the South West Coast Path Association Book has arrived and I am so excited it looks even more brilliant than ever!
It has proper walk advice and info on campsites so I am pouring over it with great fascination!
Just had a text from a friend checking I am still up for a walk between Hastings to Brighton - I have just checked the map and think I am going to have to really focus on how to make this practical - using cycle path advice it looks like it is nearer 60 miles than the 40 I thought it would be - GULP! Still it is good practice and all that Ha Ha Ha!
Must get the OS maps out and try my map reading and planning! The good thing about that is that it goes along Beachy Head and Seven Sisters!
Thursday 17 March 2011
Tuesday 15 March 2011
maps and bags!
well today I bought myself a rucksack at a bargain £30 half of the normal price I am so chuffed it has taken 3 shopping forays to get to this point and it was on special! So I am feeling well pleased with myself.
As to the maps this is my umpteenth foray and every time I cant seem to bite the bullet to buying a single map never mind the 7 that I actually need :( This is not good and I must show a little more steel in my body) - remember spending money is not a crime especially if you know you have to do it!
As to the maps this is my umpteenth foray and every time I cant seem to bite the bullet to buying a single map never mind the 7 that I actually need :( This is not good and I must show a little more steel in my body) - remember spending money is not a crime especially if you know you have to do it!
Monday 14 March 2011
job disappointment
This is a litlle postscript to remind me in the future that it is not all fun and games!
The job I was offered had a couple of T&C's that I didnt like - suffice to say I have turned down the job! I am gutted as I thought it was the answer to all my problems!
Hey ho at least it was before I started rather than after!
The job I was offered had a couple of T&C's that I didnt like - suffice to say I have turned down the job! I am gutted as I thought it was the answer to all my problems!
Hey ho at least it was before I started rather than after!
Sunday 13 March 2011
Postcard 2 Tiverton - Interview, Walk and home we go!
After a restless night in the barn I get up to sunshine and a hot shower. The barn is completely empty of people. The bunks are made of trees complete with bark and the floorboards are bare and enviously rustic! The kitchen has a lovely log burner and I am going to go back when it is a rainy, thundry day just to burn logs and drink coffee whilst looking out of the barn door! I pad aboout in basic tshirt and leggings apart from when I leave my ironed trousers in the living area - I just dont do organisation.
Eventually I set off having taken photos of an amazing vista- Amazing is the only adjective I can think of and is now my officially over used word!
I get into Tiverton without crashing from seeing beautiful views across the valleys. I have breakfast and then go for the interview - no time for nerves I want to go exploring!
First the town - lots of shops and supermarkets but I want to walk! A very helpful travel information centre lady suggests a 3 mile walk along the Great Western Canal. Very beautiful - lots of trees coming into bud, snowdrops, daffodils and crocus in full bloom - but no water! Its a canal - where is the water?
After much dog walkers chat and picture taking of the flowers and plants I suddenly realise this IS the first day of an awesome adventure and there are hills everywhere around!!
Now whilst this is not exactly the SWCP it is a good taster for it and I am STARVING! I cant stop grinning and as I head back along the proper canal which was up the road and to the right!
I can only feel excited and at the same time in awe of my need to PLAN and prepare for this. Hey I even need to learn to map read - the sea on the right is not going to suffice!! BRING IT ON!
The journey home was uneventful but it gave me time to think and consider just what I am letting myself in for. GULP
Eventually I set off having taken photos of an amazing vista- Amazing is the only adjective I can think of and is now my officially over used word!
I get into Tiverton without crashing from seeing beautiful views across the valleys. I have breakfast and then go for the interview - no time for nerves I want to go exploring!
First the town - lots of shops and supermarkets but I want to walk! A very helpful travel information centre lady suggests a 3 mile walk along the Great Western Canal. Very beautiful - lots of trees coming into bud, snowdrops, daffodils and crocus in full bloom - but no water! Its a canal - where is the water?
After much dog walkers chat and picture taking of the flowers and plants I suddenly realise this IS the first day of an awesome adventure and there are hills everywhere around!!
Now whilst this is not exactly the SWCP it is a good taster for it and I am STARVING! I cant stop grinning and as I head back along the proper canal which was up the road and to the right!
I can only feel excited and at the same time in awe of my need to PLAN and prepare for this. Hey I even need to learn to map read - the sea on the right is not going to suffice!! BRING IT ON!
