Five new walks on my website

Five new walks on my website, in which I backpack the Cleveland Way over five days. A wonderful (if rather tiring) backpack on this rather spectacular and under-regarded trail.

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
963	Cleveland Way: Robin Hood's Bay to Filey Brigg	25.3	09/09/2012
962	Cleveland Way: Boulby Cliffs to Robin Hood's Bay	21.2	08/09/2012
961	Cleveland Way: Kildale to Boulby Cliffs	22.9	07/09/2012
960	Cleveland Way: Oakdale Upper Reservoir to Kildale	22.1	06/09/2012
959	Cleveland Way: Helmsley to Oakdale Upper Reservoir	21.0	05/09/2012

Only two national trails are left for me to do before I complete the set - the Wolds Way and Southern Upland Way. Hopefully I will do the former before winter, and leave the latter for next year.

As for the people who are asking me 'what next': well, there are plenty of other trails to be done, but I hanker after repeating several of the national trails. In particular, the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Pennine Way and South West Coast Path deserve to be re-walked.

Of course, life may just get in the way...

Professor Sidney Watkins

Few strangers have the ability to touch people's lives, to improve them for the better. I can name a couple in my life, but one outshines all the others: Professor Sidney Watkins.

I have written before about the troubles I had with my left ankle, the pain and discomfort that somewhat blighted my teens and twenties. A series of doctor and surgeons gave me long lists of activities I could not do: no ice skating, no skiing, no running, no serious walking. My life was constrained by the fear of pain and orders.

The Professor had little reason to show interest in the 20-year old who was introduced to him back in 1993, no reason to help him. He had achieved much in his life: neurosurgeon to three presidents, chief medical officer of F1 racing, and head of several safety organisations. He was semi-retired from private practice and had only a handful of people on his books.

For several years I had been bundled from pillar to post by doctors and surgeons, both within the NHS and private practice. I had undergone all sorts of tests, but no-one had worked out what was wrong. One day Andrea, my physiotherapist, decided to take me to see a 'rather good' surgeon who was in the hospital. I was taken to a waiting room, and after a few minutes a jovial white-haired man greeted me.

He studied, poked and probed my leg for a few minutes, before proclaiming: "I know what's wrong."

It took him several operations and five years, but he fixed me up. It is a measure of the man that he actually apologised for it having taken so long. Unlike all my other surgeons, when I asked him if I would ever be able to walk the Pennine Way, he immediately said yes.

Thanks to him, I can.

Sid, thanks for everything.I hope there are some good fishing rods in heaven, and that the salmon are running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaEirq1vs3I

Eleven new walks on my website

I have finally got my backside into gear, and published the last eleven walks on my website. It has been a rather poor year for walking so far, with only a few hundred miles completed. Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon.

958	Suffolk Coast Path: Boyton Dock to Felixstowe Station	15.3	09/08/2012
957	Suffolk Coast Path: Dunwich Forest to Boyton Dock	25.0	08/08/2012
956	Suffolk Coast Path: Lowestoft to Dunwich Forest	22.8	07/08/2012
955	Essex Way: Manningtree to Harwich	17.0	02/08/2012
954	St Ives to Trumpington via the Busway	18.0	25/07/2012
953	Thames Path: Woolwich to Kew	28.1	01/07/2012
952	Angles Way: Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth	21.4	28/06/2012
951	Sudbury to Colchester	20.8	26/06/2012
950	Stour Valley Path: Bures to Manningtree	21.0	28/05/2012
949	Stour Valley Path: Stoke-by-Clare to Sudbury	18.4	22/05/2012
948	Stour Valley Path: A linear walk between Stoke-by-Clare and Little Bradley and back	20.2	18/05/2012

In these walks I complete the Stour Valley Path (Suffolk) and the Angles Way, and also roughly walk the Suffolk Coast Path.

The Shard

I watched the Shard being built with interest: the plans, the controversy, the unusual construction mechanism (building upwards before building the foundations), the infiltration by base-jumpers; and I doubted I would like it.

On Sunday we went on a walk through London, and the Shard was visible for much of the way. Sencan instantly liked it, and my muted disapproval melted away as I approached. We would occasionally glimpse it around a bend in the river, or through a gap between buildings, its weird shape tantalising and enticing us onwards. By the time I reached its base at London Bridge, I loved it despite myself.

That great aim of architects and planners around the world - context - was scrunched up into a ball and thrown out of the window. The tower's context is all wrong: it is on the other side of the river from the large towers of the City; worse, it brutalises a large part of London.

But what a brutalisation. Viewing the Shard is like being hammered from behind by a large ape. However you find with shock that would could be horrific and bestial is actually rather enjoyable; a secret thrill.

It is the shape of the Shard that does it: nowhere near as phallic as the Canary Wharf Tower (especially in its earlier days, with the two much-lower buildings that flanked the tower). The Shard looks more alien, like a spaceship has landed and is awaiting permission to take off for an unknown destination. It makes the many towers at Canary Wharf seem both old-fashioned and unnecessary. Who wants a New York or Chicago skyline when we can have something so different?

Although the tapered shape is fairly novel, the eponymous 'shards' at the top are the real gimmick. They make the tower look incomplete, as if the builders have just gone for a tea-break and will be back soon. Or perhaps it really is an alien spacecraft that has landed in the city to await repairs after a prang with an asteroid.

I have no doubt that the Shard will not last as long as the Tower of London, or have such an illustrious and varied story. But, for the moment at least, it is a welcome newcomer to London's skyline.

Silence is golden.

Sorry about the lack of posts here in recent months: Sencan and I have just bought a new house, and I have been busy decorating and moving in. Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon.

Events have rather stifled my 2012 walking plans, but here are my first six walks of the year:

No.	Location	Distance (m)	Date Walked
947	Trent Valley Way: Holme Pierrpont to Thrumpton and return	20.4	30/03/2012
946	A walk along the Stour Valley Path from Newmarket	22.1	27/03/2012
945	A circular walk from Swavesey to Oakington, Childerley and Boxworth	16.3	30/01/2012
944	A circular walk between St Ives, Warboys and Somersham	25.2	28/01/2012
943	A linear walk from Godmanchester to Yelling and Houghton	18.6	23/01/2012
942	A circular walk from Cambourne to Elsworth and Papworth Everard	17.5	16/01/2012

This included perhaps the worst named trail I have ever done, the Pathfinders Long Distance Walk.

Hopefully I will get more walks done in the next quarter...

Eject!

The following link details an RAF pilot's recovery from horrific injuries after a mid-air collision and ejection. His life was saved by, perversely, a weak joint in the chin-strap of his helmet.

http://www.ian-weaver.com/ians_page/accident-10th-jan-1996/comment-page-1/

An amazing read; it is well worth reading the comments as well.