Getting Ready for Christmas

She's fourth from the left - if she'd put the beard on I wouldn't have known!

Vicky decided to do the local Bovey Tracey Santa Run instead of a parkrun - here she is in suitable attire with some of her friends. Several hundred santas and elves raised money for Whizzkids and the local lifesaving club.  This was a Santa Run with a difference as the run was followed by a dip in the open air swimming pool, heated specially for the occasion. Oh and lucky Vicky won a prize in the raffle - Mango Bathsalts!

Iceland's gone up in my estimation!

Two days to Christmas and we've got everything haven't we? Oh no where's the Christmas Pudding. Trip to Morrisons found us walking down an almost empty aisle looking up at some tiny, one mouthful puddings on the shelf. Oh the M and S Foodhall will have some surely..........nope, all that was left were some very expensive prosecco Christmas puddings. What a disaster, we walked back towards the car past Iceland feeling rather despondent, in desperation I turned back to Iceland and what a surprise! Not only did they have a great selection but there were plenty in store - we plumped for the brandy, sherry and cognac 12 month matured pud. Saved by Iceland!

Burning Cakes

What a nice day - not had many of these lately!

Whatever next? This is the Willow Cathedral at Longrun Meadow in Taunton. We'd just done a parkrun on a route that led straight past this tangle of willow trees artfully woven to form an outdoor function area. The willow was harvested from the Somerset Levels, an extensive area of marshland nearby, in the middle of the marshes is a bit of an island called Athelney - this is where King Alfred took refuge from the invading Vikings in the ninth century and burnt his cakes; however he returned rekindled in spirit to defeat his enemy and bring peace to the country. Needless to say I'd not spotted the Willow Cathedral as I ran past but we took Skip for a stroll round and here we found it. It must look quite different in its summer plumage - which of course gives us an excuse to come back, it's a nice flat run although the trail is a bit lumpy - there's a good cafe as well!

White Nancy, a famous Cheshire landmark,  sticks out on the top of Kerridge Ridge near Macclesfield and is visible for many miles across the Cheshire plain. It was built to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1812 and every year the Moscow Symphony Orchestra assemble here to play the 1812 Overture using real cannons aimed at Liverpool. No I made up that last bit sorry; the date of Waterloo was 1815 and White Nancy was built in 1817 to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars. We'd been in Macclesfield for a particularly sad funeral and I'd revisited old haunts with a run up the hill to raise my spirits. The photo was taken by a couple of runners who'd had the same idea and they were able to save me having to take a selfie. As an aside White Nancy is not always all white and in 2014 there was a red poppy painted on its face!

Winter comes to Devon

Right where's me skis!

So back to the UK and away from that lovely tropical climate down under - and 'Oh Dear!' we've come across some interesting weather in early November, this is Dartmoor at Haytor Rocks (in the background in this photo) on the Eastern side of the moor. I was well wrapped up and the climb warmed us somewhat but the feet got a bit cold. I had decided to wear Inov8 X-claws which were great for grip especially coming down but my extremities were clearly not yet acclimatised to the rigors of our part of the Northern hemisphere. And of course we've returned to the weekly grind - several very wet and windy parkruns in the past few weeks have seen us getting soaked and slathered with mud - still we have to keep at it - use it or lose it!

Plug through the mud!

But what's this - a ray of sunshine and a run in the sun. The Templer Way is nothing to do with the Knights Templar, rather it's the route by which Dartmoor granite was taken down to the docks at Teignmouth on the coast, (Templer was the name of the chappie who built the route and owned the quarries). And part of the trail is used as the basis for the Templer 10, a regular off road November race popular with local running clubs - and the first time I wore the local colours of Bovey Runners. Arriving at the start we found that the race was being shortened to 8 miles due to part of the course being flooded - no skin off my nose however as I enjoyed the mud and sun, and I managed to pick up a dinky trophy for being second in my age group. Strange to pass spectators saying 'Keep going on Bovey!' and 'Come on my lovely!'

