navigation training – Page 5

Wales 11th to 17th October, 2013

Friday

Carol did the dialysis with a lot of a carry on, she pressed the wrong buttons and got in a right pickle! Left house at about 1.45. Arrived at cottage about 3.50.

Unpacked quickly and I cooked up some roasted veg which we had with grilled cheese on top. Carrots, a squash, peppers, courgettes and red onion. C still not well so I stayed up with some Talisker.

It was our 5th wedding anniversary and I gave C some medicated sweets from the village shop and a home made card because I had not sorted anything out. C gave me some Florentines and a proper card. I felt bad for being crap at the anniversary, it’s because I don’t really think in years and dates.

Saturday

Went to Sainsburys in Oswestry and stocked up. Drove to what was a P on the map in the forest but it had been closed off and when I checked on latest map there is no P. This was near Glyn Caerion. Short walk to Biddulph’s Tower which also does not exist as such. There probably was a tower a long time ago but now not much more than a cairn. Very autumnal and misty.

We had our postponed anniversary dinner at Seeds in Llanfyllin. C had chicken in sauce and treacle tart and cream. I had bacon and avocado salad, chicken in sauce and creme brûlée. Yum yum. Glass of red wine for me. Jennings beer for C. Saw a badger on the way back, alive.

Sunday

Walked to Llanfyllin in the on off rain. Stopped in hotel for some coffee. Went to Spar. These were the only things open. Back again collecting some crab apples which I’m not sure what to do with. Mum used to make crab apple jelly but I can’t be arsed especially not here with only somewhat cramped cooking facilities.

Back to cook green Thai curry. Rice in microwave. Very nice. Bitburger beer and Jaegermeister mini. Tasted like cough mixture. Perhaps it will work as a prophylactic. Carol was worried about me drinking strange foreign liquor so I had Talisker to finish.

Monday

To Llanidloes to meet Kate and Del. We got there a little early and had a good rootle round the Great Oak bookshop. And then we met up with K and D who were doing the same. We went to the Great Oak cafe and Del had a proper lunch of risotto and salads. Kate and I had little salads and C had a ginormous flapjack. We wandered round the town and went in nearly every shop. Then to the next cafe for cake for Kate, tea cake and jam for Del, tea for C and ice cream for me.

We waved them off and returned by a country route i.e. lots of little roads. I was going quite slowly but ran over a rabbit which was upsetting. I’ve been driving for 38 years and can count on one hand the number of creatures I’ve run over but it’s still horrible.

Back for a circuit of the lanes on foot from the cottage with just enough light to see.

Light suppers. I had Suma pea soup. Bitburger beer, Fjellvitt. This made me think of white spirit but a bit more of a kick than the Jaegermeister. The holiday is the only time I drink the weird bottles I feel compelled to buy when I’m abroad. After seeing Jaegermeister at the football ground Bruce played in Coventry, I wasn’t so surprised to see it in the supermarket.

Played Scrabble, such an annoying game. When do you ever get a good run of letters? I’ve yet to have that experience.

Talisker night cap.

Tuesday

Lovely sunny day. Up early for a run. Did reverse of last evening’s walk so as to have more down than up. Not far only 4.5 km but felt much harder than usual.

Drove along the lanes to Sycarth, home of Owain Glyndwr. This is an impressive motte and bailey.

Lovely walk up through forest to good vantage point. Great vistas. Stopped for lunch. Back along fields. Had to practise nav lots as many field boundaries and knobbly contours.

Not all the paths were PROW for the first km but it was a fairly well marked route when we got onto it!

Various foraging opportunities. Chestnuts but they were very small indeed. Rose hips. Elderberries. I didn’t get any of these as feel quite challenged enough by the crab apples which I have learnt are just wild apples.

Back via more country lanes.

Hot choc then C went to bed after hoovering up some dead flies.

