A Guiding Life

Croxton Kerrial - getting map brave

>> Monday, September 23, 2019

Spurred on by the success of my Birthday Amble I decided I was ready to drag my walking friend out to test my map reading and leadership skills. I had seen another walk on the same website as before. But I didn't fancy the full 21 miles, so I bought the maps (why does any decent route always go over at least 2 maps!) and set to reducing the walk a bit but still having a bit of ascent.

I then put the maps down and did what any sane person would do and plotted it out on OS maps! It's much easier to pull lines around and see the distance recalculated as you change paths. Then I took it back to the paper maps to be sure I was familiar with how it looked. There were also a couple of parts where I was not sure whether the paths shown would be permissive or private and I needed to be sure I knew what my alternative would be.

We started at Croxton Kerrial church. There is a handy space to park there at the start of the path.

The weather was perfect walking weather, warm and generally overcast with a gentle breeze. And from the start point the views were an indicator of a lovely walk ahead.

through the edge of Harston wood

And Belvoir castle was in sight (I've visted this castle many times as it's not far from home and it's a 'tourist from a castleless country' 's wet dream - 1067 blah blah, Duke of Rutland blah blah. But I've never walked to it so it was pretty cool to see it like this.

It's as foreign tourist English as it gets around here unless you are actually in the Cotswolds!

And the locals play ball by keeping London buses in their back gardens.

Just past Harston, we joined the Viking way.

The path is 147 miles long from the Humber to Rutland water.

The path started well.

But I wouldn't fancy some parts of it in very wet weather, It would clearly be very boggy in places.

But lovely all the same.

People seemed very excited about this small set of locks near Woolsthorpe, I assume because they are a short walk from the Dirty Duck which looked a pleasant pub for a lunch.

I would have liked to have pointed them towards Foxton where we do locks 'properly'!

Anyway, onwards towards the castle. The first of the paths I suspected would be private was indeed, so we went the alternate (or correct) way around - if you use the gpx file I've made available it does use the proper route.

We joined the Cross Britain Way (279 miles Boston to Barmouth!)

And continued towards the castle.

The unfortunate thing being once you think it's getting really close it disappears behind a screen of trees not to be seen again!

But they do have a good set up at the car park for tea, cake and a toilet stop. And bizarrely not overpriced - have they learnt nothing about fleecing Americans!

The next part of the route was the other part where I thought the path I was looking at might be private so, over cake, we decided to follow Plan B without even trying Plan A (and again the gpx is on the correct footpath). The correct path is to the south of old park wood and the Jubilee Way onto Terrace Hills.

Again this was 'England'. My money was on: if I haven't read a novel written in this cottage then there is one written about happenings in it!

This was my favourite part of the walk.

It had amazing views towards Nottingham

There is a beacon tucked just off the path, which I couldn't see marked on the map at all. It is the Armada Beacon Memorial on Beacon Hill.

Not beautiful but of great importance.

I really like it up here and would walk this way again just for a short stroll and there were plenty of other people doing just that.

We continued to follow the Jubilee Way to Tofts lane, just skirting Stathern.

And turning south towards Eaton

where we left the Jubilee Way to head west towards Branston.

This was actually a tricky part of the navigation, that shouldn't have been hard but the paths were not well marked and very overgrown in places.

This was an interesting run off. I felt happy enough with it to wash my hands in it. Walking partner did not. I'd trust him more than me!

I chose the high route out, there is a low route too.

Then followed a good path out of Branston (yes we sang "bring out the Branston") back towards Croxton Kerrial

And the hardest part of the route.

We were so close to the car I could almost smell it and only 2 fields and about 1000 turkeys stood between me and it. They were so loud and even if we'd managed to push open the gate we were worried they'd be out before you could shout 'Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat'

So we turned back and walked the last section on the road!

It was a lovely day of 16 plotted miles - 18 walked in total according to my GPS - I'm still struggling to find those extra 2 miles even with the private path discovery and the wander around Belvoir castle shops so I'll sign it up as a 16 miler still and 1125' ascent.

There were a lot of red kytes, buzzards, red legged partridges, sand martins and other birds, a surprising amount of intact but dead animals on the paths like a robin, vole, partridge. We saw a pheasant get hit by a car too which lead to a lengthy discussion about is it appropriate as a vegetarian to eat meat if it was killed by accident rather than design! Anyway, lots of flora and fauna (if not all breathing) around.

If you want to see the route you can download the gpx file.

I did put it on my watch before I went but I didn't really bother with it, I followed the map. I'm totally impressed with myself and always grateful for my walking partners calm support and never ending patience.

Penny for your thoughts

>> Tuesday, September 17, 2019

When I was about 9 years old I came out of primary school and my friends were buying ice-creams at the pokey man who always parked outside at going home time. I was a penny short. I don’t recall if I knew I was a penny short before I asked for an ice-cream or after he gave it to me but I do recall him saying I could owe him a penny.

A penny then wasn’t to be sniffed at. You could still buy penny sweets. 2 biscuits at break time were 1p. A penny found was a biscuit-mine!

So I had this heavy debt hanging over me and my memory then was as good as it is now. I never had that penny coming out of school. I’d slink past the van feeling like he was watching and judging me. I daren’t tell my parents I was ‘in debt’ because of the lecture I’d have gotten about why I’d taken an ice-cream I couldn’t afford. So I silently carried the guilt.

The back story was we had a fair share of money worries at home due to my father's illness and that if he didn’t work he didn’t get paid. I knew not to open the door to the milkman wanting his money and to stay out of sight of the butcher who tied the Sunday meat to the back door handle.

