county of Somerset in to Devon.

This section had lots of short and sometimes steep ascents and descents so I finally got to break my walking poles out and use them, I think they made a difference on some of the climbs. I tried to stop for lunch at the top of one of the climbs, but as soon as I stopped moving I was inundated with flies. I ate a sandwich on the move, which didn’t give me the rest I wanted, but it did fill my tummy and provide a bit of energy for more walking.

The 19^th century stone cross near Sisters Fountain.

Just past the hogs head topped gateposts to Woodland Lodge I found a patch of sun on the grass and stopped to eat my sandwiches and change the wet socks for dry ones. My feet feel OK, but any precautions that can be taken to prevent blisters should be taken.

There was still a fair bit of walking to go before I got my first view of today’s final destination – Lynmouth and Lynton, way in the distance.

On the way I passed another, very tame, Exmoor pony and her foal, who seemed to not like the very bright sun too much !

By this stage I was quite close (or so I thought) to Lynmouth and there were a number of day walkers and families out and about on the cliff tops. Just past the St John the Baptist church of Countisbury, I saw there was a large car park and a pub – which probably explains the number of people…

From here it was pretty much down hill all the way, and I mean that in the positive sense too ! Looking back I just see the path rolling along the edge of the horizon. Stunning !

The good news was I was soon in the nice, but very busy town of Lynmouth. The bad news was the campground was in Lynton, at the top of the hill – a big hill, a soul destroyingly big hill !

I didn’t take the funicular – that would be admitting defeat. I walked another 45 minutes, getting lost and then a bit grumpy, before I found the lovely little campsite.

After checking in – and paying my 6.50 (note this for a later post, I sense a rant coming in a few days) for me and my tent, I picked up two beers and an ice cream from the shop before flopping unceremoniously onto the ground next to the stream that flowed past the campsite.

I was knackered – this was a much harder day than yesterday!

Once I had my tent assembled and myself and my clothes washed I decided to go to the pub next door for tea. There was no cell phone reception in the campsite and the pub had wifi. Except it didn’t, it was broken. I was really thrown by this, bizarrely thrown, I must have been tired. I knew this was likely to be the case on the path, but knowing it may happen and it actually happening are two different things ! I had told El I would let her know each day when I arrived at my destination and finding I couldn’t easily do it was frustrating. I decided to have a really early dinner and then walk back into town with the hope of getting reception there. Luckily as I sat eating my very average Thai noodles a bar of mobile reception appeared and I managed to get a couple of messages away. Relieved, I am not sure I wanted to walk any further today. I did manage to get El to find me a guest house in Combe Martin for me to stay in tomorrow night. I am going to have a rest day on Sunday – nothing to do with it being the first Arsenal game of the season on the telly, honest…

After eating I went back to the campsite and had a bit of a play with some long exposure photos in the stream.

After that it was bed time, I was quite tired. It had been a much longer and harder day than yesterday. But apart from the wee moment when I had no reception I had another good day.

Tomorrow is supposed to be really tough, Gulp !!

SWCP Walk day 1, Minehead to Porlock.

Thursday 06 August 2015 – Porlock, Somerset.

It has finally arrived ! The day I start walking, so yep, naturally it is raining.

I had a good English breakfast in the hotel after a restless night. Loads of sausages, bacon, eggs and beans, some good protein and energy and a whole pile of food sitting in my belly to use up the extra energy consumed. It tasted good though Smile

I hung around the hotel lobby in a state of nervous tension, jumping up to look out the window every 30 seconds to see if the rain had stopped. It was still drizzling at 9:30 but I thought ‘sod it’, donned my raincoat and pack and headed out the door. I was off !

My first stop was 100 metres away at the bottom of the hill at the ‘Hands statue’. A large bronze by Owen Cunningham and installed in 2001. I stopped for the obligatory photo, luckily there were two Dutch women who were starting a week’s walking and one of them kindly took my photo for me. I meet these two ladies a few times over the next three days.

I am the only person I see wearing shorts…

I guess I go this way.