Out to the Lime Kiln pub in Porth y Waen about 15 mins away. I had fig and Parma ham and mozzarella starter, then Cajun chicken with salad and chips. Big portions. C had fish and chips with minty mushy peas. She is now cold because unable to wear appropriate clothing ever.

Wednesday

The forecast rain arrived in big bucketfuls. Into Oswestry to park in cheap car park, £1 all day and to the indoor market which is a hideous 1963 build and replacment for quite a nice looking old building. By the time we reached it my feet were wet so we wandered around whilst the rain clattered violently on the tin roof. More like a fusillade than cats and not at all hot.

The rain backed off a bit so we went round the whole town. Very good bookshop called Booka and a coffee shop for hot drinks.

Then back to the car and to the Old Station antique market. More old expensive tat.

Back along the little roads with grass down the middle and high hedges. We crossed a ford and stopped to clear the road of a fallen branch.

I cooked pasta bolognese. Lovely holiday.

Thursday

We went straight home and Carol got set up on dialysis. She managed to go for 6 nights without but did seem to be getting increasingly tired. I went for a nice run.

Epilogue

I made crab apple pie with cinnamon, vanilla and cloves in filo pastry. Delish!

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Roping up at the Bride Stones 6th October 2013

Chris and I first tried to go to the Hawks Stones above Todmorden. It’s a very short walk from what used to be the Sportsman’s pub but although there had been a BMC notice at the start of the footpath telling us to be good, there wasn’t one saying there was restricted access to the Access Land that the Hawks Stones are on until we got to them.
We then opted for the Bride Stones which are just a short hop on the other side of the road. It took me a while but I got the anchor, myself the belayer and Chris the climber all roped up correctly and I belayed her up the slope. I can see I still need to practise this but it is getting a little bit easier.
Then we looked for a place for me to try an abseil. I deliberately kept the slopes very small for this practise session. I eventually managed to get a classic abseil sorted out and I think I got a version of a South African one as well but this was quite hard.
I definitely need to keep on practising these and hope that I can have another refresher prior to doing the assessment.
It was a lovely warm afternoon and Chris has offered to help me practise this as Carol is currently out of the running with her hernia.

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Long Welsh Weekend September 2013

P1020211 — I didn’t put these in my dinner

Friday 20th September
It took me just over 3 hours to reach Dol Einion camp site which is right at the foot of Cadair Idris. The path up the mountain leads out of the field.
When I got to the site there was no one around so I put the tent up in about 5 mins. I found Marian and gave her £8 plus £2 so I could leave the car on the site the following day.
I walked along the old road to Tal y Llyn which goes alongside Llyn Mwyngil. There were a lot of gates and I looked at some gravestones next to a church marked private. It was definitely warmer than the rest of the week but it was cloudy and dull and I felt a bit gloomy.
Back at the camp another vehicle had arrived so just me and them.
The site was flat but needed a tidy up and the loos and shower needed ripping out and starting again. Thank goodness for anti bacterial gel.
I cooked my supper before it got dark, Simon Rimmer lentil tikka masala. Hot spicy and actually not bad for dried food. I was testing it as dry food is so much lighter to carry when wild camping. It took 20 mins to cook and the pan was hard to wash out in the cold water sink in the field so not ideal. I had some cheese and pitta bread with it. I ate in the car because there were midges, I was camped next to the river that comes off the mountain plus the grass was long and damp. The anti midge spray did at least work.
Marian, the site owner told me the 16C church I tried to go in was sold off by Church of Wales and the villagers were upset. Even the churchyard which is still in use was sold off. The National Park didn’t help and the council awarded retrospective planning permission. Marian runs a heritage centre in the tiny chapel next door to the camp site and she does talks. I missed the last one today.
I got a minuscule phone signal at just a certain angle in just a certain spot on the car seat so had little text chat with C who I was missing.

