I’ll Have an Eight-Mile Walk With a Side Order of Getting Lost When I’m Exhausted Please

Blimey, I did a lot of walking in 2018

Sarada Gray

I wasn’t planning to go too far today.  I’ll just start off from Mountsorrel and see where I get to, I thought.  Well I walked and I saw where I got to and lo! it was Watermead Park.  And I saw that it was good.  I was quite tired by the time I’d walked a bit in the park and seen several expanses of water, lots of geese and a couple of herons. 

Watermead Park is an area of low-lying land which is now dedicated to leisure and pleasure: there are hundreds of walks, a lake which you can sail on, loads of cycling routes and hides for bird-watching.  There are also picnic tables, one of which I chose to have my lunch at.  It had a white object left on it and I approached with caution lest it be something nasty but it turned out to be a…

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Le Shewee Est Arrive!

I can actually use this now though I have yet to try it outdoors

Sarada Gray

Yes, it’s here; the little piece of equipment that transforms any woman into a fully-functioning, go-anywhere, freewheeling sort of gal.  All you need is the cover of some bushes and you can pee standing up!  It arrived this morning and I tried it out – it worked brilliantly!  No drips, no mess, no spillage, just fully-directable stream-of- stream-of- well, not exactly consciousness but you know what I mean.  Many times both recently and in the past I have had to examine bushes to see if they provide not only cover but also nettle-free areas in which to squat; and even if I find such an area it’s a hell of a performance peeing without getting any on your shorts and underwear.  But now I can say goodbye to all that (as Robert Graves once said) and pee standing up.  It is a joy.

It’s a lovely shade of pink, just…

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Watermead to Abbey Park

Another one from 2018

Sarada Gray

A gentler walk today, intending to be around 6 miles but working out at nearly 8.  Once again I got lost on the way back: once again I failed to understand how this could have happened.  Either I took another path which had vanished by the time I came back, or I’d failed to notice a long row of houses and a large pub.  Now call me unobservant if you will, but if there’s one thing I notice it’s pubs.  Because I like pubs.  I’m interested in pubs.  I like to take a look at them and see what sort of pub they are; whether they’re likely to do good beer and have a good atmosphere and so on.  And it turned out that, my phone having died and the map being rather too small-scale to provide the requisite detail, I entered said pub and asked if they knew where…

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Abbey Park to King’s Mill Lock: 9.4 Miles

From two years ago

Sarada Gray

Today was supposed to be an easier day; it didn’t turn out that way.  The first section was fine; I parked up at Abbey Park and found the canal (or one of its manifestations: the river and canal play hide and seek all the way from the Trent until south of Leicester when they finally part company, and when they part and come together again, making islands on which are parks and nature reserves.)  I was aiming for Aylestone Meadows but once I got there I just carried on walking, pointing myself at King’s Mill lock where there are some tea rooms. 

image removed on request

http://www.goleicestershire.com/thedms.aspx?dms=3&venue=2530957

Would they be open?  They were not; so back I went, finding a spot to use the shewee before having lunch.  I was starting to feel stiff and tired now, and the upper part of my right foot was complaining.  But there was…

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End-gaining in walking

Another goldie from two years ago. I’ve been doing some canal walking again this year

Sarada Gray

Here’s an object lesson in how end-gaining happens.  Two and a half weeks ago I set out on a walk.  I had no end in view, just to walk.  I might get as far as Normanton but I probably won’t, I thought.  And in any case it doesn’t matter.  Wandering without an object is a very freeing thing to do; and as it happened I did make it to Normanton, but it didn’t matter.  It was fun and interesting and I got to use the chain ferry.  But it wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t.

Then I thought, what if I walk further?  Maybe park up somewhere and walk north, see where I get to?  I did park up somewhere, I did walk north and where I got to was Kegworth.  I was interested because I hadn’t been to Kegworth before, only through it on the nightmarish A-road on…

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