The weather was still failing to inspire though.

After a few minutes of walking to the edge of town I was finally out and in the countryside with seven miles to go to my first night of camping in Porlock. I am planning on following a commonly recognised route of walking between towns with campsites and other facilities. Today’s walk is supposed to take just under four hours. I will then be able to assess how my walking speed relates to those in the guidebook I am using. (The Trailblazer series). The acorn is the symbol of the SWCP and I will see an awful lot of them, which is a good thing.

The rain stopped soon after I hit the trail proper and just before I started up North Hill, the first climb on the path. It got quite steep in parts and was not all smooth wide graded track – honest.

By the time I got to the top I was pouring sweat through my jacket and stopped to take it off. I also needed to make an adjustment to my pack as it was riding a bit too low and restricting my hip movement a bit. It should be riding on my hips anyway, at least it is easily adjustable. I was knackered already !!

The forest is really lovely here, it is totally different to NZ forest, being a lot more open and lighter with a clear break between the trees and underlying scrub. I really like it and I particularly like the big fern areas.

Finally I am at the top, and the day is clearing up nicely as well.

The walk across the cliff tops, on the edge of Exmoor national park is lovely, rolling coastal path, it is warm and humid and there is a constant warm head wind as well. Strong enough that I noticed the gusts when they hit me and my pack. I see plenty of wildlife, Exmoor ponies, cows and even a very hairy bug on the trail – I do not see any other people. Love it.

The moorland is wonderful, there are patches of farm land, but this early section of walking is through what I call proper moorland, grasses and wild flowers abound, it is wild and beautiful and exactly what I wanted to see when I decided to do the walk.

I stopped for a rest and a snack bar on a bench up above the beach near Porlock. Reading my notebook it says ‘I am aching all over…’ My body is not used to the hills and not used to carrying any sort of weight. I note that I am expecting to be sore in the morning – and tomorrow is a seven hour walk!

Back on the trail I am soon round the last headland and overlooking the town of Porlock, and down the coast to where I will be walking tomorrow – those headlands just keep on going!

The track down the hill in to Bossington was just screaming to be ridden down, not technical by any means at all, just fast, gloriously fast. Sadly, I was just walking and not riding a mountain bike.

At some point after this I managed to do two stupid things, I suppose it was good to get them out of the way nice and early. Firstly I didn’t pay any attention to the map and ended up on the wrong path. This was not disastrous as I didn’t go too far wrong, just ended up with a bit more road walking than I would have liked. Secondly, and another failure to pay attention, this time it could have been worse as I turned my ankle on a rock. It was a brief flash of pain, and a brief flash of ‘oh shit’ went through my mind, but luckily it walked off fairly quickly. I would have been gutted to have hurt myself before the end of day one. My left ankle is a wee bit dodgy, it is weak and turns easily. I know this, I should have taken care. Or maybe I should have bought boots?

There was no crisis either way and I made my way into Bossington to look for the small cafe there so I could stop for lunch. I had a cheese and onion toastie and a chocolate shake and they were both really really nice. I felt like I had earned them too.

Bossington was cute, I like a cute English village and the coast path passes through many many of them as it winds its way through Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. I suspect I will take lots of photos.

Not far too to Porlock now, I lump the pack back on to my back and head off up the hill from Bossington to Porlock, I am not sure if I take the correct path, but end up where I want to be so no complaints. Except – why are campsites always up a hill ?

I arrive at SparkHayes campsite early in the afternoon and get my tent up under nice sunny skies. The campsite is large and quite quiet, this makes me happy. I put my tent up near a wall to try and break some of the wind, with moderate success.

It was then time to break out the new stove and make my first cup of coffee on it. Very exciting, so exciting I took a picture so you too can share in the thrill!

That was the end of day one of walking. It took me 3 hours 50 to do the 4 hour walk. I think me and the guide book will get on just fine. Especially if I actually read and follow the map.

