Monday, September 25, 2006

The Meningitis Trust - 'Five Valleys Walk' 2006


Wow what an epic we have for you this week, a 'full on' 21 mile (33.8 k) walk taking in Five valleys around the Stroud area in Gloucestershire. (U.K.)
The day started very dubiously, waking at 7:30 am to lots of rain and dark misty sky's, my first thought was that we would never walk in this, it would have been ok maybe on our usual little 10 mile jaunts but 21 miles? Forget it!
But then a miracle, well not quite, as I gazed out of the window in the direction we were to go, I saw blue sky's appearing, and with that hope of a good day.
So with that a quick phone call to Dave to reassure him all will be well, and of course Liz needed extra reassurance ~ "I can see over the hill and they are all wearing Hawaiian shirts' I quipped.
Now call a 'new walker' to our scene Tony (aka Maloney) to tell him all is well and we are ready for the off.
We started from Nailsworth at the far south of our route finder, paying our money and acquiring said route sheet we are to collect stickers on the way round as prove of reaching each check point.
Oh I nearly forgot we have got a late arrival Liz's Mum (Julie) who is a veteran of this walk and knows it inside out.
Off we went finally at 9:35 and straight onto one of the hardest parts of the walk, a whacking great hill on the way to Minchinhamton Common, we huffed and puffed and went passed a few people that looked as if they would never make it. (i don't really want to mention near death as that would not be polite) but as far as I know we all made it in the end.

You can actually start this walk from anywhere along the route, so perhaps it would be better to start from the check point before our start point so as to warm up a bit.
Nevertheless our party did it really well and we continued to frog march over the common, I started to skip a bit and got a few strange looks from a passer by and my friends threatened to disown me so I stopped, just as well as I wouldn't be able to keep that up.

Liz's mum was lagging behind as she's not a great fan of hills and likes to take it easy, but she is 58 after all so will let her off. . . . .
Oh but what this? A mile more down the road and she has caught up (what speed) she has now earned the name of 'Snail on the hill but a whippet on the flat'
It's a bit of a tongue twister but very descriptive.
After the check point we continued on & Tony and i picked up quite a pace and left the rest for dead, in-fact we started to jog round through a wood and down the valley, very pleasant and made a nice change.

At the next crowded check point we had a bit of a rest, me gobbling up a couple of boiled eggs and some nuts while waiting for the rest to show up, Maloney nipped behind some cars on a drive way to whip off his jeans to put shorts on, and 'dam' I forgot to take a photo, I'm sure other people thought he was up to no good. (which would normally be the case)
~ (only joking Tony.)

Brimscombe & Eastcombe have now been conquered, and as we all re-grouped to head off to the Slad valley where the scarecrow points the way. Cheers Scary.

Now this is the most dangerous part of the walk, it must be stressed this is not due to the terrain but the excellent pub 'The Woolpack' (see first blog) as stated it is my favorite public house, if we were to go in there then we would have to be very careful and limit ourselves to ONE pint only. As we approached Slad we were very much taken in by the spectacular views over most of the Valleys that we were walking, the weather had held off and indeed been pretty sunny. . . . . . Ah Perfect.
We stopped to take photos of said view and to admire the Woolpack from a far.



An apple  was taken by me as we descended into Slad and on to the next check point, just under 10 miles have been covered so far and a blister has started to appear on my right heal, Ouch!
I hope it would not get any worse . . . . Fat chance of that.

But what's this?? I don't believe it! It was decided, that we would give the woolpack a MISS and press on, "well I never". No Lunch and NO beer!
We wanted to be able to collect all our stickers before 5:30 as the checkpoints close at this time so this was a very wise decision.
In the words of my good friend N.R.M. "Walk On Carl" (thanks for your comments on the blog mate, hope to see you with us soon)
Walk on we did, and upward, and upward, and upwards to an open common with plenty of sun on it, and there for on us too Phew, this was tough going we are knackerd and still not at the top. My feet were hurting and my head was throbbing there was sweat dripping from us, so what did Tony Maloney and I do? Thats right we ran the last 50 meters to the top. (Fools) It nearly killed us, well not quite.

And then prove that there is a god as we reach the top we entered a very cool 'Standish Wood' bliss and what a tonic, better than beer at the woolpack . . . . . . . . . well . . . . . . . again not quite!


In the interest of keeping this blog short-ish I can't write all that accrued on this walk other wise i'll be here for hours.
Walk on. . . . . . . . . . . .
And we do down the cool wood with the sun lightly streaming through, the end was in sight or so I thought, on reaching our next check point in 'Stonehouse' we had the very forgettable cheese burger, but at these sort times anything would taste good, sadly at this time and for £1:70 it did not, it was eaten anyway. (but if the money went to charity then it was money well spent) (I suppose.)
Well, spent was exactly how we were all feeling and we still had just under 5 miles to go, yes thats right another FIVE miles.
My heals are now in full blister rubbing mode, Tony feeling the same decides to jog to try and ease the pressure, it works a bit for him but not for me Ouch, ouch OUCH!!
When will this all end?? Liz was chief whiner last week this week it was ME follow by Malone.
Dave aka country curry didn't have any problems all day. (bugger)


As we checked into the penultimate check point liz lay on a wall (this laying down may catch on) while we got our stickers put on our route planner.

We had spent the last 3 miles on a flat disused canal, then a disused railway track that is now a Cycle track, we then still had 2 more miles to go, this was indeed the trickiest bit even though it was flat and to be honest boring, it hurt!
We put our heads down and grinned and bared it till we walked through a lane and were totally caught by surprise as it was the end, we had made it Whoopee!!!


