Since the last post that seems so much longer than six days ago I’ve been increasingly more tired.
So tired I’ve found myself “snoozing” in the afternoons once I get home from work.
But more worrying is yesterday my legs started to feel like they did a few weeks ago when I had the chest infection when they decided they were not going to work properly.
Luckily I managed to manage my legs at work so although they felt weak and not able to rush around, they didn’t decline any more.
It got me thinking what is my body reacting to again that it’s hitting my legs once more?
Is my tiredness linked to this struggle going on in my body?
I think if there is no improvement in a day or two a trip to the doc might be in order.
That will be a second visit in the space of a month. Unheard of! Before the last visit they hadn’t seen me for years.
The little monsters have had the odd flea. So it was off to the vet to get the good stuff to remove them. The vet weighed them. Dolly was 10 kilos! How is she as heavy as my base weight for doing the TGOC? I agreed with the vet she needs a diet. I’m not over feeding her. But mum needs to cut down on treats. In our defence Dolly hasn’t grown in size since having her. Her future is less food, longer walks (legs permitting).
I have been gaming. Played one or two new games. But that will be the subject of another post.
The country is getting its Summer early this year.
Which means only one thing.
By the time the expo arrives we will be in the midst of a rainy spell.
Which will be about right for my first camping experience at the expo.
I have to admit I’m getting pretty excited about going to the expo this year. In recent years I’ve not really felt that excited about going. Don’t get me wrong I’ve enjoyed myself whilst there. But I’ve not felt excited in the run up. No anticipation.
I think this newly found excitement is due to the fact I’m camping this year.
The final bits of gear have arrived. I have a solution for when I take Dolly camping (yet to order it).
So what bits of gear arrived?
The Jetboil Genesis Basecamp stove is finally officially available in the UK. Despite having the Naturehike folding twin burner stove I did purchase the Genesis Basecamp. Plus a Firemaple griddle.
Using a very generous Amazon gift voucher from my aunt for my birthday plus some of my own money I bought a 20 litre portable fridge/freezer for camping. Which is currently acting as an over flow freezer!
I also have an electric hook up cable. Which solves my charging issues for my phone etc.
The tarp pole from Alpkit has also just arrived. This is used with the Tarpstar 1 (or 2).
So apart from deciding what I’m going to eat. I think I’m ready.
I had hoped to write this post a couple days ago. However I’ve been shattered and trying to “recover”.
So last Saturday I drove the four hours plus from Wisbech on the eastern side of the UK to Blackpool on the north western side of the country.
I’ve never been to Blackpool in my fifty seven years on this earth.
I’d seen the signs for Blackpool as I drove up the motorway towards the Lakes or Scotland.
But until now I’ve never had a reason to turn off.
After parking my car in the multi-storey car park I had a little walk to find my hotel.
The hotel was on the corner of the road and was basically a converted three storey house. Checkin was finding my key and door code in an envelope in the hallway.
My room was on the second floor (the third floor was for staff). What I hadn’t realised when booking that none of the rooms were en-suite on the floor, but instead had to share a toilet and shower.
But it got worse. The toilet had no lock, and no toilet paper.
In my room there were no towels, and the pillows looked awful. Too soft and thin.
But the view of the sea from the room was cool. Plus the hotels location was actually great.
If I threw a stone I’d have hit five or six chippies. Two minutes from the dirtiest McDonalds in the country, 10 mins from the conference, five minutes from Primark, TK-Max, Poundland, and other shops. I think it’s best to say it was more or less on the sea front.
Luckily I had enough time to make it to Primark and Poundland to purchase some towels and toilet paper.
My May the Fourth teeThe bedView from my roomMy own wash basinWorst camo everMy tee for Wes StreetingHome for the four days
There was no breakfast included in my booking. However if there had been I don’t think I’d have eaten it considering the state of the hotel.
So for three of the four mornings I had a McDonalds breakfast. I’m not very adventurous and always go for the double sausage egg McMuffin, hash brown, white americano. Some times I add a second hash brown, and if really hungry a second breakfast McMuffin of some kind.
Sunday morning I got chatting to the manager at the McDonalds. It would appear this was the worst weekend of the year to be in Blackpool. Apparently this weekend each year is the Young Farmers AGM, who it would appear treat it as a three day stag weekend.
The conference itself was very interesting, and the debates informative.
‘First time delegate, first time speaker’ was greeted with a round of applause from the conference floor. But it felt very much like ‘long time listener, first time caller’ to me.