I had dinner in the Lorna Doone hotel. I stayed there when I visited Porlock in 2012, and remembered that the food was nice. They also had a decent sauvignon blanc as well. I had a couple of glasses with dinner before making my way back to my tent, settling in for the first time and reading until it was dark. I met the Dutch ladies again in the restaurant, though they are having their bags ported a long the coast and are staying in guest houses. A solo walker along with a family group of walkers arrived in the campground while I was out. I will see them a few a times over the next few days too.

Day one went well, really well. I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

I was originally planning on taking my small laptop on the walk so I could edit photos and write posts as I went. This was a stupid idea really, and I wisely tossed that one out a while back and bought a small notebook instead. I made lots of notes as I went. It was the right thing to do.

South West Coast Path (SWCP) walk day -1.

Wednesday 05 August 2015 – Minehead, Somerset.

After a few weeks of thinking and planning I am finally on my way south west from London to start the walk. I am making my way to Minehead a day early as I want to visit Dunster Castle, I have seen it a couple of times out of bus windows and have been keen to visit, so decided to take the opportunity while I was here. Given the fact that it was forecasted to, and eventually did , rain quite heavily over night I am glad I made the choice to not start walking today. Ease my way in to it.

El was up early to go swimming, so I had an hour at home to faff, do a final check, add to my pack the things I thought about in the middle of the night, take out the things I decided I didn’t need in the middle of the night and generally get ready to go without having to have a conversation with anyone. I am not the most social person when I am about to go travelling. I left soon after she got home and after the rush hour had passed. I will miss her while I am away.

Walking down to Walthamstow station was the first time I had walked more than ten feet with my pack on, it seemed to be OK – though heavy after not carrying any sort of weight for a while.

The train journey to Taunton was fine, and I was lucky to find the Minehead bus waiting at the station. The bus driver, who was about to depart as I was leaving the station, kindly waited for me and reopened the doors to let me on. If this was London he would have shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘sorry mate, it’s the rules’, and then driven off leaving me on the foot path. I am liking Somerset. The bus did seem to visit every single village in West Somerset on the way though…

I arrived in Minehead and found my hotel easily enough; it was one of those quintessentially English hotels that are so endearing, and a touch frustrating. I suspect they have been what they have been for decades – and have no plan or need to change. Needless to say I was the youngest person there by a couple of decades apart from some young kids with their (I am assuming) grand parents. I had selected it as it was very close to the start of the path – plus it was a decent price!

I dumped my gear, packed a few essentials in an ultra-light day bag and headed out the door to visit the castle I had yet again seen from the window of the bus. Minehead is a funny place, it is not really my sort of holiday destination – it has a massive Butlins and not much else and caters for a different market to me. The tide was out and the skies a bit grim, which did not add to its appeal.

I caught the bus to Dunster Castle, I think there is a walkway through the hills but I was not wanting to get wet before I started. Last time I was here I spent quite a bit of time by this bus stop – as I did this time. Waiting, waiting.

Minehead is one end of the West Somerset Railway and if I had planned this part of my trip with more care I would have taken the old steam train from the town of Bishops Lydeard, which the bus passed through on the way to Minehead.

Dunster Castle is a National Trust property, as I am a member, I did not have to pay to enter. It was not my favourite type of castle, I much prefer the falling down ruined type, but it was well worth the visit and I enjoyed exploring it and the grounds. Though it was quite busy, as is usual on a holiday day when you cannot visit the beach.

There has been a castle on this site for over a thousand years. The first recorded fort was established by the Saxon Thegn Aelfric who was killed alongside King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. His land was given to a Norman, William de Mohun for his services in that battle. The older parts of the castle were built by the de Mouhn family until they were forced to sell it in 1376. The property was bought by the Luttrell family who owned it for 600 years, finally gifting it to the National Trust in 1976. Large parts of the original castle were destroyed at the end of the civil war in 1650.

I do like a good doorway, especially with some steps with an unseen ending. This gateway is from the 13th century and is the oldest remaining part of the castle.