Are our characters formed by these experiences? Or do these experiences affect us differently because of our inherent characters? Whichever, I’ve carried this debt of guilt now for 40 years and can’t not recall if whenever I see an ice-cream van.

On the upside I don’t ‘do’ debt now. I attribute that to my grandmother’s advice when I bought my first house. She showed me the accounts book she kept. Money in from her housekeeping and money out. She said you can have a mortgage and ‘one on the knock’ and anything else if you can’t afford it then you don’t have it. Sage advice I’ve stuck to. But I’ve been lucky to always have work.

I followed an ice-cream van today whilst driving along. And thought, yet again, about that penny. As that sinking feeling washed through me I wondered how people manage that have payday loans to feed their families. Always borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

Even when I’ve got money in my account I still worry about money, my parents dutifully handed that ‘life skill’ down. I’ll never be able to spend it wantonly without the side serving of guilt.

And on that note, I’ve got a new car. Not brand spanking new obviously, but new to me. And what’s worse is it’s the first time I’ve ever had a car that I didn’t need. I wanted it. My old car was still running fine. It was a good car. Cheap to run. But I coveted a ‘nicer’ car and HWMBO bought it for me. He put the keys in my hand and said ‘happy birthday’.

I’m still struggling to come to terms with being so valued, such generosity and it’s a car I didn’t ‘need’ that will have higher running costs. I’m getting waves of ‘the penny’. It’s odd how it can be so hard to let go of something so small isn’t it.

Painswick

>> Wednesday, September 11, 2019

The day started near Ullenwood and crippets long barrow, the first of many ancient monuments of the day. The Cheltenham area seems to be strewn with them.

We basically walked the Cotswolds Way the whole day.

We went through Crickley Hill Park with its glorious views.

and huge skies

And an Iron Age fort, a big battle took place here.

The rain poured in the distance but it blew around us and we managed to miss it although other groups in the club walking nearby got soaked.

The Cotswolds Way is easy walking and a lot of it was through woodland.

Easy except when it isn't and I had another trip (seems to be one every walk at the minute) and landed flat on my face again.

I rested my pride with lunch in Witcombe Wood.

We went past the bottom of coopers hill, this picture really doesn't do it justice for how steep it is.

The roof of the house is where we were. We walked up the side of it.

This hill is famous for the annual cheese rolling.

An event probably as old as the hills and not one to let health and safety stand in its way.

Thank goodness health care is free here!

It is well worth the climb for the views over the valley to the Malverns.

We headed onward across a golf course past another for towards Painswick

A well attired local gentleman (who was stood watching a mouse!) pointed out that our method of bus drop off and finish is the same rules as a shotgun start golf tournament.

The last time we were in this area we saw a slow worm, there wasn’t much fauna around today but a special shout out goes to the very flat snake spotted on the road. I think is was an adder, hard to tell with the tyre marks over it!

The church In Painswick has 99 yew trees.

I already knew that yews grow in church yards because they are poisonous to grazing animals so before the enclosure act they kept animals safe and that we had to grow them to make bows and arrows.

What I didn't know was that yew tree clippings are a good source of the basic raw material for the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel. Specialist contractors go to this churchyard to collect and ship them off for processing.

So it was a lovely 12.5 miles with 1700" ascent and perfect walking weather.

Another really good day.

Maze 2019

>> Thursday, September 05, 2019

This year's maze design was an Astronaut to mark 50 years since the first man on the moon.

But Cog has been too tired/busy/not today to go, so I dragged HWMBO along this year.

We walked every inch of path, marking it off with a highlighter pen as we went and we used the map without clues never once looking at the map with the boards marked on.

It was a very hot day, pushing 30C, so I used the sun-brella. This one, whilst quite heavy, is a really good one, creating UV protected shade and vented.

There is always a mixed reaction to walking around with an umbrella in the sun and it really is a 50/50 positive to negative. I wonder that so many people feel it appropriate to comment or think I can't hear their jibes.

There was a lot of bind weed in amongst the maize.

And the usual sun flowers, lots of them had had faces picked into them.

The great thing about mazes like this is that they really 'swallow' up crowds. The car park was rammed but you rarely get into crowds in the paths.

So it was a lovely couple of hours.

Pleasant married couple time with the never to be forgotten quote "I'm not a fucking grumpy old man" said with no hint of irony or joy de vivre.

As always my tips for visiting a maize maze are:

Call in advance, they will tell you how muddy (or not) the paths are and if you need wellies, trainers or sandals. And then stick all 3 in the boot anyway!

Take a small backpack, with waterproofs, hats, and bottles of water.

Take cash - ours is on a farm and this year for the first time they accepted cards but I still recommend taking cash or be prepared to drive a long way to find an ATM!

Take a couple of pens - they will charge you for a pen.

If you want to make it easier, take a highlighter pen and mark off the paths as you go round.

Ours is totally wheel chair and pushchair accessible unless it was really really muddy. They have lots of viewing platforms and helpers, you won't lose your children (for long) no matter how hard you try and they have quick exits so you can get out to the loos and then go back in again without having to walk a million miles.

At ours there are lots of other games and mini mazes to do as well, picnic tables and plenty of parking. It is an easy, fun day out and I thoroughly recommend it for a family few hours of togetherness and exercise....oh yes and yelling at each other debating about which way to go!

I really missed my 'little' girl this year do for my own viewing pleasure, as maze post tradition now dictates, here is my maze gallery:

2018 - NHS Ambulance theme with Australian friends and Cog not long out of intensive care.

2017 - A hot year and a good crop

2016 was a bad year all round but points to us for still making the effort to go.

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.