Off again!

This coming Saturday I'm finally setting off on the last stage of my backwards East to West way! Walking from home, (the end point of last year's stages) to Lowestoft a final distance of 136 miles of huge open skies and flat farm land.
So in preparation and to test it, I've made up a four meal batch of chilli to take with me!
Excellent weight loss between the cooked and the dehydrated meals! With the dehydrated meal weighing in at one third of the cooked version, this is after I've taken off the weight of the plastic container shown in the picture ;-)
Naturally I'll knock together more dehydrated food for the trip to Scotland in June, this batch will at least be a good test of its nutritional value not to mention whether it's actually edible when prepared in the field!
Keep an eye on the blog! :-)

Jogle latest news

This is my latest acquisition for use on Jog-Le next year , this Lightwave wildtrek 60 pack is larger than the pack I carried on Le-Jog to allow for carrying larger quantities of food which I will need for some extended wild sections in the Scottish highlands! (details to follow next year! ;)  ).

Weighing in at only 1.5 kg and purporting to be waterproof! (this i have to see to believe!!!)  it should be perfect for next year, though naturally the pack will undergo plenty of infield testing this year with the two walks planned. The first, to complete my west to east walk restarts in exactly one month!

I have a serious amount of training to do between now and then! what with bad weather and illness I've not walked further than 5 miles in a walk this year!! but walking fitness soon comes back.

   

A sizable change of plan for jogle

Having been off work with a virus for two days I've had no shortage of time to muck about with route planning!
At this rate i'll have my route planned a good year and a half ahead of need but this is just too much fun!
The original idea of a route slanting down to the Scottish west coast has been abandoned in favour of a central route, which while maintaining a mountainous landscape and multiple days away from civilization does make the path underfoot more certain! i still maintain that the Scottish right to roam does not guarantee an ability to roam! so i stick to marked paths and tracks or roads! ;).
The red flags on the map to the right are provisioning stops (thanks google maps!) and and the green tent marks are expected end of day markers working to an approximation of my average daily 17.5 miles walked per day.

Been there, now back again!

Jogle 2014

After my Le-jog of 2010 I can safely say that the lure of the return trip has never left me, I'm pretty sure anyone who has completed this epic walk knows where i'm coming from, so i'm committing myself to Jog-le in the late summer of 2014!.

Planning is naturally in the early stages so the final distance or any other stats are well away from publication!.

For now I'll make the basic kml (google maps) and the more accurate Gpx (memory maps etc) of the entire route available for download if anyone is interested :).Once the planned daily routes are completed I'll make those available too, comments from anyone with knowledge of the areas I'm going through would be more than welcome!.

Another little extension to the blog

I've finally sat down and figured out how to add download links from the blog for my routes!
I've been meaning to do this for at least a year and half !!!! finally pulled my finger out and links are now available towards the bottom of the right hand bar, gpx files for Garmin or various other apps on android or I phone and kml files for Google maps or Google earth.

Day thirteen-End of stage two

Another peaceful woodland night leads to a dry packing of the tent with the dawn chorus heralding our departure!, With half a mile walked we cross paths with the A508 in a full rush hour chorus of its own, I know which I prefer!.
Through Lamport and back into the fields to Faxton along more familiar paths to Mawsley and into Kettering via Great Cransley two weary pilgrims of the trail finally collapse onto a very familiar sofa..........Until next year!

Day twelve-its all looking mighty familiar!

With no trees overhead last night the tent is very soggy with mist far from the first time! Packed away as it was we followed the canal north to Braunston, with many a good morning to the barge folk-nice people these :)
into the village and another provision stop (more dog food!) and we're on a familiar path the jurassic way, many parts of which I've followed in my walking! Not this bit tho. Through the lovely Ashby St Ledgers and over what might be the busiest collection of routes I've seen with a railway,a canal,an A road and the M1 all crossing the path within eight hundred yards or so!
Through Watford (known for its gap!) Staying with the jurassic way to West Haddon, east across country we we're spoilt with a free air show as the last remaining Vulcan bomber circled overhead for a good fifteen minutes!
Onwards through Hollowell and Cotesbrooke we reach the far south west edge of my local walking territory! And find another wild camp this time next to the Lamport valley way, near Hanging Houghton.
Which leaves us with a very short stretch to get us home tomorrow !

Day eleven-overtaking ourselves!

After another very surprisingly undisturbed night we head off at first light, with a gentle mist around us we pass through Newbold Paceys hall grounds to get to the road at Ashorne. A couple of miles of this takes us over the M40 , squeezing through an overgrown kiss gate and the unobvious path takes us to Chesterton, passing its fairly remote church we cross country to Bishops Itchington for restock of provisions, on through Ladbroke, over the hill via footpath and over a road named on the map as the Welsh road (no idea why?) More obscure paths lead us finally (after much swearing) to Napton on the hill, or more importantly the folly pub on the Oxford canal,a nice pint of doom bar (didn't know you could it so close to home!) And a good meal see's us following the canal north, with lots of chatting to barge dwelling folk and a relaxing pace as we are ahead of schedule, lazily watch the evening approach and set the tent up for the night on the tow path.

