Maze 2016

It  was right at the end of the season but we managed to squeeze in the annual visit.

The theme this year was Roald Dahl and the picture was the BFG.

The crop wasn't so great, not very thick and only shoulder high in some places. I was surprised, I thought it had been a good summer.

As usual we covered all 3 miles and found all 10 boards. HWMBO came with us this year (and claimed he had been with us every year!)  and he was more keen than me to walk every path way. We mark them off with a pen as we go to be sure we've done it. And there is much doubling back on ourselves to pick up the more obscure areas.

We played a few of the games that are there every year, roll the balls into holes for points sort of thing. Never posh, always home made rough-as : it's great, just the way it should be.



The usual photo of me and Cog felt just a little tinged with sadness but I am so glad we still got to do it.


If you want to know more about how a maize maze works then go have a look at this post where I gave all the tips you need for a fun day out.

 I love to see the photos of Cog and I year on year.

2015

This was a good crop year and a fun afternoon with friends.

2014
The weather couldn't make up it's mind, warm, sunny and wet at different points of the walk.
















2013

This was the best crop they'd had in a long time.





2012
Dreadful crop year. But the sunflowers meant it was still well worth seeing.






2011

The owners said it was a bad crop year. It seemed pretty tall to me, but maybe it's about the size and number of the maize itself, not just the height of the plant.








2010

The height was there but the plants were rather lame








2009




A wet year I think as we are wearing wellies.









2008   Again not too bad a height.


















2007
Looks like another bad year.
















Cog  always reminds me that 2006 was the 'alien' year and she went with her father, not me.








2005

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Learning Look Wider Game

The Look Wider program can be a bit complicated for the new Rangers to get their head around, especially when they are expected to plan, undertake then record their own achievements themselves.










The Octant Beetle game was fun and helped last year but I wanted to try something different again this year.

I went for board game style with each square representing a section of the chart.  Some squares give examples of what does count like "Phase 3 out of doors, you camped in all four seasons, well done"

But more were like "Phase 1 leadership, write one example in the chart"

Every Phase 2 was miss one turn. Every Phase 3 was miss 2 turns.  This was to demonstrate that they take longer to achieve.

The chart for the game they had to write on was a badly drawn (by me) octant sheet on flip chart paper.



















To add some fun in I bought a large soft dice, which they enjoyed throwing around the room and at each other.

There was also the all important and numerous 'Take a Biscuit' squares.  They kept the Rangers fed (an absolute requirement for every meeting it would seem!) and also allowed me to talk about how getting all the phase 2 octants means you have achieved your Chief Guide Challenge.

The game went on for a while but came to a natural end as they started to ask questions like "I'm doing a coaching course at swimming, does that count?" "I'm doing this and that, do they count?" "can I have my record sheet to write so and so in?"

I think sometimes the mood for the evening has to be right and the enthusiasm from the leader must be there too, but I was really pleased with how entertaining they found it, the banter it generated and how fired up they were about getting on with completing their phases of the octants.

But mostly they were aiming for the 'take a biscuit' squares!



I have uploaded the Game Squares and full instructions.  You can Download them to use.

My basic instructions are:

I laminated all the sheets
Bought a large dice from Amazon
Drew an octant chart on flip paper (example on slide 2)
Bought biscuits

Lay the squares out on the floor, I did a circle. A block of them with a walk order might work in restricted space.
Make sure the biscuit squares are spread out.

Rangers pick their own starting point, throw dice and do what it says on the square they land on.

You might say they have to go around the board fully once to win but they will probably decide on their own rules for themselves.

*We played this again recently and it didn't have the same energy as the last time.  I came to the conclusion with the girls I have now I should have put them into teams.  One on the board, one throwing dice and one writing and  create competition between the 2 teams, perhaps by giving them a chart each and be the first team to fill it in completely and to totally ignore all the 'miss a turns'.

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Ota Benga

Cog and I went to the Birmingham Sealife in the summer.  I hesitatingly call it summer, as it was cold and throwing it down with rain or sea 'life' as it appeared to be no life at all for the poor creatures in it.  There was a small poking pool in which starfish could be systematically tortured by toddlers, some penguins that had clearly drawn the 'confinement' card and a lot of other water dwellers that seemed cramped and overcrowded in inadequate surroundings.  I was unimpressed.