Saturday 21st September
I was cold at first in the tent but threw everything off by the morning. I actually slept quite well for me in a tent.
Got up at 7.30 and had breakfast of muesli, yoghurt and jam (a Rachel’s corner pot) also some horrible old fruit tea and some old instant coffee which was not much better.
I waited for the low cloud and mist and drizzle to go but decided to head up anyway. I packed up everything except the tent in the hope it would be dry upon my return.
I set off at 9.45, straight away it’s a stiff climb up steps. I started to leap frog with a group of 5 Londoners and we did this most of the day. They were ok although I did try to leave them behind! Sometimes they were a little bit faster than me and it was nice to see the slow girl of the party ahead of me in the gloom. The mist kept up all the way to the top. I never saw the lake all day. At the top another path joins in and a very old lady thought I was in her party so we had a mad conversation with neither of us understanding what the other was on about although I did think she would get it when I said I was on my own and not in her group. There is a shelter at the top with a roof. It is the old tea shop from Victorian times when poor ponies dragged up the customers. Today it was soggy and crowded so I opted for soggy outside to eat my lunch and was rewarded with the sun burning off the cloud and showing me the cloud inversions and the route ahead.
I went off along big grassy bit to Mynydd Moel. Had a quick chat with the man from London and set off down the fence. Stopped for another chat with 2 men in jeans. Probably poofs. One of London girls was gay. We are everywhere! Then down, down through sun and cloud and back to the tent by 3.30.
The tent was nearly dry so I shoved it in the car and headed off to Dolgellau then Blaenau Festiniog through lots of low cloud. But after the mountain it was sun again all way to Betws y Coed and along to Capel Curig then a short bit of the A5.
Gwern Gof Isaf camp site is on the left just before Tryfan. It is cleaner and cheaper and more busy but I found a spot away from the rest. £5 for night.
I bought 2 shower tokens so 10 mins for £1.
After getting the tent up I went for my shower. The shower room is mixed gender so I took some outer layers off and reckoned that when the tokens went in I would still have some control as in an on off switch of some sort. The token machines were outside the cubicles and I wasn’t in the mood to be naked in front of 2 boys and a girl, so I had to rush in, take the rest of my kit off with the shower running. Luckily I had taken my clean clothes in a large strong plastic bag so it was ok but a bit annoying to have to choose between public nudity and wet clothes. Still it was a nice hot shower and I felt much better after it. I must remember flip flops next time!
Then back to tent to cook up Look What We Found meatballs and pasta. I did these as boil in the bag to reduce washing up.
I sat in the car to eat my supper. Then watched the flaming sun go down behind Tryfan and watched the clouds from inside the tent until it was dark. I treated myself to hot chocolate with rum, yum yum!! It was very windy so I put more pegs in.