Day ten-pushing my luck!

An early start at the wild camp and we still had a visit from a local dog that couldn't decide what the tent was and just grunted at it! Phew!
Hot footing away in the early morning light we crossed through pretty fields again under a blue and sunny sky.
Into Alcester a pretty little town! And breakfast at the welcome cafe, nice they allow dogs in too :).
Heading out of town we pass through a preserved but lived in lane very pleasing on the eye.(pic to follow), on to B roads again Walcote where an old ex pub (called the crown I found out later) had an enormous old cider press (pic) never seen its like before!
Across the fields and into withycomb wood where an ancient pear tree (about thirty foot high) was shedding sweet little round pears, much appreciated!.
Into the pub at wilmcote where I learned the name of the old pub, out the village passed Mary Arden's house, following the canal for 5km we enter the mind boggling rush of civilisation (shock to the system!), passing a jester statue a quote from twelfth night was most apt "foolery sir does walk about the orb like the sun. It shines everywhere" here's to foolery I say!.
Across the Avon we restock at Tiddington then to the apparent river crossing at Alveston the only way across is via a long defunct ferry, luck smiled on us tho as true gent I'd been chatting to lived on the rivers bank and rowed us across! Can't say enough thanks to Gordon!
Five kilometers of field walking and we had to abandon the day to exhaustion and a hedgerow by a small lane, with far to much farm activity we once again settled down for the night with fingers crossed!...

Day nine-almost hallowed ground!

Nice to stop at Ketch camp site again, equally nice was following my old lejog path into Worcester, quite odd to be humbled again by that massive achievement!
Through the barge docks and I was hopping to grab breakfast at the same cafe near the cathedral but as it was Sunday they didn't open till ten am, still nice to listen to the bells as I hunted for an alternative breakfast.
admittedly I can't navigate in Towns without my GPS! Glad to get out tho as the road east wasn't half as pleasant as the path north into town, can't have everything.
quickly over the M5 having taken eight days to get back to this point after driving south!. A combination of footpaths and B roads take us to Crowle for refreshments at lunch followed by nice rural footpaths to Flyford flavell where a car sales garage had a dodgy old Mercedes going for £999 registration L7MAO  funny if you understand text speak!. The next garage was the one I was aiming for to stock up at its Londis shop, while there a group of scooter enthusiasts road in good friendly bunch, even beeped at us as they passed further down the road :).
six kilometers of more field walking sees us wild camped precariously between two farms in a thin stretch of woodland..........nice listening to the owls hooting!

Day eight-the final hurdle!

From our woody bower a quick walk through the woods bought us to the  network of small B roads that linked us up with the Malvern hills, nipping up these with relative ease the panorama of the east spread out before us in a beautifully flat way!, along the roller coaster tops to beacon hill and down into Malvern town where we snacked at an organic cafe....very green!.
Malvern town is pleasant with unusually farm land in the middle! , out through the suburbs and B road
Walking to callow end pretty village with a great little shop on the village green, interesting church tower/spire didn't see more than this, then field hopping on the west bank of the river Severn to Ketch camp site at Worcester where we camped in 2010 enroute to john o'groats!.

Day seven-f in hedges!

Hoarwithy was a lovely little village, great pub and an amazing church with a nice bridge with an old toll house over the Wye then a bit of road walking to Kings caple out this village in a gentle breeze with sun showing and crossed the fields above the Wye to How caple passed the church and monastic (?) Buildings and then right on a footpath through woodland to stocking, we never actually saw stocking as the path came out onto the road half a kilometre further down the road than marked on the map, this was fine as the footpath we were after was another hundred yards down the road. :)
Over stubble fields to chapel farm (which actually has a chapel!) Then after a chat with the farmer we cross an old bean field and hit the b roads to much marcle stopping only to engage in a one way conversation with a brummie who was just moving into his new home and was intent on slagging of his old neighbors! Each to they're own!
Finding the pub in Much Marcle for dinner I engaged in conversation with the temporary manageress who lives in my sisters home town! Small world!, checking the website of my planned stop for tonight proved invaluable as the site had closed early due to the wet summer! Very glad I did as it was a couple of K off route!.
Walking away from the pub and into the fields I wondered if I'd drunk more than I had as every path I followed dead ended at five foot high hedges then continued on the other side! Much swearing at the absent farmer later we made it to Preston hall a magnificent wooden framed building! walking up its main drive was a treat and the following paths to Ledbury were fine,a quick shop stop at the Co op and we headed north a wooded hill for a cosy wild camp.