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Archive for January 17th, 2021

Week two in Throwley

Posted in around the UK, conqueror challenges, Fun Stuff, Health, It's my life, long distance walks - solo, photography, project 101, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2021, tagged conqueror virtual challenges 2021, Country Walking, domesday book village, Faversham, long distance walking, Throwley on January 17, 2021| 3 Comments »

Its been a funny old week with grey overcast days, a rainy day not fit for ducks, and of course snow!! 😁😁❄ and today’s gorgeous sunshine.

Despite the weird weather I have managed to get out on a few walks and extended my horizons by going off in different directions….the problem of course is that the roads are so long, I have to walk for ages to reach an intersection, and there’s no such thing as “gosh I’m tired, let me head back” because the distances are so great there is no quick way to get back – you just have to keep traipsing along.

As for the scenery, beyond the few scattered hamlets, it’s mostly wet, muddy, grey/brown farm fields with a few copses of trees dotting the landscape. But I have enjoyed stretching my legs and hearing nothing but birdsong and the baaing of sheep, encountering minimal traffic as I go…..on Friday I walked for 70 minutes before encountering a car, and that was well timed (not really) – I was 2 thirds of the way around a huge puddle of the water that covered the road from one side to the other, making my way gingerly along the verges, hanging onto barbed wire fencing and precariously positioned wooden posts, when I heard the sound of an approaching car. 😱😱😱 wtf, you’re kidding me!!!

two-thirds of the way around on the r/h side just before the tree…I heard a car

With utter dismay I turned towards the sound and prayed that is wasn’t some young buck who thought it would be fun to drive through at speed and drench the old lady 👵🏻 hanging on to the fence for dear life. Thankfully it was another little old lady 👵🏻 and she drove sedately through the puddle leaving small waves in her wake, and me dry!! I thanked her as she drove by! 😁😁😁

Another place that looked enticing was Belmont House and it played host to my visit on Tuesday. A good 2.2 miles from my current location, it took me 35 minutes to get there, which shaved 7 minutes off google’s eta. If I don’t dilly dally too much, its amazing the places I can go.

Belmont House and Gardens located in the Throwley area of Faversham on the rolling North Downs of Kent. The 18th century house was designed by Samuel Wyatt in the neo-classical style, built in 1769 by Edward Wilks – storekeeper at the nearby Faversham Powder Mill, and enjoys a stunning view over the estate and the downs. The estate is made up of house, gardens, cricket pitch, orchards, farm and woodlands…over 3,000 acres. Belmont has an extensive history and the Lords Harris served as soldiers and colonial governors. The house is distinguished for the collection of clocks created by the 5th Lord Harris. Needless to say I didn’t get to see any of these, except for the clock tower, and the house is covid-19 closed. blergh. Maybe I will return at some stage to this booking and perhaps the house will be open then.

Meanwhile, my walks have taken me as far as I can go and some days I’ve gotten back just within my allotted break time of 2 hours. Of course if I had more time…..who knows where I could go!!

I’d love to walk to Ospringe, but that’s just a tad too far for 2 hours – I still have to get back

It wouldn’t however be across the fields along the footpaths…since not only do the farmers rudely put up electrified fencing as close to the path as possible, making it difficult to access, but atm the paths are just gloopy sticky muddy horrors. I know, because I foolishly walked along not one, but 3 paths last week – on the sameday😝😝. My shoes were sluggish with sticky mud.

We experienced some icy cold weather that caused the ponds and puddles to freeze over…

But oh the views!!!!

And this always makes me smile

Today I woke to a fabulous sunrise and blue skies, that developed into a beautiful morning.

So beautiful in fact that I asked my client if I could beg an extra hour and go for a walk before the weather turned.

And a good thing I did too, by 2pm the clouds had blown in and once again it was grey….but we had a lovely sunset

And blow me down if once again I didn’t get caught out, no, make that twice!! No cars at all for well over an hour in all directions, yet just before I reached the flooded corner a car came whizzing down the road from behind me and sent waves of water flying through the air. Well, that’s done I thought, I should be safe now….hah! Once again, as I was about halfway round along comes another car, from the opposite direction. I scurried into the field through a gap in the fence and waved them on…waited for the water to settle and hurried the rest of the way round before car number 3 came by. None did 🤪🤪

And so endeth week 2 in Throwley. I think I have pretty much exhausted the area and shared plenty images of just about everything you could hope to see, so for the next week I shall concentrate on bringing my Pilgrim’s Way posts up to date, as well as the walks along the English coast. I will of course still do as many walks as I can.

I’ve accumulated 38kms this week and had 2 non walking days. Not too bad.

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Pollution heroes

Posted in around the UK, idiot category, news from around the world, plastic pollution, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2021, tagged #plasticpollution, CLEAN SEAS campaign, fly-tipping, polluting the planet on January 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I wish I could share this story a million times, so that a million people could see it, perhaps share it to a million other people, so that a million people could stop polluting and dumping their trash.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKJaIAMg2Qj/?igshid=q2ovcp9ov3hb

With my frequent lengthy walks, and long distance walking, I see trash along the sides of the roads, in the hedges, the fields, and bizarrely even in trees. Its disgusting.

As he says, ultimately those people who dump their trash along the roads and elsewhere, are hurting themselves.