Nice ! (though a bit of a wonky photo)

This was the toilet block…

Listening in to one of the guides talking to another visitor I heard about a roof leak a few years ago that had damaged the 19^th century Italian wallpaper in this room. As replacement paper was no longer available they had to remove sections of paper behind these paintings to repair the water damaged sections. I liked that story.

The view out of the window from the upper floor over the Bristol Channel was a bit a foreboding and a reminder that I should not linger too long if I did not want to get soaked walking back to the bus stop – naturally I did not pack my rain coat….

I wanted to explore the castle grounds and visit the old water mill, but just after I got outside a light rain started to fall so I took a change of direction and headed back towards the entrance, via the small stream on the edge of the property.

I was looking to get a better angle to take a photo of the castle from, which I found.

The bus arrived at the bus stop soon after I did, though I did jog there to avoid getting overly wet. It was looking a bit grim in Minehead as I walked back to the hotel.

Though the forecast is looking pretty good for the rest of the week !

With not much else to do, and nerves not allowing me to relax too much I ended up down in the bar for a pre-dinner pint and then an early meal. The food was fine, basic 1970’s English holiday fare – served by a waiter who probably harks back to those days as well. The good old days of Basil Fawlty type service.

I retired early and had a hot bath, with a small whisky and my book – lovely, a bath and a shower in a hotel. the 1970’s were not all bad !!

I am really looking forward to starting the walk tomorrow. I am a little worried about how I go out there, not overly worried of course, as I sort of know what I am doing and I do know what I am physically capable of. I have never walked a long distance before, I have not carried a pack on a hike for decades and I am doing this on my own. Things to ponder while I tried to sleep.

I am on way into the unknown again, adventure ahoy !!!

All the gear and no idea!

Thursday 14 August 2015 – Walthamstow.

‘All the gear and no idea’ was a phrase we used to toss around when we used to see blokes (it is always blokes) mountain biking on flash bikes with all the latest clothes and toys and we would hammer past on our crusty single speeds.

There had been a lot of talk (mainly in my head) over the past few weeks of a plan to start walking the South West Coast Path, located on – not to be too obvious, England’s south west coast. The official path is 1013 kilometres (630 miles in English), and I had intended to do as much as I could in the 16 days I had between visiting Bruges with El and meeting El for a three day holiday in Mawgan Porth, which is on the path in Cornwall, later in the month.

I had spent quite a bit of time planning and researching the trip, shopping for the equipment I was missing – which was most of it and generally having a good time of it all.

I started the walk on Thursday 6 July at one of its official start/finish points in Minehead, Somerset at the tail end of a light shower. It was the first time I had put my new pack on for any length of time and it was hard work walking up the first hill out of Minehead!

I did not have any fixed plan for walking, it was going to be dependent on the weather, how I felt and if I found myself in the most perfect place in the world. I was thinking along the lines of – walk three days, rest one day, camp as much as possible and stay in guest houses if I felt like it or the weather imposed it – I was not overly excited about the prospect of walking and camping in the rain if I didn’t have too.

I ended up doing five days of walking before hobbling/skulking back to London with my tail, metaphorically, between my legs.

I had researched pretty well. I knew what to expect, and was not surprised at how tough it was, or how hard I found it – given the lack of training I had done. Carrying a 17 or so kilo pack when you are not used to it is tiring! I knew I could walk myself fit, so was not too concerned about fitness, the base is there. What I failed to do properly and this is such a stupid beginners mistake, was to check the state of my shoes before I left home. They were far more worn than I realised, and I think they contributed to my shortened walk.

I stopped walking after five days with a really sore hip, rested for a while and then my foot started to hurt – not just an ache, but shooting pains. I have suffered from small bouts of plantar fasciitis in the past, usually shoe related and I am pretty certain that my self diagnosis is correct. The forecast for the following two days was terrible – thunder and storms so I decided to go home instead: about eight days earlier than ‘planned’. Oh well.

I did enjoy the walk, there was some glorious views, some lovely walking, mixed with some hard walking and I met some nice people on the way. My new equipment is all up to task and my pack is fantastic, it felt great on, felt lighter on my back than it did lifting it up to put it on, so I was extremely pleased with my purchases.