The journey home was uneventful but it gave me time to think and consider just what I am letting myself in for. GULP
Post card 1 Dulverton 10/03/11 My first visit to a camping barn- Norhtcombe - fantastic and beautiful
every little journey in preparation to the great start date will have a postcard:
Right I am off to Tiverton for an interview and so I leave my home in Kent at 5pm. Interview clothes, camera, bank card, boots - oh and heels for the interview all bunged into the back of my car. Who needs to plan for an interview?!!
All goes well until the M25 and I see the A3 and NO M3 so I think "I must have to take the A3 to get onto the M£ after all that is how it works on the A2 to M2!!" Nope I end up heading for Portsmouth and no space to stop and read the road atlas! So I end up going across country heading for ANYWHERE near the M3 - Woo hooo Ive found it - Now I need to find the A303 - yeah right that means going north (which is the opposite direction but eventually I get back on track and head for Andover - Oops watch out for the road works with no signs that I understand!
Finally I almost reach Honiton now I just need to get to Tiverton and it is only a couple of miles to Dulverton - check it on the map it is only THIS l---------------l far! A couple of miles out of Tiverton - err wrong it is 15 miles and then I have to find a farm track - HELLLOOOO there are loads of them!
I finally get to the camping barn and there is a farm house right next to it in darkness - now do I knock on the door? Wait for them to come out? break in? or head for a 24 access at Exeter - 10 mins of dithering and I decide that Exeter might be the best choice - dispite the fact it is now midnight! So I start the engine and get just round the building as a bloody great landrover appears - am I gratefull or what? Out jumps Paddy who says 'Oh have you just arrived?' So I explain that I am new to Camping barns and therefore dont understand the etiquette to which he replies 'open the door! light switch is on your right!' DOH this is what happens when you are new to this game!
Anyway the camping barn is amazing but cold I fall in love with the place but most of all I love falling asleep - tomorrow is another day!!
An interview and an amazing view from the farm.
the who what and why!
Last year for my 50th birthday I had a list of things to do- including walk 50 miles by my birthday so last Easter I started to walk the 50 miles from Faversham to Folkestone! This was part of the Saxon Shore walk and I thoroughly enjoyed it - so much so that I ended up doing the rest of the Saxon Shore walk - 160 miles.
Granted the last 4 miles was in fog on the 30th December but I know the sea was there 'cos I could hear and smell it!
Any hoo in my enthusiasm for walking the Saxon Shore I discovered that there are other walks that go round the British Coastline! The biggest being the South West Coast Path and it fascinated me both by its length, its variety of terrains and 'COS ITS THERE'!
This April I am decamping to Devon and thanks to getting a job with sympathetic shifts I intend to walk the whole length by hopefully the end of August!
Before anyone thinks that hey that is a long time and of course you should be able to do it I have a number of obsticles that will get in my way but my blind faith will see me through! I hope!
I am very overweight, I walk slowly, I am lousy at reading directions and useless at understanding maps! On the good side the SWCP is near the sea and I wont go far wrong if I bear in mind that the sea stays on the right!
Added to that I need to interrrupt my travels with work and I have not yet got my kit together and it is only 3 weeks away!! AAAgh!
Oh and I refuse to do it for charity as this is for me - it is ALL about me!
Granted the last 4 miles was in fog on the 30th December but I know the sea was there 'cos I could hear and smell it!
Any hoo in my enthusiasm for walking the Saxon Shore I discovered that there are other walks that go round the British Coastline! The biggest being the South West Coast Path and it fascinated me both by its length, its variety of terrains and 'COS ITS THERE'!
This April I am decamping to Devon and thanks to getting a job with sympathetic shifts I intend to walk the whole length by hopefully the end of August!
Before anyone thinks that hey that is a long time and of course you should be able to do it I have a number of obsticles that will get in my way but my blind faith will see me through! I hope!
I am very overweight, I walk slowly, I am lousy at reading directions and useless at understanding maps! On the good side the SWCP is near the sea and I wont go far wrong if I bear in mind that the sea stays on the right!
Added to that I need to interrrupt my travels with work and I have not yet got my kit together and it is only 3 weeks away!! AAAgh!
Oh and I refuse to do it for charity as this is for me - it is ALL about me!
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