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DofE 9: White Peak.

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Sunshine and showers. 5-19°C.

9.0: I thought I was driving home when the phone rang on the M6. “Are you available for a Silver Qualifier” in the White Peak? I pulled into Sandbach services to check. It would work as long as the carpet fitter could change date. I took the job. Another instructor pulled out which put pressure on the AAP. Since I wasn’t very far away, I got there early. The client was familiar, a girls’ school from Oxfordshire.

A quiet side valley by Taddington Dale.

9.1: Wet and windy. Despite the weather, the gorge was rich with garlic in full bloom. Taddington Dale: Is this what paradise would look like? My group struggled with a confusion of paths and barbed wire while I waited at the second checkpoint. In the drizzle, they were getting a bit down and wanted a shortcut. I led them to a mill so they could get photos for their aim. Camp at Mandale Farm.

This was another pastoral job but the cohort included some interesting characters. N* didn’t really fit in with the others but got on well with adults, especially men. We all clicked immediately and had tremendous fun swapping stories with verbal jousting.

9.2: Mandale to Hulme End. Much better weather, rising temperatures and humidity.

This herd were just curious. I expect my groups would be nervous since they blocked the stile. The cattle responded to gentle encouragement to move aside.

9.3: Hulme End to Ilam, an easy route down the Dove, the group are motoring, each checkpoint saw them arrive early. By now, the bond was tied. We talked about family, partners and home they thanked me for “being nice to N*”. She was apparently, not universally liked by teachers. Activities like expeditions were her forte. I shalln’t forget this group.

Crunchy sands

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16°C, blazing sun with crisp shadows.
A gentle outing along the coast. Much of the ground has dried out, that thick gummy mud has set leaving soft loose sand in places. This was a pleasant relaxing ride.

Those dark bands are coal. Yes, it surprised me but they may date from the last war. Further up the coast are bands of rounded house bricks. Apparently, they were Ribble from the Liverpool blitz.

Long day on Bowland

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23°C, warm milky sun with moderate SE breeze.

Woke and got the tent packed by 06.40.

A suitable place for breakfast wasn’t far away. The Moors are too dry to risk the chance of fire. Hence, water supply became a problem. I set off with 2 litres yesterday and finished it on coffee. The search for water required a change of route.

Eventually, tanked up, I resumes the route north following fence lines. The blanket bog is very dry and sinking in is unlikely. The next Summit was a sea of gulls, that seemed strangely out of place to me. I picked up a couple of helium balloons off the fence along here.

I collected 9 of these during this day. This particular one had printed ; Happy 9th Birthday printed in blue. What do parents think happens to balloons when their little one lets go of the cord? They end up in places like this. The helium is wasted too. There are better uses for that non-renewable resource. We can’t make helium, it slowly collects in gas pockets as a by product of radioactive decay. Our world’s stock has built up over billions of years giving us about 25 year’s supply. Idiot parents are throwing away this precious resource which is needed for medical services like MRI scanners. What a stupid, pointless product; you should choose which is more important- balloons or MRI scanners?

/Rant over

Next: head north on a loop towards the Trough of Bowland. This included another summit – Holdron Moss.

This trig point has seen better days. This just shows how deep and soft the boys are. Somebody built a cairn which I added 2 layers on top.

On reaching the Trough, a decision was made between the summit north or head along the road to cut the corner. I went up.

There’s quite a panorama up there but I was getting thirsty. I’d only had 3 litres all day. The water in the stream that runs through a sheep farm tasted very nice (after filter).

Part three; Langden Vale. This is a drinking water catchment, renowned because of the purity caused by the gritstone bedrock.

The return leg was a push because of impending darkness. Up on the moor needs compass work but mine let me down. I used landform clues to get orientated rather than walking on the compass. I took a slightly earlier descent into farmland as darkness fell. Passing one farkwas amusing. Their dogs were caged in the yard and were barking vigorously bat me. I could see 10 pairs of silver eyes shining in the torchlight.

That was a very long day and I really hoped to buy an easy meal at the services. No such luck.

Today’s data- 13.3 thousand calories.

DofE 3: Bristol.

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12°C, not a cloud all day, nor wind.

Gloucester Services: the only one worth 5 star rating. Teybay comes a close second but none is good enough to come third.