I learnt a lot over the few days I walked, I am going to continue with the walk when I next get a chance, making good use of what I learned. So, what did I learn ?

I need to ensure my shoes are perfect before I go. I knew this, have known this for years and really kicked myself for this ridiculous failure to check them before I left.
I need a new sleeping bag, I was really cold in Porlock and Lynton, even though it is late summer. I was really surprised by this. I have used the sleeping bag in late autumn and been fine.
Stretching is good, I knew this before I left and used it wisely in the morning and evening. I had very little leg pain, until my hip seized.
Less is best. Again, I knew this before I left, but obviously I didn’t really know it enough. My experiences backpacking in Asia told me all about packing stuff. When I went to SE Asia my pack weighed 15kg, when I left it was closer to 11. That was a lot of stuff ditched.
While I wanted to free camp, I didn’t – I was too scared to, maybe less scared and more worried about it, something. Anyway, I didn’t do it, so I didn’t need to take so much food related stuff and all the bits and pieces needed when not staying in camp grounds. I could have ditched over a kilo of stuff just taken for that alone.
Not heroically power walking non-stop day after day is OK. Stopping to smell the flowers is fine. In fact, arriving mid-afternoon in a busy, noisy campsite is worse than arriving in the evening if there is nothing to do.
Training more would have been better, but was not essential. You can walk yourself fit, but next time I will do a little more.
Breaks are good, taking a few moments to sit and admire the view and rest the legs are just rewards for climbing those hills. Eating a snack makes it even better.

Finally, and most importantly. Ear plugs for camping grounds 🙂

It was loads of fun at times and less fun at others. I was lonelier than I expected, while I relished the solitude at times when I was travelling in SE Asia, I relished it less this time. My life has changed since those days and while I do like spending time on my own, I didn’t crave it like I did before, I am glad I had my ereader!

I am still determined to walk the whole path, I know more of what to expect when I start again and how to prepare for it better, maybe next time I will find a walking buddy as well. There will be a next time – and sooner rather than later I hope.

I took a lot of photos and will post some details of the walks over the next few days.

Was it a case of ‘all the gear and no idea’ ? I don’t think so, though I certainly I had all the gear.

One week till I start walking the South West Coast Path

Tuesday 28 July 2015 – Walthamstow.

It is hard to believe that in a week’s time I am heading off on a bit of an adventure. Staying in England, and heading back to the South West Coast Path, though this time with a pack and a tent. I have been mildly obsessed with the path ever since I was a support driver for Malcolm Law and Tom Bland when they ran the path for charity back in 2012. I cannot get enough of it, mind you it is pretty long, so there is plenty to go around.

Unlike those two, I am not mad enough to consider trying to run the entire 630 miles, so I am planning on walking it instead, doing so over a couple of years rather than one long session. This summer I am lucky to have a month off work, and will do three weeks of walking – if I can.

When I first decided to do this a few weeks back I had in mind a three week power walk, carrying all my gear, free camping as much as possible, cooking and being self sufficient. The reality of the distance and the terrain has now fully set in, and mixed with the reality of my fitness and experience (or lack thereof) of multi day hikes I have settled for doing the best I can and just enjoying myself. If I do three days walking and three weeks of lying in the sun reading a book, then so be it. At least I left home. I suspect I will achieve something in between.

One of the many things I enjoy about doing different things is all the research that goes into these activities. I realise I am not going to Antarctica or the Amazon jungle, so research is sort of overkill, but it is part of my routine and I get great pleasure out of it – mixed with a bunch of self doubt and fear thrown in for good measure, once the reality of hiking sunk in.

For this trip I needed to pretty much buy everything, I have a good travelling pack, but it would be hopeless for hiking, I have a sleeping bag, and that is pretty much it. I needed a tent, a stove, sleeping mat, walking poles and a raft of other bits and pieces thrown in. I spent a lot of times in shops, reading, internet searching and generally enjoying myself researching things I knew very little about. Last weekend I went out and bought it all. I spent a lot of money as I prefer to buy quality over cheap. But I am happy with my purchases.

