Archive for Outdoors
Great South Run Success
It all started back in April when Sarah suggested we entered the Great South Run. A long training regime followed over many months (which I meant to document on this blog, but forgot), culminating in the run on Sunday. Alas I didn’t take any pictures, but I’m sure there are countless other people talking about it on the intertubes, so I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say both Sarah and I finished the course, with a time of 2h 40m 36s. My position was 11,484 out of 19,500 entries, so at least I wasn’t last. 
We also managed to raise some sponsor money for CLIC Sargant, so that’s cool too.
Next year we’d like to do the course in less than 2 hours, which will obviously require a lot more training. Maybe I’ll remember to document it this time…?
Canal Holiday 08
Just like last year, I went on the canals for my summer holidays this year. We followed a partially similar route to last year, although we didn’t have time to do the entire four counties ring. Instead we set off from our base near Shardlow on the Trent and Mersey canal, reaching Penkridge on the Staffs & Worcester canal by Wednesday, and then turning around and retracing our route for the remainder of the week. Click on the thumbnails below to see a selection of photos from the journey.
I enjoyed it just as much as last year – the canals are such a relaxing holiday. I feel I should also draw attention to The Bridge Inn at Branston, Burton-upon-Trent (seen in one of the photos above). It looks like just another pub from the outside, but they offer a wonderful Italian menu. Well worth a visit if you’re passing by on the canals.
Getting Fit (the long, difficult way)
This all began when Sarah suggested we try and do the Great South Run later this year. I’m not playing any squash at the moment, and needed a way to get fit, so this all sounded like a good idea. The next thing I know, I’ve spent £65 on extra-supportive running shoes from Alexandra Sports, and started jogging round the block after work. 
The unfamiliar twins of exercise and fresh air have come as a bit of a shock to the system, but I can already feel myself getting fitter. Well, it’s a bit early for any real effect, so it’s probably all psychosomatic. 
Ok, well that’s enough back story, as I actually just wanted to share this useful training guide that I found and am using, just in case anyone else is trying to do anything similar. If you’re not interested in this topic, then I apologise for this post. I’ll try not to mention running too much between now and actually doing the GSR.
April Snow in Gosport
Sunday’s snow flurry in Gosport was such a rare occurence – especially for April – that I felt compelled to upload these photos, even though a lot of people have already beaten me to it.
These where taken from the cosy safety of my house, I’m just glad it wasn’t a work day, so there was no need to go outside.
Stormy Southsea Seafront
Mediocre alliteration aside, I’m going to briefly indulge in that great British pass time of talking about the weather. Sarah and I were down Southsea sea front today, and as you may have guessed, it was looking quite stormy. Waves were lashing the sea wall and crashing across the promenade, soaking innocent passers by.
No, I haven’t deleted her head in these pictures, she had her hood up. It was just as well since the second photo shows the aftermath of the soaking she got from an especially large wave.
The people in the TV are promising a powerful storm on Sunday evening, leading into Monday. If it’s as good as they say, Sarah and I will be out there again, hopefully watching the lightning (if there is any) and getting some better photos. Watch this space.
EDIT (11.03.08): By the time I got to Sarah’s after work on Monday it was dark and the storm had died down, so it didn’t seem worth trying to get any more pictures. Despite the fuss they were making on the news, I really didn’t see much storm disruption in the Hampshire/Surrey area.
Son of ‘Swansea Revisited’
This weekend saw another excellent visit to Swansea. I did have another cooked breakfast café review to deliver, but it looses its value somewhat as I can’t remember the name of the venue… Whoops. I really should have written it down I guess, but I can tell you it was down on the edge of the marina – a cosy little place with a modern interior and fast, polite service. The breakfasts were great too, but that should be fairly obvious; I’m starting to think it’s impossible to find a bad one in Swansea. Never the less I shall continue the search. Anyway, if you’re the boating type, and moored in the marina, it should be easy enough to find.
