Microadventure #4 - London Bridges Challenge

Unlike my night in a bothy (January), cold water swim (February) and weeknight wild camping (March), this month's microadventure required a bit of training.

When my friend Naomi suggested we do a 48km (30 mile) walk along the River Thames, I scoffed at her suggestion of a training plan. It's walking - how hard could it be?! 

Fast forward to our first 20km training walk together (in the snow) and I realised that I'd underestimated the effort of putting one foot in front of the other and repeating it for a 3-4 hour period. The following week I battled with a strange twinge in the muscle on top of one of my feet, sore hip flexors and shin splints. So a training plan it would have to be. Fortunately for me, Naomi is a TV producer and LOVES planning!

Over the next 4 weeks, we both incorporated walking into our work commutes and did a longer walk together at the weekends, increasing the distance by 5km every week. Slowly my legs got used to the different range of motion to running and cycling. And with a bit of stretching and foam roller-ing, 4 weekends on from that snowy 20km we were at Hampton Court train station, ready to begin our walk crossing the 26 pedestrian bridges that span the River Thames from Hampton Court to Tower Bridge. There are actually 33 in total, but 7 are railway bridges, so we didn't think they were a very sensible option to get ourselves to Tower Bridge in one piece.

The twists and turns of the River Thames - including the 'Chiswick cleavage'

Here are all 26 bridges in order:

1.   Hampton Court Bridge

2.   Kingston Bridge

3.   Teddington Lock Footbridge

4.   Richmond Bridge

5.   Twickenham Bridge

6.   Richmond Lock Footbridge

7.   Kew Bridge

8.   Chiswick Bridge

9.   Barnes Bridge

10. Hammersmith Bridge

11. Putney Bridge

12. Fulham Bridge

13. Wandsworth Bridge

14. Battersea Bridge

15. Albert Bridge

16. Chelsea Bridge

17. Vauxhall Bridge

18. Lambeth Bridge

19. Westminster Bridge

20. Hungerford/Golden Jubilee Bridge

21. Waterloo Brdige

22. Blackfriars Bridge

23. Millenium Bridge

24. Southwark Bridge

25. London Bridge

26. Tower Bridge

I should probably add, just to add to the adventure, Naomi is 5 months pregnant. WHAT A TROOPER! So to balance us out and to make things fairer, I carried her backpack on my front most of the way. A sort of externally positioned foetus full of sandwiches, soup, water and snacks.

7am and we're off!

Being a doofus in Bushy Park

Bacon sarnies in baguettes homemade by Nico (Naomi's husband)

Charlotte standard 'Ta daaa' pose in front of Richmond Lock Bridge

Standard dog stop (me, not Naomi)

Stretching on Kew Bridge

Saying hello to the geese (with an irrational fear of geese and swans)

Running out of bridge poses

By the time we got towards lunchtime, my "let's cross that bridge when we come to it" jokes were wearing thin and hunger was setting in. So THANK GOODNESS for bumping into fellow Clapham Chaser Gabby near Barnes and Carluccios in Putney.

Bumping into Gabby along the river

Pasta in Putney

The afternoon was mostly about playing games like "What's your favourite..." (covering just about every possible topic) and "Would you rather X or Y" (to which Naomi would normally say one, change her mind then say both). Part of the fun of walking rather than running or cycling is you really can have a proper conversation. But even good friends run out of regular chat so the games were a fun way to get to know each other even better.

Outside Carluccios in front of Putney Bridge

Fulham Rail/Pedestrian Bridge

In Battersea Park we were met by Nico and did a bit of leg elevation by Albert Bridge before heading more central where, after being quite sparse for the most of the way, the bridges came thick and fast.

Leg elevating in Battersea Park

The baguette chef himself!

'Pretending to hitch-hike' pose on Chelsea Bridge

Chelsea Bridge

Lambeth Bridge BUMP

Westminster Bridge

Hungerford/Golden Jubilee Bridge

Millenium Bridge Selfie (St Pauls Cathedral in background)

Special treeeeeat rest before London Bridge

We arrived at Tower Bridge at about 7:30pm, abour 12 hours after we started. And then walked all the way home.

Kidding. 

We got an Uber.

Obvs.

Microadventure #3 - Weeknight Wild Camping

Alastair Humphreys is on a mission to get people to 'claim back' their weeknights by going on a 5-to-9 microadventure. You can watch Al convince a group of office workers in Milton Keynes to go mountain biking and wild camping straight from the office in this short film: http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/5-to-9-microadventure-challenge/

So for my March microadventure, fellow Clapham Chaser Sophie Kelk and I decided to venture out of London on a dark drizzly Tuesday night and sleep in a field near the North Downs Way on the Kent/Surrey borders. I should probably add that wild camping in England is illegal (it's legal in Scotland) but as long as you're discreet you should be ok. I've heard of people bivvying in Richmond Park, but given the number of deer and Royal Parks patrol vehicles we decided it probably wasn't a very good idea.

Even my commute IN to work felt like an adventure. Switching a handbag for a rucksack, I felt like a kid going on holiday. Except nothing about my day was changing, just the promise of not knowing where I was going to sleep that night.

Getting the bus into work (bag too big to survive the northern line scrum!)