The best pints we've found down here so far have been at The Taphouse in Newton Abbot - and here's a picture of it. Well the pub actually occupies a small segment of this magnificent building. This is Tuckers Maltings which sadly closed down last year after over a century of sprouting barley to create malt for brewers in the South East of England and further afield. Fortunately for us the bar serves a range of fine ales - can't be bad!

North Harbour parkrun

Aussie rules football perhaps?

We now have a better appreciation of the hazards that can be encountered in the vastness of Australian - snakes, spiders, sharks and jelly fish are all well known threats to human life and Aussies are always on the watch out. Less familiar, and less easily spotted, are other creatures such as leeches, ticks and mozzies loaded up with parasites and viruses and finally various forms of dangerous plant life. We'd come across stinging trees on previous visits, one example being the Gympie Stinger - it's leaves and bark contain a toxin which can affect you not just for hours but for months. And then at the North Harbour parkrun I came across this warning sign! Didn't see anyone wearing crash helmets so maybe they've all fallen down for this year.

Proof of the pudding!

And what about this parkrun then? This is the real story. Having run in about 180 parkruns was I ever going to come first? I'd come in with several second and third places but there'd always been someone quicker than me. 7 am on Saturday morning sees me here at North Harbour which is out in the country north of Brisbane, it's located in a scenic reserve close to what is evidently going to be a large new town, lots of building going on and huge spaces cleared for new housing. This is a case of getting essential services in before the real building starts - parkrun being one of them. Clearly there were not going to be too many runners living in the vicinity and indeed a mere twenty of us toed the starting line. And we were off - me taking it steady in about 5th position as the course took us along a gravel track and onto a flattish path though grassy fields along a riverbank. I gradually picked off other runners until, at the turnaround point I saw that I'd got a good lead over the second paced runner. And I then clung onto my lead for dear life, avoiding stinging plants and football sized cones, to finish at the front. There's the second runner about eighty metres behind me but I was fading fast and he was closing in on me. My first first - but will it ever happen again?

Am I first?

Sensible beer drinking and fancy birds

Mmm.tasty!

Sydney is the brash busy archetypal Aussie city - we have steered clear of it following our one visit several years ago. But there is perhaps a good reason to return - this being to visit the home of the award winning Modus Operandi brewery in the Northern Beaches area. We managed to find a 4-pack of Modus Sonic Prayer IPA in a bottle store at Jindabyne - fabulous stuff! And one of the local Canberra breweries, Capital Brewing, were also represented with their quaffable Trail Pale. In Canberra itself we were within walking distance of the renowned Bentspoke Brewery Tap where we found a huge range of beer most of it brewed on site - we could have stayed there a week! We have noticed that many of the newer breweries are producing lower alcohol ales - Modus have a 3.2% pale ale called Easy and Balter, a very fine brewer from the Gold Coast south of Brisbane make a 2.8% beer called Captain Sensible.

Ooh just look at me!

I was quite taken with the sight of this chap sitting in a tree by a pond not far from the centre of Brisbane. This is a Straw-Necked Ibis in his finest mating plumage. Most of the year he's a bit dowdy and scruffy but in spring he puffs up his chest and comes alive to impress the ladies. There are over a thousand parks and playgrounds in the greater Brisbane area and they're full of cycling paths, sports fields, playground apparatus of various types and wildlife. In many of the parks remnants of bushland have been preserved and are maintained with native plantings and reintroductions.

What a show off!

I spotted the ibis pictured above in the Keith Boden Wetlands which is basically a big pond in the park with plenty of tree cover and a good sized island in the middle. (No idea who Keith Boden is - I did Google him with no results in connection with Brisbane.)  Among the other birdlife taking advantage of this suburban oasis were ducks, cormorants and different types of egret. I took this photo of a Cattle Egret sitting in the same tree - this bird is white all year round apart from, wait for it, breeding time when the male's head and chest turn a lovely shade of orange. These birds certainly know how to turn on the charm when the time is right.