But didn't think too hard about it until I read feuerthoughts describing exactly how I felt as I shuffled around Sealife  "The justifications for these exhibits fall flat, sound weak and defensive"  But tucked away in a quiet corner it also mentions Ota Benga.

The story of Ota Benga's life was dreadful.  He was taken from the Congo to New York, put in a monkey cage at a zoo and exhibited.   He was eventually released and taken to an orphanage and then he worked but when all hope of returning home was lost he shot himself.

This Guardian write up details his life and it is shameful.  Initially I thought it must have been an ironic living art piece or a demonstration of some sort but no, this was 1906, it was the actual belief that the pygmies were worthless enough to be displayed as animals in a zoo.

The African Pygmy, "Ota Benga."
Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches.
Weight, 103 pounds.
Brought from the Kasai River, Congo Free State, South Central Africa by Dr. Samuel P. VernerExhibited each afternoon during September.

A New York Times article said it was absurd to imagine Benga’s suffering or humiliation. “Pygmies are very low in the human scale, and the suggestion that Benga should be in a school instead of a cage ignores the high probability that school would be a place of torture to him … The idea that men are all much alike except as they have had or lacked opportunities for getting an education of books is now far out of date.”

A statement like that leaves us reeling now and yet at the time it was believed.  In the same way now we still believe it is ok to take Orca babies from their mums for our entertainment and shoot gorillas when that entertainment is not safely controlled.

"Two years before Ota Benga arrived in New York, Daniel Brinton, a professor of linguistics and archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, had used his farewell address as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to attack claims that education and opportunity accounted for varying levels of achievement among the races. “The black, the brown, and the red races differ anatomically so much from the white, especially in their splanchnic organs, that even with equal cerebral capacity they never could rival its results by equal efforts” "

100 years ago in the UK the class system was holding down the poor,  people with few rights. It was then the very start of welfare reforms. Despite the massive changes with the welfare state, education for all and the opportunities available today we still have a them and us feeling.  We know that the class system still exists to a certain extent and that the most of us will always be in the lower parts of it.  Its no wonder we have so many disenfranchised people here.

100 years ago in America black men were put in zoos in Monkey cages, 100 years is not enough to change attitudes completely, it's no wonder that Black Live Matter still needs to be a thing.

How many generations of knowing something is wrong must pass before there is a complete mind shift with equality for all - regardless of wealth, colour, creed and maybe even one day species.

When will Zoos and Aquariums in the form we know them now be seen as cruel and unacceptable?

As Steven Feuerstein said "simply substitute "Ota Benga" for "elephant" or "stingray" and see how it reads."

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Rutland Water Circuit 24 miles

When I was moaning at a consultant about wanting to do a marathon and my knees being the biggest worry, he said very earnestly "Is it not enough to know you could do it? You could you know! Now don't do it!"

But it's not enough to know is it.  I at least wanted to prove to myself I can do the distance, if not the running.

Rutland Water is ideal for the proving, it's a 24 mile walk on good paths with only the gentlest of occasional hills.

 I started at the Nature Reserve visitor centre at about 9am and decided to go anti-clockwise.  I chose this way so I would have the bulk of it done before I got to the peninsula.


There are ospreys here.  Bird watching has always been a thing of mine, I considered just staying at the reserve for the day!!




But I set off and immediately felt a bit daunted by the prospect of what lay ahead.

But the weather was perfect, cloudy and just warm.

I was round to Normanton in next to no time.

 I had a rotten cup of tea from the kiosk by the church and watched a wedding party arrive.

 The walk across the dam was lovely.

 There is a beach there now and the families were settling in for a day of play.

 People and nature co-exist very well together here.  It is well managed.

 Some areas are very 'people'

 and I made the most of that whilst I could.

As there was then quite a long length of path by the road, away from the water and fairly dull.

Luckily I took 2 weeks worth of Archers episodes to catch up on to see me through.