1. Swansea bay, viewed from the Mumbles. 2. Bracelet bay.
To work off all those calories, we also took a couple of cycle rides over the weekend. There is a cycle track that runs the length of Swansea bay, between the beach and the main road, which allows for a leisurely ride. Just watch out for pedestrians.
If you follow the cycle route north around the Mumbles headland, you’ll reach Bracelet bay, a pleasant place to pause before turning back, and with refreshments available nearby. Cycling in the other direction, south towards the marina isn’t quite as nice, as the area starts to become industrial and marked with building sites. A pdf file of cycle routes around Swansea can be found here. I’ll take my bike again next time, perhaps to test out some of the other paths…
Perseid Meteor Shower
I went out with a few people to watch the Perseid meteor shower on Sunday evening. We watched the spectacle from Southsea beach, where there was actually a lot less light pollution then I was expecting. Well away from the city and into the countryside may have been a better location, but it wasn’t really conveinient to get everyone out there.
Anyway, over the course of an hour or so I saw about seven or eight individual meteors, but between us I’d estimate we saw about twenty in total. Some were mere specs on the horizon, others seemed to streak brightly overhead, leaving a ghostly trail in their wake.
This is normally the point where I’d break-out the photos, but alas I don’t own a camera good enough to capture these fleeting comet debris. 
But fortunately, other people do, so I’ll just link to the BBC website.
As this is an annual event, we’re thinking of going camping this time next year – somewhere out in the wilderness (or as near as you can get in Britain) so we can really appreciate the show! I’m sure someone will have a good camera with them then.
Weaselfest 07
This weekend saw the birth of a glorious new festival to rival Glastonbury or Download – Weaselfest! Ok, there might be a degree of hyperbole there, as what Weaselfest actually involved was 30-40 of us hiring a rally filed at the Roundhill campsite in the New Forest, near Brockenhurst.
However, it’s no exaggeration to say that a good time was had by all; we barbecued, drank, played cricket, generally sunned ourselves (three days of cloudless blue skies) hiked through the forest by day and went exploring at night.
1. Saturday night’s BBQ in progress.
2. Handy traffic-stopping ponies assisted our cross Forest hike (photo by Sarah).
The only slight downer was the campsite wardens coming over to tell us to keep the noise down on Friday night. They were alright about it, but we’d hired the rally field to specifically be away from the family area so we wouldn’t disturb anyone. It’s not our fault if they’d changed the rally field so it was nearer the other tents! I think we all found this a bit annoying.
But other than that, it’s quite a nice site, although I suspect we’ll go somewhere different next year if there’s a Weaselfest 08. Which I really hope there is!
Play Options > Repeat All
I kinda feel like my life is on repeat at the moment, as this weekend we went to Studland Bay in Dorset, which is also what we did around this time last year. Not that it’s a bad thing of course, since Studland is pretty nice. We were lucky with the weather too, in fact it was so sunny it seems to have had a weird effect on my camera – all the pictures came out with a bit of a blue tinge. Speaking of photos, click on the thumbnails below:
1. Alex assembles the beach shelter while the Police patrol in the background. Well, he does look suspicious…
2. Despite the sun and our 11am arrival, the beach was pretty deserted, and largely remained so for the rest of the day.
3. We buried Wilkie. It seemed like the right thing to do.
4. This year’s mighty sandcastle…
5. …unfortunately it was destroyed in a wet sand fight!
That’s it for another year! As a last word I’ll say that if you’re looking for a coastal day-trip destination, you could do a lot worse than Studland Bay!
Canal Holiday 07
As regular readers may have noticed, I’ve been a bit quiet recently. That’s because we’ve been away on the canals again for a 12 day holiday (last year’s adventure can be seen here). It was quite a gruelling schedule; we began our journey from the town of Shardlow (in Derbyshire), travelled down the Trent & Mersey canal, joined the Four Counties Ring, sailed all the way around, then returned to Shardlow via the Trent & Mersey.
