Charlotte's Web

Friday 28 August 2020

Me and Storm Francis go to Lincolnshire

With options for travelling abroad reducing and countries requiring quarantine on return increasing, I can feel the cabin fever creeping in so I'm going to experiment with working from different locations in the UK and combine with adventuring closer to home. First stop Lincolnshire...

I've only been to Lincoln once before, for work last December. I got off the train, walked (in the rain) to the client office to deliver some training, walked (in the rain) back to the station via McDonalds and went back to London. Not exactly making the most of the area, so it was great to go back and stay with my pal Katy who I met on my Action Learning Facilitator training in February...

After working at home on Monday I cycled up to Kings Cross just as Storm Francis hit London, so arrived at the station like a drowned rat. But once I'd settled into my seat (with bike in fancy hanging rack), it was only a 2 hour journey to Lincoln. And all for the grand total of £14 return. BARGAIN!

On Tuesday (Storm) Francis ramped up to 50 mph winds and heavy downpours but it was great to get out for a blustery dog walk after work before an evening of cooking up a different kind of storm with Katy and the kids.

After another morning of work on Wednesday I had the afternoon off, so with a break in the rain and the wind down to half the speeds of Tuesday I headed off for an 80km bike loop round the Wolds. Main traffic: tractors and swans (-:

After a quick transition off the bike, Katy and I headed off for a different kind of ride - my first time on a horse in about 8 years! Was surprised I even remembered how to pick out hooves and tack up. Turns out it's just like riding a ~~bike~~ horse...

One last run with (my fave shhh) dog Benji on Thursday morning and I headed back to London where (Storm) Francis was waiting to drench me for my bike ride home!

Wednesday 15 July 2020

Alys's Birthday Bivvy!

In a year of staycations I can't believe this was the first weekend I managed to get out for some wild camping. At one point I thought my own terrace might be as wild as it would get this year, but thanks to the recent easing of lockdown and my friend Alys's return to London along with her car, we headed out to the Surrey hills with the promise of clear overnight skies and armed with a bottle of birthday champagne and a disposable barbecue.

We started off, as all good microadventures should, with a spot of gin tasting at the Silent Pool gin distillery https://silentpooldistillers.com/ in Albury. Good thing Alys was driving and we kept it to a couple of thimble fulls, otherwise I think we could have stayed all afternoon (-:

We then headed off for our 10km hike in the Hurtwood and Holmbury Hill. The plan was to look for a suitable place to bivvy but being the maximisers we both are (read 'The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary' by Catherine Gray) we kept walking 'just one more km' to find the perfect spot.... until the opportunities for perfect spots ran out and took us back to the car! Still, good exercise carrying all that kit, especially because Alys added a few rocks to raise the disposable bbq off the ground....

So with the hike done and the sun starting to go down, we drove back up to Newlands Corner near Shere and found a spot just off the North Downs Way just as the sky softened into a lovely pink sunset. Dreamy stuff, and the perfect first bivvy experience for Alys. Somehow the sky was clear enough for amazing stars but still mild enough that we didn't even need to sleep in hats.

I'm still recovering from the 4:45am sunrise but sooooo worth it, especially for the post bivvy brekkie over the road at the Plucky Pheasant. Need to do this more.....................

Friday 5 July 2019

Mt Ventoux Cycling HEAT WAVE

The 40ths have begun... and my friend Cassie's gone and set the bar pretty high with a 5 day cycling trip to Mt Ventoux in the Provence region of Southern France. Epic planning by Cassie, from picking a beautiful maison d'hôtes with a swimming pool, hot tub and massive garden (www.la-sidoine.fr) to booking cocktails at the same hotel where some Hollywood couple (who admittedly I'd never heard of but it sounds very cool...) got married the week before and an incredible birthday dinner at Les Remparts in Venasque.

What she hadn't planned so well was the little matter of France's biggest heatwave in years. In the days leading up to the trip we were all very excited that it looked like it would be a) dry and b) a steady 25 degrees (still hot for cyling, but manageable)... but the temperature kept rising into the late 30s. So to miss the most intense heat we were up at 5am most mornings and in bed between 9 and 10pm - oh how our 30th birthday selves would have laughed/scoffed (-:

Mt Ventoux is the largest mountain in the region and is often referred to as the 'Giant of Provence' or 'The Bald Mountain.' We could see it towering above the surrounding lavender fields and cherry orchards from the garden of the maison d'hôtes.

There are three different routes up the mountain:

Via Sault - (Average gradient: 4.5% - Maximum gradient: 11.0% - Distance 25.7km - Height gain 1152m)

Via Bedoin - (Average gradient: 7.1% - Maximum gradient : 11.0% - Distance 22.7km - Height gain 1622m)

Via Malaucene - (Average gradient: 7.2% - Maximum gradient : 10.9% - Distance 21.2km - Height gain 1535m)

Apparently Bedoin is the most famous and hardest (and the route used for the TdF) so of course we did that one three times (rolling eye emoji), once via Malaucene (my favourite for scenery) and only descended via Sault. Average gradient of 4.55 - pah, barely a hill! Till next time, windy mountain...