I was wearing a different themed tee each day. Such as a Star Wars pride tee for May the Fourth, or a V for Vendetta tee for the day we had a Labour guest speaker (turned out to be Wes Streeting).
I wasn’t overly social in the evenings. There was a branch meal Sunday evening at a Wetherspoon’s, plus a company sponsored meal Saturday for union reps in their employ.
On the last day of conference I got up early, packed, checked out (put my key through the letter box). Then with more stuff than I came with made the up hill walk to the multi-storey car park. Paid and then made my way to the car park next to the conference.
After parking I went to the Greggs round the corner from the conference, bought a bacon butty, hash browns, and a coffee. I had these outside sat at one of the benches in front of Blackpool church in the morning sun.
The conference didn’t finish until 3pm on the Wednesday. Another four hour plus journey back across the country, saw me arriving home at just gone seven thirty.
By the time I’d made a fuss of the dogs, unloaded the car I was in bed.
The two days at work had been very taxing because I was knackered. So as I type this post up I’m hoping a day of taking it easy will be enough to recover.
Yesterday was going to be another scorcher. What better time to head off to Whitehills Wood to look for the hidden pond.
As we pulled into the small car park I was pleasantly surprised that there were no other cars.
I’m not saying I’m anti-social. But less people means more opportunities to spot the inhabitants of the wood.
We got ready (basically putting on my trail shoes, tarp hat, and haversack) and headed off into the beckoning shade of the woods.
It wasn’t long before we were at the point of the route to go off path looking for the pond on the map.
We have an alibi.Dolly keen to help me with lunchMore signs of bushcrafting? secret messaging maybeThis is not Vietnam! I am not a tunnel rat! You can’t make me!Our picnic view!A surprise at the pondLet’s investigate Obligatory ZZTop selfie That’s betterThe fish I’ve not identified yet
We passed the mysterious serial killers murder hole, or whatever you want to call it that we discovered on our last trip here.
In a what would seem a failed attempt to use “natural” navigation techniques to find the pond we continued straight along some deer paths.
My logic went if there was indeed still a pond in these woods then the local wildlife would have trails that would lead me to it.
A solid theory I thought.
As we followed one such “path” we stumbled upon a most definitely man made path.
Dolly and I headed left along it looking for another deer path heading in the direction of the pond.
I thought we had found one. But sadly it too like our previous visit ran into a wall of rhododendrons and trees.
It was at this point that I thought we had been defeated once again. So we stopped to for refreshments and to enjoy our shaded surroundings.
After packing up we retraced our steps back to the man made path. But instead of then heading back to the car I decided to follow the path to see where it came out.
But not too far along we came across an even better path that followed a stream.
Maybe this stream fed into the pond!
So we headed left following the path/stream. Five minutes later we were greeted by an amazing, beautiful pond and clearing.
It even had fish in it.
There was an even bigger surprise of a building there in the style of a mausoleum.
This was such a pretty spot. I’d love to wild camp here.
Dolly and I had been so close that if we had gone right earlier we’d have been having our lunch in this hidden gem.
After taking in the serenity and beauty of this spot we headed back.
More exploring was required where did the path come out?
We followed it and the stream to the edge of the woods heading to a river, and come across a gate that was locked!
Looking at the sign on the opposite side of the gate, it would appear we had been unintentionally trespassing!
This section of wood and the pond belonged to the Castle Rising estate and was not open to the public.
We turned round to retrace our steps to the spot we originally joined the path. Once there it was deer tracks back to the woods we were allowed in.
Why there is no signage up in the woods is a mystery to me.
After a brief water stop for Dolly we made our way back to the car.
Back at the car we were still the only vehicle there.
Had we been the only ones in the woods while we were there?
This had been a most excellent walk. Next time we will try and find a route to the other pond and the river.
I’ve had backend issues that have got in the way of writing posts.
I use the Jetpac app on my iPad to write these posts and recently it decided to stop working!
Well not connect to the site. It wasn’t showing any written posts, drafts, photos. It was as if the blog was brand new, containing nada.
Yet log into the blog via a browser and everything was still there.
I hated having to use the WordPress post editor. It’s horrid. It really puts me off writing. Yep that’s how much I hate it.
However managed to resolve the issue this morning. So normal service can resume.
I’m currently on day five of seven of the steroids I have to take to try and clear up a chest infection I’ve had for over three weeks. Probably more likely over four.
It all came to a head last Friday when during work I slowly started to lose the use of my legs! I could move them but had no control over how they moved. My footsteps got gradually heavier as I walked. It got so that I was at times struggling to stand. Luckily I had a flat top that I could use for support.