This is quite a way to go when you’re tootling along at a few mph on a narrowboat, so we did some 10, 11 and even 12 hour motoring days for the first week. But once we’d gotten around the Ring and onto the home straight we were able to take a more leisurely cruise.
The weather wasn’t too great, varying from sunny with patchy showers to torrential downpours. Thankfully this didn’t really dampen our holiday spirit (ok, except the day when there was a bloody freezing wind as well) – it was all part of the fun.
So now onto the photographs, just click on the thumbnails for a closer look:
Becky and Sven loading up ‘The Deblin’ at the boatyard. We rented this boat from my boss, who had it built only recently, so it was a lot nicer than the hire boat we had last year. It looked so shiny when we first saw it, we were almost frightened to step on board for fear of getting it dirty.
These signets wandered out of the bushes while we were going though a lock. With no sign of any angry parents, Sven and I took the opportunity to grab a few snaps.
When we got to the small section of the Trent & Mersey canal where it joins the river Trent itself on the second day, we found it was closed for a few hours. Heavy rainfall had caused the river to become faster and more treacherous, so we dutifully joined the queue of other boats waiting for the water to subside.
Unfortunately our position was less than ideal due to shallow water and stinging nettles (we had to get the gang plank out). So we decided to make the best of a bad situation and deploy our BBQs. The photo on the right shows the river Trent as we crossed it; the weir is to the left of the picture and the river bends to the right.
Shots from the back of the boat. The midlands seem to have a lot of power stations, we saw several like this during our travels.
Left: An aqueduct takes the canal over a road.
Middle: Sad looking cows shelter from the rain under a tree.
Right: An unusual bridge with some sort of telegraph pole in the middle.
Left: Sven does some photography from the front of the boat.
Right: Looking down “Heartbreak Hill”, a stretch of the Four Counties Ring that has 29 locks in close succession. That was a very tiring day, although we only managed about 23 of them before giving up for the night.
Left: A “friendly” swan follows the boat for a little while.
Middle: A massive salt refinery. We did a small section of the Ring last year, so we’d seen this before.
Right: We stopped at the village of Weelock again this year, and just like last year we were foiled in our attempts to have a pub dinner here, and the same thing happened this year. So we went to the village’s Chinese takeaway again, recreating this photo from last year (they seem to have had a bit of a redecorate since then).
Harecastle Tunnel, a 45 minute sorjon into the dark depths of the Earth…erm, sort of. British Waterways staff were stationed at either end to make sure people boats only went through in a single direction at any one time.
Left: Looking back out of the boat at the entrance, having just gone in. There were no lights in the tunnel, other than those on the boat. Believe it or not, Alex is in this picture.
Middle: The tunnel ahead. The halo of light is from the single lamp mounted on the bow of the boat. Stalactites could be seen forming overhead.
Right: The entrance recedes into the distance to our rear.
Left: Sven attempts some time lapse and long exposure photography. The shaft of light is from the boat’s headlamp.
Right: Inside the boat, still in the tunnel.
Left: The canal reaches suburbia. I can’t remember exactly where this was.
Middle: This picture was taken from the boat’s kitchen (or should that be galley) window. We fed this swan family a few slices of bread.
Right: A nature reserve near the town of Branston, home to many aquatic birds. You’d have thought we’d been sick of them by then, but we all took photos anyway.
Left: The inclement weather bought down several trees and large branches across our path. Here’s one that we’ve just dodged past.
Right: The walk to the final lock before the boatyard. Unfortunately that lock was closed as a flood prevention measure to protect Shardlow. Luckily they decided to let a mere four boats through just as we arrived, so we were able to make it down to the boatyard.
So ends my holiday tale for another year, and a great time was had by all. For an alternative view of the trip, check out Sven’s Blog. He posted regular updates via his PDA/phone throughout the holiday.