Edit: if you want to see what Curtis is up to, he’s on Instagram under creekrunner242 What a hero, and he turns the trash into art 👏👏👏

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Alps to Ocean, New Zealand – stage 2

Posted in around the UK, conqueror challenges, Fun Stuff, Health, It's my life, long distance walks - solo, project 101, Travel, walk 1000 miles 2021, tagged alps to ocean New Zealand, conqueror virtual challenges 2021, Country Walking, long distance walking, project 101, walk1000miles on January 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

After a brief walk this morning, to stretch my legs and get some fresh air after being indoors yesterday due to icy roads after the snow, I updated my kms to the Conqueror Challenge app and voila, another postcard arrived into my mailbox 😁😁😁🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏻‍♀️ I get really excited when these cards arrive…its fun to see where I’ve been travelling virtually while walking in reality.

So stage two:

Having left the alps and peaks behind, the town of Omarama marked the halfway point of my journey. Although a small rural town, mainly a service centre for locals and nearby residents, Omarama had a few surprises up its sleeve.

Disney’s 2020 movie release of Mulan was entirely shot in New Zealand with scenes filmed at the Clay Cliffs just outside of Omarama.

In 2009, NZ pilot Terry Delore set a new world record in his 87ft (26.5m) wingspan glider. Taking off from Omarama, Terry travelled 1,491mi (2,400km) up and down NZ for 15 hours reaching speeds of up to 93mph (160kph) before landing back in town. Omarama has strong gliding conditions making it a popular destination for gliding pilots. Omarama hosted the 1995 and 2007 World Gliding Championships of which Kiwis took first place in the 1995 open category and third place in 2007.

For the weary soul like myself, a Hot Tub soak the night before to rejuvenate my muscles and unwind was just what I needed. The Hot Tub was located outside in a private setting within a tussock and rock landscape. The tub was filled with fresh mountain water without any chemicals added. The business reuses the water for irrigation. A submersible firebox allowed me to adjust the water’s temperature. As I settled in, I watched the Milky Way appear and spill across the night sky with its millions of stars.

Eastward bound, I left Omarama refreshed and ready to tackle the next half of the journey. The trip was relatively easy and short when compared to previous days. The first half of the trail was off-road running parallel to the State Highway on the right. Crossing at Chain Hills to the left of the highway I began my descent alongside Lake Benmore, the largest artificial lake in NZ.
Lake Benmore was created in the 1960s as part of the Benmore Dam construction. The lake is split into two arms. The largest is fed by three rivers, Tekapo, Pukaki and Twizel plus the Ohau canal with Waitaki River flowing right through the lake, whereas the smaller arm is fed by Ahuriri River.

It is this smaller arm that I travelled along to Pumpkin Point, a grassy beach area, for a break and a splash in the lake, then onto Sailors Cutting where the off-road trail terminates and I join the highway for the rest of today’s trip. Not the most relaxing part of the journey as I braved the high-speed highway with an upward climb to Otematata Saddle. The views of Lake Aviemore and the valley beyond was a lovely compensation until I continued on the busy highway downhill all the way into Otematata.

Hmmm. The more I’m reading about this, the more I’m thinking I should add this route to the itinerary for my pending trip to Australia in a few years time. I’ve included a trip to NZ but only to visit the main attractions as well as a friend and her daughter (if she’s still living there at the time and not somewhere else in the world, as she is wont to do 😃😃). The route is approx 290kms and would take about 12-14 days to complete. 🤔🤔🤔

If you’d like to join these challenges, here is my link https://www.theconqueror.events/r/CE1474 – I don’t get any money from anyone joining, but you get a discount and I get a discount on any future challenges. However, I’ve already signed up for 15 challenges (8 completed in 2020), so I think I need to put the brakes on for this year 🙃🙃😆

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The houses on the Green

Posted in around the UK, Domesday Villages of England, historical houses of the uk, It's my life, project 101, Travel, villages of the United Kingdom, tagged domesday book villages, domesday book villages england, historic villages, Throwley Forstal on January 17, 2021| 4 Comments »

A tiny hamlet in the Faversham area of Kent, Thorley Forstal is literally just a scattering of pretty little houses amongst humongous fields of agriculture or animal husbandry…hence the long, long roads and vast distances I have to walk.

The name is recorded in the Doomsday Book as Trevelai, which corresponds with a Brittonic origin, where “Trev” means a settlement or farm house and “Elai” typically relates to a fast moving river or stream.

I have yet to see a river or a stream, but perhaps I haven’t yet walked far enough…..there are however plenty of flooded roads, especially atm with all the rain 🤪🤪

For the word ‘Forstal’, various descriptions are found ; a small opening in a lane too small to be called a common, a green before a house, a paddock near a farmhouse.

In the case of ‘Throwley Forstal’, all 3 options could apply since there are a few small lanes, two fairly decent greens, and a farm looks out onto the green.

The houses are mostly white clapboard and so pretty. Many of the houses and barns in the area are listed and circa 15th, 16th and 17th century.

Forge Farm – literally right out of Beatrix Potter – did you spot the puddleducks? 😄😄

A pretty little place, there’s literally nothing more than a scattering of houses and a church. If you need supplies, it’s a 15 minute drive to Faversham.

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