 Once I got to the peninsula there was a decision to make: 6 or 13 miles to the car.

I had a rather sore right achilles heel but I took some pain killers and went for it, it would seem a shame to come this far and not do it properly.

 The first mile of the peninsula is also pretty dull but once this is done it was the best part of the walk.

There was hardly anyone around, only 2 other walkers for at least 5 miles (and this was a bank holiday weekend) and very few bikes.

The fields are undulating and there are lovely views over the water.

 And there is clearly an obscene amount of money in this area, the houses are quite special.

There really aren't any facilities on this walk once you are past Barnsdale, so I braved a port-a-loo in an anglers car park - not recommended!

Once I was back on the road out of the peninsula it really felt like the home straight.

 And it was pretty much like walking around at home.

 Country paths mostly.

 But the villages were pretty.

 and occasional views of the water.















The whole route is well sign posted and only a couple of times I was wondering if I had gone the right way but a sign always popped up to confirm it.

 By 5:30 the rain was heavy on the north shore and headed in my direction.

I beat the rain back to the Nature Reserve car park by running the last mile.

It was a good day, well worth the effort.

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Brampton Valley Way

The Brampton valley way is an old railway line that is now a cycle (and walk) route of  22.5km (14 miles) between Northampton and Market Harborough and includes two tunnels you can go through.

The first parking is at Boughton & Church Brampton (Boughton Crossing) and you can ride a steam train for the first part of it.

I needed to do another Risk Assessment walk for Rangers as we hope to repeat last years event at some point but I wanted to add a bit of extra distance onto the walk.

I started at The Brixworth/Spratton car park which would make about a 10 mile walk to Harborough.

The path is good, flat, shingle all the way (except the tunnels).

There are plenty of places to sit on the entire route and there are a number of picnic tables along the route too.


It was about 4km from the Spratton car park to Hanging Houghton. Spratton car park is a much better size if you are planning to park for a long time or have bike racks but for a drop off Hanging Houghton is fine.

There are a number of mosaics along the route.

But more interesting to me, there is a lot of the old architecture from the original Railway.

I loved this old footbridge, still standing despite having seen better days.

And the mosaic to match the fretwork.

You have to cross the A508 as a part of the walk, it is on a bend on this fairly fast road.  Don't try to join the walk here it would be too dangerous to stop cars, go to one of the car parks.

Once you walk under the A14 bear right and it is a short distance to the first tunnel.

The light shining through is a bit of an illusion, it is further to the end than it initially seems.  The floor is uneven, it is pitch back and cold!  So wear shoes that are fairly protective (trainers not sandals) and take a torch.






Cyclists do come through the tunnels and some at quite a rate so make sure your torch can be seen by them.  If you want to know about the tunnels have a read here.

The Kelmarsh car park is north side of the tunnel and is a decent size.  

It is right near RAF Harrington. One of the Thor missile launch sites. No longer active since project Emily ended. It was a key player in the Cuban Missile crisis.

If you are coming this way for a day out why not pull in the Carpet baggers museum at the same time.

There is a pull in area on the Clipstone /Arthingworth lane that you can get to from the A508.  Like the Hanging Houghton access, this is ok for a drop off but not for proper parking.

The Great Oxendon tunnel isn't quite as long as the Kelmarsh tunnel but it is much wetter and muddier.  Stay away from the walls too, they are very dirty.

They are quite enthralling to walk through though, with the bricked up recesses, reflectors, railway markings, vents and I believe there is at least one geo-cache in them, but I've not found it yet.

The double bridge on the other side of the tunnel reminds you that there are in fact 2 tunnels side by side but only one is accessible.


It is really then the homeward straight for me.

A new access point close by the leisure centre means there is no need to walk all the way down to Scotland road and back up.  We usually leave a car at each end of out intended walk - this one was Spratton car park to Harborough Leisure Centre car park - just under 11 miles.  It took us about 3.5 hours


The walk goes on a little further to a small car park, which is it's final end point - the old Little Bowdon level crossing.

It is a lovely walk, very easy with interest along the way.  I will do the full 14 miles next time - as soon as I can convince HWMBO!!!

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