Of course we got our final stickers put in and a certificate was awarded and a picture taken . . . . . . . . I hadn't felt so tired in years.
Back to the car and every step was a struggle but the joy of finishing was matched by the joy of taking one's boots off, and dangling your feet out the car window on the way to the 'Holy Woolpack' for a pint of 'Old Spot'. . . . . Cheers,

And would we be do it again next year ?
Too right we will.

Many Thanks CHEERS Carl.

Monday, September 18, 2006

The Kineton & 'Halfway House' walk

Wow what a start to a walk both Dave and I were extremely hung over and we also started a lot later than normal at 2 p.m..
Doc leaf Liz had a very different weekend with the sad lost of her gran (r.i.p.) So she was feeling pretty drained from the start of the walk, after saying that though she will feature most in this blog for the obvious 'day after the night before' feeling from Dave and I. Ironically we started at the 'Halfway house' and ate first but no alcohol was taken, but I did get a full 'rare' roast beef. I was so hungry that I started to eat before taking a pic for the blog, by the time I had remembered the picture did not do it justice, as the meal was one of the very best roast dinners that i've had in a public house. We will return very soon, sadly I was so hung over that I could not finish it. Now this never happens, so I think there is a lesson for me there somewhere.
The walk started in earnest and with some groans all round mainly from Liz and I.
Hazel nuts were found and gathered up by Liz, this walk was to prove a foodie one but more of that later. . . We passed over a ford first which is in a very lovely setting at the edge of Kineton, this week I've started to read a 'navigation for walkers' book, so with my new found map reading skills decided to lead the walk. Off we went in the general direction of the excellently named 'Upper Slaughter' we passed the Cotswold farm park that I remember going to as a kid on school trips. After by passing said village we then had a decision to make shall we extend the walk or go the way we had intended, country curry Dave thought we should extend it but Liz, like me said we shouldn't. This was very wise as we were eventually gone for over 4 and a half hours. The whole walk was fairly flat in comparison to our normal hilly stuff, just as well really! But Liz this is no time for a Larry Lie Down. So Onwards we went and small horse's seemed to be the order of the day as they took a likening to liz.
On reaching Naunton we decided to pop in the 'Black horse' for a pint of BB, not fazed or frightened off from last night, (fools!) Liz had a half, good girl! I like a girl that drinks bitter, or as she called it a 'Pale ale'

I think the rest did us good as the walk did liven up some what. I had forgot to mention that we picked up some amazing maize earlier (sorry that was a bit corny) :-) This walk did turn into a little foraging episode with an abundance of free fruit on offer. In recent years i've been getting in to free food such a garlic, watercress & mushrooms etc, but today was amazing.
And after reaching 'Guiting Power' with the swing Liz in toe, The more we looked for fruit the more we found. Blackberries are everywhere at this time of year, and I keep meaning to bring something to carry them home in but never seem to remember. We did not identify all the stuff we ate but they tasted nice so we presumed they were ok to eat. The best was some small yellow cherry types but also some red ones too that looked like cherries but tasted like plums, then there was the delicious apples, Yum!

Eventually we did make it back, everyone was very tired, some of us moaned a bit, but I'll mention no names (liz) But considering that none of us were in great sprits at the start of the walk, we ended up much fitter and happier by the end.
Well Done!! Thanks for your continued support and nice comments it's time for bed for me and a jolly good rest before a double shift tomorrow.
Cheers Carl.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Cowley & 'Green Dragon' Walk


Well today our team of walkers were exactly the same as last week, Dave (aka Country Curry Dave,) Liz (aka Doc Leaf Liz,) Ben and his dogs Farley and Sofie and of course myself.
We started from 'The Green Dragon' near Cowley Manor which is in a small village on the outskirts of Cheltenham off the Cirencester road.Leaving at 10 am we were welcomed by brilliant sunshine and light cool winds, again ideal for walking for the second week on a trot.Farley got in to his stride quickly and proceeded to chase every bird in sight, but mainly pheasant, so Ben had to put him on the leash.Sofie is a lot more chilled and slow so she doesn't need one, though she does like to pretend that she is hunting.The tracks were easy to follow as they were very well 'Way-marked' which is not always the case out on a walk in the Cotswolds. We continued up through a wood then hit lots of freshly ploughed & stone walled fields. Before finding ourselves on a narrow road on the way to Elkstone. And being September there are lots of berries on bush's and nuts in trees, so we duly got stuck in to some black berries throughout the walk. That was before stumbling upon some corn, where by 'country curry' picked some and unravel the leaves to take a bite, 'Sweet' was his verdict, so duly again we all got stuck in and had a bite, so much so that I finished it off, Delicious! What a treat! Forward we then went into a small valley then onto Colesbourne and from there up and over the hill passing a small stream for the dogs to drink, The views up there were pretty spectacular so I had to take a panoramic picture for the blog. Then onward in the direction to 'Seven Springs' before cutting back down the hill for yet more berries, and No it wont ruin our lunch because we've now been walking for 3 hours now and are absolutely starving.
So would the food at the 'Green Dragon' be 'Treat' Or 'Tripe' ? The Green Dragon is a quintessential English public house beside a quite but fairly steep road, so you'll need to watch out if crossing after having too many beers as the cars can speed up in order to reach the top. Inside it is a very clean and tidy place with beautiful exposed beams and a massive fireplace, so I'll have to check it out in winter. For lunch I had marinated lamb on a bed of spring onion mash and veg. Though the lamb was slightly over cook (I like mine pink) it didn't detracted from the taste which exploded in the mouth and went down all too quickly. It is a bit more pricey than the Woolpack last week, you can expect to pay around 12 to 16 pounds for a main course. But it was defiantly 'Treat'
Dave and Doc Leaf had a burger with bacon and mozzarella both report back with favorable verdicts.
Thats it for now i hope you've enjoyed my second Blog. . . . . . . . . Cheers Carl.