So at 6pm (Al's 5-to-9 timeframe was a little optimistic given I only started my new job just over a month ago) I changed into my overnight gear, loaded up my rucksack and headed to London Bridge station. I'm not sure my new colleagues know what to make of me...

Leaving the office

The Shard

London Bridge Station

Sophie and me with matching Chaser bobble hats at East Croydon

Sophie and I met up at East Croydon to pick up our connecting train. I'm familiar with the north Kent/Surery hills from cycling so we'd decided to go to Woldingham and picked out a pub not far from our rough camping spot of Botley Hill. But we were running late so, knowing that the pub stopped serving food at 8:30pm, we made a snap decision to jump off the train 2 stops earlier after a friendly commuter overheard us discussing alternative and suggested that the pubs in Oxted (our plan B) weren't that great. So we found ourselves at Upper Warlingham station based purely on a pub recommendation for The White Lion from a complete stranger. We even managed to get a lift to the pub in the village with said stranger. The microadventure had truly begun...

We totally lucked out at The White Lion. Not only was it a ye olde little gem of a building on the outsides, it was warm and cozy inside, and they did great wine and food with friendly service. We shared a baked camembert, bottle of red wine and each had a steak and ale pie, with the promise that the more you eat, the warmer you'll stay because your body will be burning energy. That's our story and we're sticking to it.

Best of all, they agreed to fill up my hot water bottle before we headed out into the night (virtually glamping, right?!)

It was already quite late so we only walked about 30 minutes before picking a field away from the road, and finding a corner next to a wooded area to pitch our tent. We'd wanted to wild camp the whole night but knew rain was forecast so decided to start out in the bivvy bags and have the tent as a back up. But what's a bivvy bag I hear you cry? It's basically a waterproof bag that you put on the outside of your sleeping bag, a one man cocoon that I'm sure is a lot more pleasant in the summer nights. We did manage 2 hours sleeping out but crawled into the tent at about 1am when the rain got heavier.

The road out of Warlingham

Setting up 'Plan A' bivvy bags

And 'Plan B' tent

Hip flask night cap

Sooo grateful for 'Plan B' tent option in the night

We both slept ok, but were so grateful for the tent. It was still drizzling when we got up and packed up around 6am. We then headed to (our originally planned) Woldingham station to get the train back into London.

Good Morning!

As we headed towards Woldingham across the fields and roads the rain got heavier and by the time we got to the station we were both pretty soggy.

Re-joining a train of commuters felt very strange, especially in our soggy outdoor gear alongside the office-wear majority. But it was exciting to think about what we'd crammed into the time that it had taken most of the train to get home, go to bed, get up and get back on the train. Definitely not something for every week (and we were both exhausted by the evening) but a lot of fun, and something I'd be up for trying again when the evenings start to get lighter, warmer and drier!

Spot the odd one out!

Sophie getting back on a busy commuter train at East Croydon

Back at London Bridge, re-joining the rat race

Breakfast back at my desk by 8:45am

Microadventure #2 - Cold Water Swimming

Anyone who has ever seen (or heard) me getting into cold water will know what a challenge this month's microadventure was. It doesn't even need to be very cold - anything below 'warm bath' temperature makes me shiver just thinking about it. 

So after parkrun on Saturday I headed to Brrrrr-ockwell Lido in South London to brave the very NOT 'warm bath' temperatures of outdoor swimming in February. When I got there, two other brave (foolhardy?) Clapham Chasers - Jane and Henry - were already doing laps (in training for a cold water swimming race in Glasgow next month) and another (Hannah) was already in the sauna post-swim. Meanwhile... I stood on the side in my wet-suit and TWO coats, watching and thinking of every possible excuse as to why this was not a good idea. 

According to www.loneswimmer.com, swimming in 5 degrees is classed as:

“F*ck!“ That’s a technical term. Swimmers like to remind people this is the same temperature as the inside of a quite cold domestic fridge. Don’t worry if you can’t remember actually swimming, getting out of the water or trying to talk. Memory loss is a fun game for all the family. This occurs usually around the middle to end of February.

So at 5.4 degrees it wasn't far off jumping inside the water jug I keep in my fridge. 

It may LOOK like a summer's day... but don't let that blue sky fool you!

With Jane and Henry by the temperature sign

Two coats, and wet-suit and trying to keep my feet warm

Cold water does funny things to your mind.... It wasn't until I'd got home, warmed up, eaten and looked at the photos that I realised I had my wet-suit on inside out!!

Spot the cold water newbie!

What AM I doing??

This is HAPPENING

2 lengths of the 50 metre pool

Gasping for breath

Hot water shower (wet-suit still on inside out)

How many people can you fit in a sauna?!

After a hot shower and sauna, I decided that swimming with a wet-suit wasn't enough of a challenge. (Proving the point that cold water does indeed make you lose your marbles...)

So, off came the wet-suit and I managed half a length (25 metres) in just my cozzie...

Psyching myself up

So, with my February microadventure done, we warmed up sharing a hip-flask of whisky and a brunch feast of 8 eggs and 24 chipolatas between the 4 of us. You burn more calories in the cold, right?

I can't say I'll be doing it again next weekend, and while I didn't enjoy the actual 'getting cold' part, I definitely enjoyed the whole experience, and the challenge of doing something so far out of my comfort zone. 

Now off to run a nice warm bath.......