I have to admit I was a bit worried. It felt I was getting a glimpse into mums world.
There was no way I could continue at work so I went home early. Calling the doctors on my way to get an appointment.
I rarely go to the doctor so it must have been serious.
A rest at home before my doctors appointment made a big difference. At the doctors the diagnosis was the chest infection was stressing my body so much that it affected my legs. I was prescribed the steroids.
Luckily Saturday was a day off when I could relax and take it easy. Which did include a gaming afternoon at Diego’s. More on that maybe in another post.
So that’s been life for the past week or so. Why I’ve been quieter than normal.
Easter Day the store is closed so I have the day off. I had planned to take Dolly out yesterday but I did some overtime instead. With three expensive kickstarters all finishing within a month I needed the money.
So today I was really determined to go out somewhere with Dolly. I even prepared the bags the evening before.
I didn’t have a destination in mind as I threw stuff into the bag. But as I woke up I knew I wanted to avoid bank holiday honey spots. Which meant the coast was out, as was Roydon Common. I wanted to get away from the crowds and find somewhere Dolly and I could just chill.
The plan was to go to the woods near to Roydon Common, Whitehills Wood. It’s actually a bigger wider wood than that at Roydon Common. On paper easier to go off path to find that quiet spot.
The parking spot for the woods isn’t sign posted at all. It comes up on you suddenly. Which means the cars behind you are getting little notice you are about to slow down very quickly. It doesn’t help that the entrance to the car park is very pothole ridden. Making for a very bumpy stop! The woods themselves is a mixture of coniferous trees (the majority) and deciduous trees. There are also a lot of rhododendrons amongst the trees. Which provide some nice cover deeper into the woods to do bushcrafty stuff, or just chill.
Dolly and I followed the main path that we found out was not going to take us anywhere close to the pond shown on the os map.
We were going to have to go off path to find the pond.
It also turns out the main path also missed out a chunk of the woods. Undiscovered woods to discover at a later date.
On our wayOn our way 2We missed the hoofed onesOnly water we found
Not long after going off path along a deer track I saw what looked like a small wooden door in an embankment. Ignoring all the lessons learnt from watching numerous eighties slasher flicks, such as (the classic Friday the 13th, and Halloween series of movies) Dolly went to investigate.
With the moss well established this had been here a while. As I got closer I thought maybe this was some bushcraft underground shelter. Lifting the door open to see inside there wasn’t much space inside. If this was a shelter it was for a very small person. I’d say it was at most three feet deep, by what two feet? Things got more mysterious when I found a hole going down into the “shelter”. It didn’t go straight into it but curved at the bottom going into the back of the “shelter”. Was this a chimney? Was this some sort of bushcraft oven?
Hole goes down into the mysterious shelterEntrance to the tiny shelter
After the brief exploration of the mysterious “shelter” we continued on following the deer path hopefully to water.
Instead of finding water we found what looked like some eco vandals aka bushcrafters had been building shelters and making fire.
I decided to use this as good as any spot to stop and have our lunch.
Was this an attempt at some sort of shelter?From the other side it looked soFire pitDolly shares her view on these eco vandals
Todays lunch was cooked on my BushBuddy.
Yes that is a Fire-Maple Dandelion Buddy Camping Table in the picture below. You will also notice titanium chopsticks (yes I’m that guy) plus a folding chef knife from Hector Knives. I obviously used the knife to slice up the salami. Naturally Dolly and I had to taste test the salami as I was slicing it.
I started the fire using the BCB ferro rod with paper thin birch bark. None of the wood burnt was from these woods. In fact it was kindling I bought at a garage.
The ingredients I took were the following:
ramen noodles
freeze dried garden peas
freeze dried sweet corn
freeze dried carrots
two dried shitaki mushrooms broken up
Two piccanti fine cut spicy salami sliced up
packet of soy sauce
chicken oxo cube
packet of Furikake seasoning
water
I basically put everything but the soy sauce and Furikake seasoning in the pot, bought to the boil. I’d like to say I them simmered it but that would imply I had some sort of control over the heat! Once everything was cooked and rehydrated and I was ready to eat, I then stirred in the soy sauce and sprinkled on the Furikake seasoning.
I have to say this was pretty tasty. I did not share this with Dolly.
After having a drink of squash I packed up leaving no trace we’d been there.
We then retraced our steps back to the path and continued our circuit back to the car.
This was a very nice woodland walk. It felt like a woods where you could get lost exploring its depths. Something missing when you walk round the Roydon Common woods. It’s too thin.