Things I took with me
30 July 2022 02:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI did an almost four-hour train-assisted walk in the countryside yesterday, for the first time in about five years (not counting getting lost on the golf-course during lockdown). I estimated the distance at about ten miles; I don't have a map wheel, but measuring it out on the map in traditional fashion with a piece of string makes it about ten and a quarter.
I didn't manage to set out until about 3pm, and the outward trip was so slow that I started my walk around 4.15, but this did at least have the advantage of meaning that I wasn't walking during the hottest part of the day! I took with me two extra layers and a silk scarf to knot around my open collar, but I only used the latter briefly, when I started to get gooseflesh on my forearms before rapidly heating up again ;-)
I also took a sunhat, which I did need but spent a lot of time carrying in my hand when I was under the trees (it's amazing how much more you can see and hear the moment you take your hat off; I suppose that is the point, to cut off all the light from above you and shield your ears), a handkerchief, some lipsalve, a bottle of water which I didn't drink (although I nevertheless had to make an emergency visit to the bushes *three* times in four hours, which really shouldn't have been necessary!) but which was a reassurance to have, an emergency cereal bar which I didn't eat, my wallet just in case, the relevant Ordnance Survey map (which I walked right up to the edge of -- what people need is not teeny little GPS arrows, but full-size maps on *self-centering paper* :-p), the new map case I acquired a year or so ago (and which I am always embarrassed to be seen using, because it makes me look 'like a hiker', whereas in my ordinary tailored clothes I can pass for a normal person simply out for a stroll -- but this time round I was wearing a small rucksack to carry all the other stuff, which is a bit of a giveaway), a spare pair of socks, since one can never have too many socks on a long walk, a book to read on station platforms, and even a folding comb to rectify the chaos caused to my side parting by the sunhat.
What I did *not* do, as I realised a little ruefully on my way down the road to the station, was to take with me a fully-charged mobile phone, or to notify anyone as to where I was going and when I ought to be expected back -- since neither normally features on my list of expedition preparations!
The first part of the walk was all through the woods, along waymarked trails -- although the waymarks had a nasty habit of being absent when you really needed them, i.e. when the path dumped you out onto a roadside with no indication of whether to turn left or right in order to find the start of the next bit -- which again was just as well since I was wearing short sleeves. It was overcast when I got dressed, but had brightened up considerably by mid-afternoon.
Around halfway through my grand loop I had to leave the long-distance trail and navigate for myself, and proceeded along some very attractive country lanes which, as I have discovered in the past, nine times out of ten make for far more pleasant walking expeditions than stumbling across tussocky slopes on a nominal right of way wondering where your next stile has gone to! (And those roads were not made by or for cars -- indeed, even now some of them are not surfaced -- they were made by man and beast on their journeys: Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road!)
I was rashly emboldened by this to seek out the straight line on the map marked as [route of Roman road], and that proved to be a very unpleasant experience indeed -- possibly made worse by the fact that by this time it was about five-thirty p.m., and all the local four-wheel-drive owners appeared to be commuting homewards at high speed. (I came across a painted 40mph speed restriction, and was alarmed to imagine what speed they must have been doing along the narrow old road *before* that point!) I ended up eating a lot of blackberries, since I spent a lot of time in the hedge... and I had a superstition that being out blackberry-picking was somehow regarded as a reasonable occupation, whereas merely exercising my right to walk along the Queen's Highway constituted the crime of Getting in the Way of the Cars :-(
I met one other pedestrian along this section, a teenage girl coming the other way, and was surprised. (I don't think I met any other walkers on the footpath section *at all*; every single person I encountered there appeared to be taking their dog for its obligatory outing, which since I am afraid of dogs, who of course are instantly aware of that, was a somewhat tense experience.)
The Roman Road was so nasty to walk along that I struck off at right-angles along a footpath that was marked on the map, which, if I was lucky, might cut off a loop of the road, and in any case got me away from the constant assault of the traffic. I immediately ran into all the usual way-finding problems -- walking on a 1¼" map is always a bit tricky, because the scale is too small to show field boundaries or individual patches of woodland -- but was lucky enough to end up in the right place without any detours, despite having been very unsure of where I was at various points along the route. The worst error I made was the classic one of following a 'path' round three edges of a field when, as it turned out, this was only a tractor rut, and I was supposed to have struck straight across to an invisible stile on the far side :-p
Ironically enough, after a mile or so walking along a flat broad track in the centre of a belt of woodland behind a housing estate, I looked more closely at the map and realised that this almost certainly *was* the remaining route of the original Roman road -- the 'B' road along which I had been dodging speeding traffic had swung off in a large loop to the right, and this track ran in almost exactly the same line :-p By the end, however, it did get extremely steep and narrow, and I was glad to get back on the waymarked route now heading back towards my point of origin.
However, as it was about half-past seven by this point and I was becoming tired and worrying about the oncoming dusk, I soon struck off again in a quest to take a short-cut to the nearer station and travel back from there instead. This didn't work out too well, as for the first time I totally failed to find what looked like a track leading off between the houses (which may or may not have existed); I did find my way into the park instead and was able to walk along that (and sit down on a bench to reverse my socks, as my feet were starting to feel sore!), but lost my nerve and headed down for what looked like a station building instead of carrying on to the upper corner of the park where the map appeared to show a track leading through. It wasn't a station, although the rails ran right by it, and I ended up retracing my steps parallel to the edge of the park along the side of another busy main road, although at least this one had a pavement. If I had kept going in a straight line (and *if* the track existed!) I should probably have saved myself a considerable detour and come out right by the real station in any case :-(
On the way back I was at least able to read my book, having been too worried I might miss the station where I needed to change on the way out! I arrived back around half-past eight, and immediately had to go and water my plants. At least I now have an extra six-pint water carrier, although of course I can't actually carry more than two of the three at a time...