At the weekend I had a test day of putting up the tent, checking the stove, and a first load of the pack with most of the crap I have accumulated for the trip, some which will be dumped before I go I am sure…

The tent went up pretty easily and is as small as I expected a light weight two person tent to be, I reckon it will fit me and my pack comfortably, but I would not be wanting to share it with anyone else.

The surprising thing was when I took it down and put it all back in its bag, it actually fitted with room to spare. This was actually a shock, a pleasant one mind.

After a bit more research this week and a second packing session – I have tossed out some stuff already, I have found that the modern thing to do is put the tent at the top of the pack not the base.

The pack is very shiny !! I remember when the Macpac pack I took on my travels was this shiny. It isn’t any more 🙂

I have decided that for this trip I am not going to take a laptop, I was planning on taking my little travelling laptop and doing some writing and photo editing on the way, but even the small laptop weighs too much, and I am going to have to be very weight conscious (pack weight, not me weight. I plan on eating like a pig). I will take a pen and notebook and more flash memory for the camera instead. So there will unlikely be any posts along the way.

Not taking a laptop worries me somewhat as I will have to decide now what music I want to listen to for three weeks. What if I change my mind ?

It is a hard walk, the more I read the tougher it sounds, while there are no mountains to traverse the path is a constant stream of small ascents and descents, and a lot of them steep. I admit to being a little pensive about the whole thing. I guess it all adds to the excitement, in a way.

This Friday is my last day at work for 4 weeks, Yay !! As a great start to my holiday, El and I are off to the lovely lovely city of Bruges for the weekend. We are very excited about this. El has not been there and I have not been since 1987. It was the first European town I stopped at on my incomplete Europe tour and I shot a whole role of film there, which was utterly extravagant at the time. I was stunned at how beautiful the old town was, I suspect not much has changed since then. I also suspect I will take more photos this time!

Wahoo !! Looking forward to an awesome August !!

Flying away.

Friday 12 June 2015 – Auckland, New Zealand.

In life time I was only travelling for 28 hours, but I left London on Wednesday and arrived in Auckland on Friday – at stupid o’clock, 5 AM. The vagaries of travelling east meant I lost half a day – so I am still wondering what happened to Thursday. Though wondering what happened to a Thursday is not an unusual occurrence. Not because I do anything on a Wednesday night, it is just one of those unexciting, meaningless days in a normal week that makes Saturday seem further away that it should be.

I have been looking forward to this trip back to New Zealand for a while, though I am not really having a ‘holiday’ holiday, this trip will mainly be about sorting things out. I was originally planning on a trip in May (previously it was January, and then Easter), but my work project conspired against me each time. Missing May meant I missed my mum and two of my children’s birthdays, but this trip allows me time to celebrate my grandson’s first birthday, a fairly momentous occasion and worth heading ‘home’ for. What I was mainly looking forward to was handing over my work to my newly hired contract helper and walking out the office door last night ! Freedom !!!

I did start the day with a few remaining work tasks before heading off to the airport at 10:00 for a civilised flight time of 1:30 pm. Over a few years I have accumulated a few air miles on my credit card so decided I would use them and upgrade myself to premium economy on the leg to New Zealand, which means I fly Qantas via Dubai and Melbourne. I am not a big fan of multiple stopovers but the upgrade and the timing of the flights made this the best option. Sitting here typing in my wide premium economy seat with extra leg room and a glass of pretty decent red wine I am not going to complain about the extra stop. I will see how it all feels once I arrive in Auckland! There was a slightly late departure, though a glass of bubbles eased the pain somewhat.

It is a long way to Auckland from London, with this set of three flights taking just over 28 hours to get me there with over 24 hours of that being flying time. I watched five movies, mostly terrible, read one magazine and half a book, ate four meals, drank red wine, coffee and whisky and what felt like gallons of water and slept not at all.

Did I enjoy it – No.

Was it tolerable – Yes.

Am I glad I came over – I will just have to see.