3.1; the camp was a chilly start in its wooded NW facing slope. Instructors met up at 8.30 and we headed over to the start in Nailsea where the kids arrived in cars. I chose groups 3 & 4 at random. The choice set the tone for the rest of the day.

Both were lively groups fortunately free from difficulty. In fact, they were really good fun. One was teaching me french which I will need for my summer expedition. The girls group made a big effort to get me to learn their names. All have been charming all day, even after I told them off for some unnecessary navigation errors. They had a tendency to natter and not to notice navigation clues. Like a scratched record, I emphasised the need for 2 or more clues for each decision. They still made some glaring errors.

It’s funny to think that I cycled down these valleys in the 90s hundreds of times, training and racing. Funny because of the places here I knew nothing about. The medieval hill fort was the best bit with its view out to sea.

3.2: remote supervision. We set checkpoints and the group’s plotted their routes after breakfast. The only real problem was early morning fog that was very dense. One of my groups soon made an error and headed north instead of East. They fixed it without intervention though. Both groups did well and finished on-time. There was a necessary discussion about splitting a group which probably happened in the confusion of many teams arriving at bottleneck checkpoints.

Finally, both groups were delightful, they were bright, optimistic and tremendous fun to spend time with. I felt priveliged to have their company for a couple of days.

A mild cheat

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11°C, sunny.

I have to say, I’m happy with the plastering job. I’ve never plastered anything as big as the chimney breast bit this worked. I can smooth my hand over for that satisfying feeling. Okay, so I tweaked it with a little polyfiller but still….

The HDR app is handy here for looking for flaws. Here is one looking abstract.

Coffee for cyclists.

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8°C, dry and sunny with a brisk W.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3348057034

Though dry, black peaty mud made it from the fields to the tarmac, those surfaces were not as slippery as they appeared.

It stopped at the Twin Lakes Velo for coffee. They make beautiful espresso, such depth and richness. Each sip is a series of flavours, after the bitter initial explosion, there are distinct phases to tollow in each tiny sip. Nuts, woody sweetness and a glissade towards the time that another sip is due. It’s ironic that such a small cup needs to be drunk over such a long time.

Whistling through the spokes.

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10°C, strong W, gusts to 45mph.

Cycling (twice) and indoor climbing.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3329530504

Two rides today. One at dawn, the other at dusk. Both dry and very windy. No less fun though; at times, the road speed dipped so I did some sprints after the 10 miles warmup.

In-between, I took the kids climbing. They did some Grade 4 and 5s on the auto-belay. I haven’t used one before and found them less easy to trust than a person on belay. There is no speed control when abseiling back down. The device works like an inertia-reel seatbelt. The speed it releases is fixed, a little faster than my taste (and my inexperience).
I felt so rusty too, even my grip was marginal at times! Now, where is that grip exerciser thing? Also, I needed a refresher on rope handling, which came back very quickly. Next time, I will go by myself and hire shoes and consider buying a pair.

This morning’s outing included a severe buffeting by wind which at times whistled through the spokes. Deep section rims are a problem in strong cross-winds, there is a lot of correction to random steering shifts. On the Mustang bike, the rims are even deeper than the ones the fixed gear bike has.

My hopes for cycling this year are to develop stamina as good as 10 years ago. Coverall, a satisfying day.

Cassandra Millar: Just So

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CD from Another Timbre. Contemporary Music performed by a string ensemble. Unusually, I didn’t find this one via Hear And Now on BBC R3 but a mid-week show on the same station Late Junction.

The pieces that attracted me arenthe seriesnthat make up Warblework. The four sections that make up Warblework are developed from recordings of songbirds, specifically Thrushes. The tunes are very complex and somewhat atonal to my ear. The recordings in this set seem to have all the ingredients of music that will last for extended listening. It’s a feeling of a puzzle to solve.

You my listen to this and find yourself listening to birds in a new way. It’s a shame though that Thrushes are so rare in England now. They were quite common when I was a child. So common that they were one of the first birds I learnt to identify. Thrushes and sparrows are now quite scarce, especially the former. Much of the decline is attributed to slug pellets that gardeners use. Poisoned slugs poison the birds that feed on them. Not enough people know this. Dig a pond instead!