I didn't manage to set out until about 3pm, and the outward trip was so slow that I started my walk around 4.15, but this did at least have the advantage of meaning that I wasn't walking during the hottest part of the day! I took with me two extra layers and a silk scarf to knot around my open collar, but I only used the latter briefly, when I started to get gooseflesh on my forearms before rapidly heating up again ;-)
I also took a sunhat, which I did need but spent a lot of time carrying in my hand when I was under the trees (it's amazing how much more you can see and hear the moment you take your hat off; I suppose that is the point, to cut off all the light from above you and shield your ears), a handkerchief, some lipsalve, a bottle of water which I didn't drink (although I nevertheless had to make an emergency visit to the bushes *three* times in four hours, which really shouldn't have been necessary!) but which was a reassurance to have, an emergency cereal bar which I didn't eat, my wallet just in case, the relevant Ordnance Survey map (which I walked right up to the edge of -- what people need is not teeny little GPS arrows, but full-size maps on *self-centering paper* :-p), the new map case I acquired a year or so ago (and which I am always embarrassed to be seen using, because it makes me look 'like a hiker', whereas in my ordinary tailored clothes I can pass for a normal person simply out for a stroll -- but this time round I was wearing a small rucksack to carry all the other stuff, which is a bit of a giveaway), a spare pair of socks, since one can never have too many socks on a long walk, a book to read on station platforms, and even a folding comb to rectify the chaos caused to my side parting by the sunhat.
What I did *not* do, as I realised a little ruefully on my way down the road to the station, was to take with me a fully-charged mobile phone, or to notify anyone as to where I was going and when I ought to be expected back -- since neither normally features on my list of expedition preparations!
The first part of the walk was all through the woods, along waymarked trails -- although the waymarks had a nasty habit of being absent when you really needed them, i.e. when the path dumped you out onto a roadside with no indication of whether to turn left or right in order to find the start of the next bit -- which again was just as well since I was wearing short sleeves. It was overcast when I got dressed, but had brightened up considerably by mid-afternoon.
Around halfway through my grand loop I had to leave the long-distance trail and navigate for myself, and proceeded along some very attractive country lanes which, as I have discovered in the past, nine times out of ten make for far more pleasant walking expeditions than stumbling across tussocky slopes on a nominal right of way wondering where your next stile has gone to! (And those roads were not made by or for cars -- indeed, even now some of them are not surfaced -- they were made by man and beast on their journeys: Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road!)
I was rashly emboldened by this to seek out the straight line on the map marked as [route of Roman road], and that proved to be a very unpleasant experience indeed -- possibly made worse by the fact that by this time it was about five-thirty p.m., and all the local four-wheel-drive owners appeared to be commuting homewards at high speed. (I came across a painted 40mph speed restriction, and was alarmed to imagine what speed they must have been doing along the narrow old road *before* that point!) I ended up eating a lot of blackberries, since I spent a lot of time in the hedge... and I had a superstition that being out blackberry-picking was somehow regarded as a reasonable occupation, whereas merely exercising my right to walk along the Queen's Highway constituted the crime of Getting in the Way of the Cars :-(
I met one other pedestrian along this section, a teenage girl coming the other way, and was surprised. (I don't think I met any other walkers on the footpath section *at all*; every single person I encountered there appeared to be taking their dog for its obligatory outing, which since I am afraid of dogs, who of course are instantly aware of that, was a somewhat tense experience.)
The Roman Road was so nasty to walk along that I struck off at right-angles along a footpath that was marked on the map, which, if I was lucky, might cut off a loop of the road, and in any case got me away from the constant assault of the traffic. I immediately ran into all the usual way-finding problems -- walking on a 1¼" map is always a bit tricky, because the scale is too small to show field boundaries or individual patches of woodland -- but was lucky enough to end up in the right place without any detours, despite having been very unsure of where I was at various points along the route. The worst error I made was the classic one of following a 'path' round three edges of a field when, as it turned out, this was only a tractor rut, and I was supposed to have struck straight across to an invisible stile on the far side :-p
Ironically enough, after a mile or so walking along a flat broad track in the centre of a belt of woodland behind a housing estate, I looked more closely at the map and realised that this almost certainly *was* the remaining route of the original Roman road -- the 'B' road along which I had been dodging speeding traffic had swung off in a large loop to the right, and this track ran in almost exactly the same line :-p By the end, however, it did get extremely steep and narrow, and I was glad to get back on the waymarked route now heading back towards my point of origin.
However, as it was about half-past seven by this point and I was becoming tired and worrying about the oncoming dusk, I soon struck off again in a quest to take a short-cut to the nearer station and travel back from there instead. This didn't work out too well, as for the first time I totally failed to find what looked like a track leading off between the houses (which may or may not have existed); I did find my way into the park instead and was able to walk along that (and sit down on a bench to reverse my socks, as my feet were starting to feel sore!), but lost my nerve and headed down for what looked like a station building instead of carrying on to the upper corner of the park where the map appeared to show a track leading through. It wasn't a station, although the rails ran right by it, and I ended up retracing my steps parallel to the edge of the park along the side of another busy main road, although at least this one had a pavement. If I had kept going in a straight line (and *if* the track existed!) I should probably have saved myself a considerable detour and come out right by the real station in any case :-(
On the way back I was at least able to read my book, having been too worried I might miss the station where I needed to change on the way out! I arrived back around half-past eight, and immediately had to go and water my plants. At least I now have an extra six-pint water carrier, although of course I can't actually carry more than two of the three at a time...