Roche moutonee, caused by glacial action on the bedrock

Sun just appearing on summit of Cadair Idris

P1020237 — Llyn Cau tantalisingly out of sight

P1020243 — River from Llyn Cau all the way to my camp site and Tal y Llyn

Sunday 22nd September
Not a good night. I’d been thinking of late that my shoulder injury was better but I couldn’t sleep on either one of my shoulders without it hurting and I was too tired to get up for painkillers. I went to sleep at 9.30 which is incredibly early for me and sort of slept on and off rolling around until 6.45.
It was windy overnight even lifting the floor of the tent at one point but I kept it in place and didn’t blow away!
Had my breakfast watching the sun rise in the lovely calm and warm with another river trickling past.
I packed up and struck camp. This always seems to take a while despite high levels of organisation. I guess having the car as an extra room inevitably means more clutter and more to keep in the right place.
10 mins to Capel Curig to Siabod cafe where the facilities were a bit better than the camp site although at least the site 2 had soap if not light in the loo. Site 1 had light but no soap and a big pong.
After accosting a range of men I found Paul Poole and a small group: Gary, Kirk, Viv and Bill. They had done refresher navigation the day before.
Paul showed us lots of books which I liked and most of which I’ve got. Then we set off towards Llanberis. We parked up opposite the big quarry and headed up with ropes and helmets. We practised anchor selection – tapping, kicking, checking for movement. Practised tying simple knots. Flaking the rope. Care of the rope. Indirect belay. I eventually got the hang of this by the end of the day. Anchor Belay Climber. ABC. Direct belay. Threading. Ascending using belays. Descending using belays. Descending using abseil to get self down only. Classic abseil. South African abseil. Confidence roping.
Still feel I need to practise all this a lot more but definitely felt more confident about it all than before.
It was a great day and I learnt a lot. Paul does modular assessments for ML as in 2 weekends, one a 3 day which is only a day off work. Not sure how much more I need to do in my log book but he will advise on this.
Off to Pen y Gwryd hotel. Nice old fashioned hotel. No keys for the locks, it operates on trust and has done for 75 years! I sat in the residents’ lounge supping a large glass of beer to celebrate having done a mini abseil and loved doing it. I was joined by David and later Gloria. The gong was banged and we had a good time talking so they invited me to join them to eat and gave me some wine.
I had melon with Parma ham, ok but in my heart of hearts I think this is an odd combination. I just ate it separately. Chicken, leek, mushroom with pastry rounds, new spuds, creamed celeriac and green beans. Lemon crusty sponge with jam.
In lounge again with John, Pam and Frank for coffee as well as Gloria and David.
Late to bed at 10.30. It was lovely to be in bed but I had to take all the heavy covers off.

Monday 23rd September
I awoke early, went to the loo, bumped into Gloria and couldn’t get back to sleep.
My morning tea arrived.
Breakfast at 8.30 summoned by the gong.
I had juice, sausage, poached egg and tomato with toast and coffee.
Said farewells to friends of night before.
Paid up and off to Llanberis. Went to V12 shop, I don’t know what that means and bought a Black Diamond rucksack that fits well. My last purchase doesn’t so I will sell it, it was designed for a longer back.
I had a coffee there and chatted with the staff. One of them does slack line walking and showed me a film of him doing this on Tryfan.
Then I went off above Betws and did a short forest walk, not very exciting but good nav practice as most of the forest tracks are not on the map.
Then home.

P1020256 — Private lake at PYG, one for Chris to swim in

P1020259 — Edwardian bath, shower and thunder box, all original fittings

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

First Steps to Navigation, 7th September 2013

Cath and I led a walk for Pennine Prospects’ Walk and Ride Festival. We met the group, who had all arrived by public transport at Hebden Bridge railway station. Quite a few of those who had booked in didn’t turn up which was a shame as I’d had to turn several away. One was ill and had let us know.

P1020208 — Good old Stoodley Pike, a very helpful landmark

After introductions, we did a bit of map setting and map symbols and then set off. We went up to the mobile phone mast and then brought in a bit of the terminology – handrails, attack points, tick off points. We did some observational legs and talked about measuring distance on the map. Then we looked into measuring distance on the ground and practised a bit of pacing along a 100m stretch. It was quite a short walk along Pinnacle Lane and across to Kilnshaw Farm, then up to Erringden Moor, skirting the edge of Broadhead Clough Nature Reserve and then back to the station via Wood Top.

When I’d prepped the walk on Thursday evening, admittedly I did go quite fast and it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes, but with stopping for input and breaks and setting off quite late from the station, it took us 6 and a half hours! I’d allowed for it to be double time but this is a learning curve for us too and now we know to triple it or to make the distance a bit shorter in order to get the teaching points in.

I also know now that we need small prizes of sweets or energy bars and must remember to get some of these, also some spare compasses. We used laminated printed maps from Memory Map which were ok, but harder to see all the detail so I need to look into that, it may be just that we need the “real” map out a bit more. The route was ok but we did cross the moor and that was quite hard underfoot so I’ll try to avoid that in future unless that’s what people specifically want. We are also going to revisit how we teach the compass skills bit but this was very much a beginner’s day and it’s not possible to do everything. A lot of the skills are practice, practice, practice. Must ask the participants if they are ok about having their photos online too.

