Top Tip #2

Navigating through bog with 30 metres visibility due to mist is Hard Work™

On the picture below…

…we left the track at a and needed to navigate across the open moor to a cross at b. Unfortunately, the cross was not only completely invisible due to mist, but also over a mile away and over the brow of a hill. As an exercise in compass reading, I decided to use only the map and compass - the gps merely being used to log the trip. You can see by track d how badly wrong it can go. I’d heard how you walk in circles if lost in mist due to having a stronger leg… well, after walking a short time ‘in a straight line along the bearing’, we’d check the compass and the bearing would actually be 90 degrees to our right. Amazing.

Luckily, the cross lay at the end of a wall, c, so we knew that if we went to the right of the cross, we’d hit the wall and could follow it along. Going left of the cross would hit no landmark for about seven miles. It was Quite Important™ to hit the cross! Luckily, the navigation became easier after that (though the Dartmoor Ponies became more scary) - and in fact after an hour or so, the mist cleared so the return route, e, though boggy was much more straightforward.

Good fun, though. I’d recommend map and compass navigation any time for a nice little challenge. Just make sure you get your legs more evenly matched than ours clearly were.

Top Tip #1

Rivers in Dartmoor are cold at 11pm at the end of September.

But after you’ve been in once, it becomes addictive. (We ended up going in on Sunday, Thursday and Friday)

While I was riding the 125cc bike I thought I’d be happy owning one. Not for the grand Scandinavian tour, but for general commuting and stuff. But I went on the big bike today (a CBF500), and I’m amazed how much easier it is to ride - especially when cresting a hill and being treated to a strong gusty crosswind.

I asked about gears and torque and stalling and stuff, and to prove a point, the instructor had me do a u-turn from standing still entirely in 4th gear. It worked just fine. How strange!

So anyway, I now realise that a big bike, while being stupidly powerful is also much safer and more stable to ride as long as you’re careful with the throttle. So that’s nice.

And the other bonus… the bike drives itself. If you look where you want to end up, you’ll end up there. Looking at the kerb you want to miss makes you aim towards the kerb, while looking at the white line you’d like to follow makes you follow it. Simple, really.

If you were supposed to avoid wheat, you know… bread, flour, that sort of thing, and you were in the supermarket looking for your wheat-free supplies, where is the one place you would not look?

Me and gluten have a love-hate relationship. I love it, and it hates me.

It is Very Easy™ to avoid gluten - all I have to do is not put it into my mouth.

If you’ve ever tried to give something up, especially something which doesn’t make you come out in spots, or make you feel bad straight away, then you’ll know what a sensible, yet impossibly difficult statement that is.

I have a friend who is doing something much harder than giving up gluten, and he has introduced me to the idea of Operation 365.

I already, generally, do the teeth-cleaning and bathing and getting up in the morning referred to in the linked blog, but I know that the gluten thing is wrong. Why don’t I give myself sufficient credit to not kill myself slowly? So I’m hereby going to stop putting things containing gluten into my mouth. Just for one year. 365 days.

I apologise in advance to anyone for whom this causes difficulty. Believe me, I don’t want to be a pain. If I could get away with it, I would. But I know, deep down, that I can’t.

“It’s in me”.

Thanks Henry.

First was the cheese rolling… now I bring you, thanks to YouTube…

The Bourton-on-the-Water 2007 Football In The River match, played each year in front of 1000 or so spectators in the River Windrush.

I’d say “there must be something in the water”, but it’s clear that there are a load of footballers, two goals and a referee.

So, after the day at Carsington Water when Plumsie wrote the comment:

# Plumsie Says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:03 pm

You should try doing Carsington on a unicycle next time.

Much more fun and different muscles again.

I’m sure I could fine a few others willing to endure it.

I wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not, so I took him up on it - and he kept his side of the bargain too. We went today, and now I ache. A lot.

Here’s the gang (minus bicycle support) resting with around 5.75 miles done, and just another 2.5 left to go…

This is the point where we were starting to get so tired that the tiniest change in the angle of the ground could throw you off. It was hard work but we did it. 2 hours and 43 minutes to cover 8.25 miles (the same route as last time, but without the turning round and going back to find companions!)

I always thought phrases like “Cheese Substitute” were used purely facetiously for what is, essentially, poor-quality cheese. But it seems not. It seems that it’s real…

I didn’t dare look what it actually did consist of.

The bike has gone back. I am now back in my car. It’s rubbish. It’s like having a bath with your socks on. I have to open all the windows just to get some sense of moving.

And I still do my ‘lifesaver’ looks whenever I change direction.

Still… my big-bike lessons start soon.

Yup, it’s going to be hard to hand the bike back tomorrow. I’ve used no other transport all week*, and once the order of ceremonies is worked out for preparing (jacket on, unlock lock, lock into bag, bag onto back, key into ignition, helmet on, gloves on, choke on, start, choke off, climb on, roll off stand, into gear, look over shoulder, go) it’s not too much hassle getting kitted up for each journey. I’ve done well over 100 miles and put in about £7 of fuel, which is nice. The controls have become instinctive which means I can concentrate on a) what’s going on around me, and b) enjoyment.

(*that’s a little white lie, I took my car up to where I’m dropping the bike off because I only have a lunch-break to drop off and get back to work)