St Mary’s Church, Walthamstow.

Sunday 07 June 2015 – Walthamstow.

Like the Parkland Walk from yesterday, an exploration of Walthamstow’s St Mary’s Church has been on my to-do list for over a year, and since becoming a worker I have just not had the time or the inclination to explore it, even though it is only a ten minute walk from home…

St Mary’s has had a longer history than I first thought with the first church being built on the site in the 12 century, though not much of the original building remains perhaps just the footers at the end of the internal columns right at the front of the church. Reconstruction, modification and expansion of the church regularly took place over the next 400 hundred years with further work in the 19^th century.

This was slightly wasted as the church was extensively damaged during the second world war and all the railings around the church yard were removed for the war effort – to be replaced in the 1950s.

It was a fairly last minute decision to walk up and take some photos, we had been having some quite nice weather and the grass around the gravestones was long and moody and I knew that if I left it until my trip to New Zealand this week, it would all be mowed flat when I returned.

I have not used my big old DSLR for ages, but once I started using it again I realised how much of a mistake that was. I love that camera.

A walk in the Park(land)

Saturday 06 June 2015 – Parkland Walk, London.

The Parkland Walk has been on my list of things to do for ages and ages, I cannot remember how it got on the to-do list or where I discovered it, but it looked like it was worth doing – mainly just because it was there to be done.

The walk follows the path of an abandoned railway line that was ripped up in the 1970s and turned into a park in 1984, it goes from Finsbury Park up to Highgate, it is not particularly long, particularly interesting or particularly scenic. But it is a really lovely short walk, taking under an hour from start to finish. It is also incredibly popular, I have never seen so many runners in London on a Saturday morning. It was a nice sunny day, though cool and very windy. A good running or walking day.

I am sitting at my mum’s dining table in New Zealand as I write this, I am tired after three days with almost no sleep, and jet-lagged from my flight over from London, so not feeling the most effusive today.

The path is surrounded by a narrow band of scrub and trees which mostly the hide the houses that run close to the path.

As the path is based on an old railway line there are numerous bridges along the way as the path passes under the roads. These are the heavily graffitied and a reminder that we are in the middle of a city.

There was also a really cool little playground under the trees.

Just past the remains of Crouch Hill station I spotted this sculpture lurking in one of the arches, quite frightening ! It is the Spriggan and is by Marilyn Collins, it was installed in 1993. According to urban legend, a ghostly ‘goat-man’ haunted the walk in the 1970s and 1980s and children dared each other to walk the walk between Crouch End Hill bridge to the Crouch Hill bridge in the darkness. The sculpture, and Parkland Walk generally, provided the inspiration for Stephen King’s short story “Crouch End” I can see why!

This section off the path ends just before Highgate Station when the lines go into old tunnels that have now been blocked off as they are now the home to bats.

We walked up past the station and across into Highgate Wood.

After seeing a sign pointing to a cafe we decided to take a break and sit down for coffee and cake, before backtracking a bit and heading up/down to Highgate.

We walked down through Waterlow Park in Highgate and on to Gospel Oak station to catch the train back to Walthamstow. El did. I took a detour through Shoreditch and grabbed a couple of new release records on the way. I wanted something new to listen to on the plane, but neither came with download codes which was a wee bit annoying.

It was a lovely walk, somewhere new to explore and something I would recommend on a sunny day. London never fails to amaze me with the amount of outdoorness there is.

Strawberry Hill Pond

Saturday 23 May 2015 – Epping Forest.

Now that I am a working man I can fully appreciate the fact that May has two bank holiday weekends, or long weekends as we would call them in New Zealand. This weekend is the second of them. Sadly it is also the last long weekend for quite a long time, but at least summer holidays are looming in this, the northern half of the world, so there is something to look forward to.

On the subject of holidays, I have two planned so far for the coming summer; a quick ten day visit to New Zealand in June for my grandson’s first birthday and then I am taking the whole of August as a break. I have a plan for the month off; it involves lots of walking, a tent and parts of the southwest coast path – I am very drawn to that (not so) small, but beautiful part of England’s coast. I blame Malcolm Law!

