Guildford (Work), Holiday Inn and Mobile Broadband

Another assessment job and another hotel. The best assessment experience (again no names of course) was from a small unit involved in a design activity. One of the controls they had was a checklist to cover the key checks to be made and they didn’t have any completed checklists to show me. The approach appeared to be Complete it; Sign it; Bin it. Can you believe it! Something new every job!

The hotel – another Holiday Inn – always the same and always different. Not bad but probably due to the area expensive. My meal tonight with a free desert and coffee came to about £25. A bit steep I think. Still – I think I can give it 3 stars out of 5.

Mobile Broadband. Having ditched the 3 dongle due to poor cover and more importantly their complete inability to be able to let me use my credit card over the Internet to buy more time I am now with Vodafone. Cover still not good (but I am on the bottom floor of the hotel) but I do have a “poor” 3G signal that has allowed me to function without too much problem. Looking good I think.

Loughrigg Fell

The morning in the canoe did Sue’s ankle some good, the rest and the cold. Following a quick shower back at the guest house to warm up, we set off over Loughrigg Fell, leaving Ambleside via the park. The fell was at its best, with nice grass, little mud, good views and nice weather. The area is such a neat package, skirted by roads and not too high, yet intricate and and seemingly away from it all. It also serves to link two of the lake district’s honey pots, Ambleside and Grasmere.

We crossed the fell, diverting up a couple of false summits and being misled by the many paths that criss cross the area. No real navigation crisis though as it didn’t matter if we took a bit longer – more time to enjoy the area.

We dropped down the other side then headed round the hill to the North until eventually reaching a lane that led back to the park in Ambleside. A delightful 6 or 7 miles – just the job ofr a knackered ankle – must be getting better!

Canoe on Windermere

Sue’s ankle was still a great range of colours: red, purple & blue. This prevented too much on our feet. Her swift recovery meant that we could walk from the B&B to the YHA and hire a Canadian canoe for a half day (4 hours).

We did a quick skirt round the top of the lake then headed down the western shore line, just to see how far we could get. The technique was probably awful, but we made reasonable progress. We felt there was a bit of a wind against us, but still headed across to the eastern shore after about 2 hours, then back north. We had time at the end to go up one of the rivers feeding the lake.

There were times when the direction was a bit ragged and I am sure that better technique would mean better style and less effort. It was good fun and we managed nearly 9 miles – not too bad for beginners!

Kayak Taster, Windermere

Sue was suffering with her sprained ankle, a spectacular colour of red and purple from the bruising and reaction to freezer gel. Hardly able to walk when we arrived at Ambleside we decided to go for a paddle. The proprietor at Ambleside YHA seemed to label us as novice divots and was reluctant to let us out in a canoe without stabilisers. He sent us on our way in a sit on “bomb proof” twin kayak for a 2 hour hire. This allowed us to explore the 2 rivers that feed into the top of Windermere and a few of the bays at the north of the lake.

The paddling was fun. Sue in the front took the lead in steering. My job was to keep in synch with the paddles and apply some of the grunt to keep us moving.

It was good fun, we both enjoyed it but the seating was a stress on the back muscles. It did the ankle good – cold and wet with no stress.

Mynydd Troed Fell Race

The fell race from the Castle Inn, Pengenffordd, North of Crickhowel was organised by Dick Finch and was a Welsh Championship event. A medium category event of 7 miles and lots of climb shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did! I was slow up the first hill onto Mynydd Troed and then kept up with the slow people along the ridge. My descent to the valley was unspectacular. It was here that Sue, with a lapse of concentration twisted her ankle. Withe her gritty approach to life she decided that the quickest way to get back so that she could give it the care it deserved was to continue the race!. Meanwhile I trdged on a few minutes behind her, relaxing into a jog along the ridge past Langorse Hill, a bit faster down to the col and a lot slower up Mynydd Troed for the second time. I got involved with a race down the hill, which I lost. Not a race of glory for me but better in retrospect than in reality. Sue did surprisingly well considering the size of her left ankle. Once the adrenalin wore off she was in some agony. Cold patches and cold gel added to the blue and purple bruising with a red rash – a spectacular combination.

Results of the Chepstow Fell Series are published on the Chepstow Harriers site, with more compete results on the Welsh FRA site

Water Based Navigation

Today was another Duke of Edinburgh training session, this time with 2 Gold groups as part of their 4 day practice. The venue was Langorse Lake, only a small area of water. The challenge for Sue & I was to create a challenging series of exercises that would teach them something useful as well as giving them a good day.

We started with a timed paddle to give them an idea of their pace, and also the effect of the wind. We even managed to arrange a good bit of wind to make the exercise work.

Following this was a land based exercise to discuss the optimum inland lake navigation techniques which we surmised as being “keep in touch with the map; tick of landmarks; navigate against land based features; compass only to check direction). We then did a compass bearing exercise on the land as a safety technique (bad weather etc.). This was followed by a water based exercise on bearings where they seemed to do a quite good job.

The last, and longest exercise, after lunch, was an orienteering type event with each group putting out controls, and then each group bringing in the course set by the other. It worked with no problems.

They seemed to enjoy it and they all said it was useful. A great success we think.

Cotswold Way

Sue & I decided on another long distance path to enliven Easter holidays and try to help our fitness. We adopted our self supported 2 person relay approach. Just the 2 of us with 1 running and one supporting / resting with a few changes each day.

We started after a midday orienteering event (as a nice little warm up). The start was Chipping Campden. Our rulese do allow us to cheat a little, missing out the first 1/2 mile through the centre of the town. Sue led off and I took over at Broadway and ran(?) to Stanway. Sue took over to get to Hayes Fruit Farm where I did the last run of the day to Winchcombe.

Day 2 saw us meeting at the top of Cleeve Hill (cutting the corner to the Golf Club saaved a bit of time). This was a long leg for Sue to Severn Springs. I ran to the lookout past the Air Balloon. Sue took over to Cranham. I then went from there to just beyond Painswick. A couple of shorter legs then took us to Stonehouse.

Day 3 started up from Stonehouse with Sue taking this leg. Tiredness and unfamiliarity made this day a bit of a blur. I took over and had the leg through Dursley and an unplanned diversion from the Golf Course adding an extra kilometre and a stiff climb. From North Nibley Sue ran through Wooton-Under-Edge and I took over at a small village a few miles South. Another leg each got us as far as Little Sodbury, just North of the M4. At this point we decided to quit. Yes we were knackered but that wasn’t the main reason. The deciding factor was that we had had enough. The route seemed to have morphed away from the Cotswold edges and open land to farmland, tracks and stiles. It stopped being fun!

The few days was good and a reminder of the need to put more miles in, and spend more time on my feet.

What next for this format? Perhaps the Dales Way or the Cumbrian Way – both suited to running I think.

Orienteering, Cleeve Hill

This was another NGOC Mini League event on the open land on the edge of the Cotswolds. It is a great area with steep hills and very runnable terrain. The weather was good, warm but not too hot.
I had a 90% good run but 5% poor and 5% awful. I lost ages on one control that should have been a bit tricky but if you run twice as far as you should have, and in the wrong direction it takes a lomg time to get things right.
I enjoyed the event, managing to forget the disaster even at the post run discussions – I just couldn’t remember what went wrong. It came flooding back the next day. Still room to improve!