Our group was lovely and they all said they would like to do some more so Cath and I are thinking about how to do that and when and what. I’ve got an idea for a route and just need to go and walk it to see if it’s suitable. The ages ranged from 9 to 64.

We were very lucky with the weather, it had promised to be horrid but ended up being fine all day although a bit chilly up on the moor.

Thanks to all the group, and Cath of course!

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Pirates Ahoy, West Wales, 23-25 August 2013

Friday

We had a nice leisurely trip down through Wales via Dolgellau, Machynlleth and Aberystwyth to reach our bed and breakfast at Rhydlewis. Broniwan is set up a short drive and is a slightly gloomy solid Victorian house. Our hostess, Carole met us and gave us huge pieces of delicious jam sandwich cake and tea. She reminded me a little of my friend Angela H (tall, blonde and clever!) I think the gloom was probably because it was cloudy and overcast outside. Carole was tickled when we mentioned we would be dressing up as pirates the next day.

We went off for dinner at the Daffodil Inn in Penrhiwllan a few miles away. I was slightly disconcerted by being addressed as “Sir” as when it’s strangers this is normally a verbal punch in the face. When it’s my friends it’s an entirely different matter and is quite correct! We were supposed to sit in the bar and wait to be taken to our table but I had entirely misunderstood this and assumed the whole pub was a bar so we just took a table that we wanted to sit at. The waitress implied that the one they had reserved for us was “better” but we were quite happy not being in the thick of it all. I had various beefy things and Carol had 2 starters. The food was very tasty, nicely cooked and well presented. We washed it down with Greene King Abbot Ale from Bury St. Edmunds (my first ever beers). Back at the B and B we had a short walk up the hill in the dark to stretch our legs, no cars, lovely.

Saturday

Nice big breakfast of organic sausages and poached egg with tomato for me and Carol had similar with bacon. Proper coffee and really just very good. We met Allan, our host who was also charming.

We went off to Lampeter to buy a couple of bits and pieces, then back to the B and B where Carol had a little snooze. Then off out again to the seaside at Poppit Sands. Any sun there decided to leave as we arrived. We found the pirate flag and a bunch of scurvy pirates who were a bit chilly. We were just in time to help finish off Hilary’s yummy muffins. We stayed a little longer but it certainly wasn’t warm enough to get me in the sea nor Carol. We went back to the B and B and Carol had another little snooze. Then we arranged ourselves for the evening and our hosts both came out to “admire” us!

Bona Pirates drove over to Llandysul Long Barn for the piratical party. Aargh! The scurvy wenches were blistering their barnacles and my parrot was requiring pieces of slate. We ate ships’ biscuits and drank a bottle of rum (actually a chicken kebab and a small glass of champagne). A fire was blazing on the deck and the wenches were rampaging. Chrissie the buccaneering beauty of the Seven Seas was over the yardarm. We returned to the B and B and both had big long snoozes.

Sunday

Another yummy breakfast and then back to the Long Barn where some pirates seemed a little the worse for wear. Some ship-shaping had been done and all was quiet in the sun. Chrissie had some more presents and additions to the cake fest. It was lovely to see all the Howarths together and to meet Kaye. And all our dear old friends.

We then set off for the long journey home which we broke by calling in to see Kate and Del and Dan in Pontrhydfendigaid. We had some bara brith and a bit more cake and shot the breeze. On the way back we called in at Llanidloes because we both like it there and Carol bought me a Magnum in case I was suffering a sugar withdrawal. We also stopped in Newtown for the loo and then we were homeward bound.

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

P1020197 — Andy, Chris, Gerry, Hilary and Carol

P1020198 — As before and with Kaye on the left

P1020202 — Birthday girl with birthday shed voucher