One of the things I really enjoy about any trip or activity I do is the pre-planning and research, so with both NZ and a proper backpacking holiday approaching I have been spending an awful lot of time in front of the laptop surfing the internet to book flights, plan accommodation and research the best pack and tent for multi-day solo walking trips. This usually ends up with me getting distracted, looking for some obscure noisy band and then buying their records, like the new album by 93Millionmilesfromthesun which I bought last week.

The weather forecast for this weekend is looking reasonable – i.e. it is not supposed to rain, so El and I decided this morning to make the most of the day and get out for a walk. I had wanted to find Strawberry Hill Pond in Epping Forest since I rode past it a few weeks back on a group mountain bike ride, as the sun was out we decided it would be a good thing to do with the day.

We caught a bus up to Loughton as it is on the edge of the forest and not far from where the map said the pond was likely to be. As we walked up the road from Loughton into and through the forest it started to drizzle with rain so we instead of heading immediately into the forest we chose to walk up the road a bit further and stop at the Robin Hood pub for a coffee and a bit of shelter.

We were the only ones in there at 11:30am. I supposed that is a good thing.

We hung around for a while after the coffee as we waited for the rain to stop, but eventually gave up and headed out into a light drizzle, the pub is in the middle of the forest and we only had to walk a short distance to get onto a section of single track used by the mountain bikers – and into the shelter of the trees, as we headed back to the car park where the path off to the ponds started.

As we approached the car park I suggested taking a short detour in the complete opposite direction to look for Loughton Camp, the site of an Iron Age fort. I always imagine ancient fort sites as having ruined walls and slightly leaning old towers, but these very old forts were made of wood and are long gone. All that is left is the earth works. As this was not part of the plan before we left home I only had a vague idea of its location and after 15 minutes of walking up some short, but surprisingly steep inclines we turned around and headed back to where we should have been going in the first place. I will try and find the fort on a bike ride one day soon.

Strawberry Hill Pond, like all the other ponds in this stretch of the wood was formed when Epping New Road was built in the 1830s and gravel was dug from the ground for its construction. Sadly the early burst of clean sun we saw before leaving home did not make a repeat appearance after the rain and the light was terrible for taking photos. Flat and dull. None of the photos I took around the ponds are particularly good, they do show what a lovely spot it would be on a nice day though.

We walked around the outside of the small pond, and I spotted three herons sitting in the top of a tree on one of the islands in the pond. The pond is not fed from any stream so the water is all supplied by rain, it is brown due to the soil rather than it being dirty. It really is a pretty area and it was a shame that the sun was not shining on it to really make the colour in the trees shine.

The herons flew away soon after we saw them. One of them landed on the shore on the far side of the pond so we headed in that direction, just as I went to take a photo from a spot quite close to the bird, a couple coming the other way disturbed the heron before I could press the shutter.

For some reason I was really surprised to see the herons today, I never really saw them as a bird that lived in such proximity to a big city, sometimes it is really good to have perceptions changed.

I thought I knew the way to Chingford station from the pond, and while we did not get lost on the way back and I am fairly sure we took the correct paths, it did take a lot longer to get there than I expected it would. Though there are not too many other places I would rather be unsure of my location in. We soon popped out of the forest onto the bottom of the final hill before lunch.

We chose to stop for lunch at Butler’s Retreat, a Victorian era building, originally designed as a food store, though it has been a cafe for quite a long time now. Neither of us had been there for lunch, plus it was the first place we came to!

We both had bacon sandwiches and they were excellent, as were the coffees and cakes we decided to have for dessert, after all that walking we felt we had deserved cake! The food was very expensive, more than it should be, but at least it was good. I would stop there again I think.

With full bellies we waddled the last kilometre to Chingford Station to catch the train back to Walthamstow and home.

I was disappointed with the weather – especially the unexpected rain shower, but it was a really nice walk and lovely to be back outside. It is a real blessing to have Epping Forest so near by.