Hot and Cold

Gosh it's hot!

Here's grim determination coming up towards the finish line of the Airlie Beach parkrun. Vicky's seventh parkrun here and her third best - not bad considering it was such a hot morning. She's done 141 parkruns in total so should reach 150 by the end of the year. I also suffered in the heat but sneaked into the top ten finishers. Airlie Beach is a tropical parkrun, it's about 500K north of the Tropic of Capricorn which bisects the Australian coast just south of the small town of Yeppoon. So we'll have to have a go at the Yeppoon parkrun sometime in the next year or so - watch this space!

Oooh it's chilly!

And here's the same young lady seven days later. After several weeks of warm weather in Queensland we headed south to Canberra for a couple of days and then hit the high road to Jindabyne which is close to the highest parkrun in Australia, not only is it 950 metres above sea level it's a lot colder than Airlie Beach - there was over 20 degrees difference!

So just where are the Spanish ones?

And a third shot of the same delightful lady in a more relaxed frame of mind meandering through a grove of birch trees at the Canberra Arboretum. This arboretum is like no other that we've seen, usually arboreta are areas of parkland with individual specimens trees dotted around - some of them are quite splendid. Canberra is different - they decided a few years ago to plant mini forests of trees of the same species, some of them threatened or vanishing species. OK you might say - these look just like ordinary birches in this photo, but these birches are sheltering a rare variety, the Spanish Birch, these are disappearing in their native home - once the Spanish Birches become established here the regular birches will be sacrificed - it's what you might term a far sighted long term project. Very impressive and a joy to look at!

Ozzy Birds!

Let's  get cracking.

Managed to get a nifty photo of an Eastern Whipbird snuffling about in the undergrowth in the Mount Tamborine rainforest at Eagle Heights. This little blighter is often heard but seldom seen, I caught a glimpse of something beneath a bush beside the pathway and kept snapping away hoping that I'd get a decent picture and here it is. The call of the Eastern Whipbird is an unmistakeable drawn out note followed by a crack not unlike the crack of a whip - hence the name.

Grub up?

Quite pleased with this pic of two Kookaburra's perching on our balcony in Airlie Beach, the young one on the right was very tame whereas the adult kept flying away then returning to check on its offspring. We figured out that somebody had been feeding the youngster on a balcony similar to ours and the little bird thought we would be another source of grub (or grubs). Kookaburra senior was obviously concerned about possible violations of child protection protocols.

Not my photo but such a pretty bird it was! We took a stroll round Lake Jindabyne in the New South Wales highlands and spotted this chappie fluttering around - it wouldn't pose for us though apart from a flash of its unmistakeable tail. We were aiming for a pint at the Banjo Patterson Inn but got caught in a violent freezing hailstorm which completely soaked us - so it was back to the apartment for hot showers and a change of clothes - not the sort of weather we are accustomed to in OZ.

Chances of further scattered showers according to accuweather.com forced us to take the car up to the Jindabyne Brewery Tap - this was no great hardship!

Enjoying the warm weather - wish you were here!

Isn't she lovel

Well guess where we are again? This is Bredl's Country Farm, a delightful place out in the sticks of Northern Queensland. Lots of kangaroos, huge crocodiles, wombats, snakes, large lizards, etc. And what a very entertaining informative day we had. However it was dry, dusty and hot - by 10 am the temperature was already climbing towards 30 degrees and shade was at a premium. We were a little acclimatised as we'd experienced the heat a couple of weeks before at the Hidden Vale Trail Race many miles west of Brisbane. Vicky, Lyndall and myself all won age category prizes. In other words, to use a dreadful aberration that I heard recently, all three of us 'podiumed'!

It might seem a little odd to be winning cycling jerseys although they are rather nifty. However the trail race was the precursor to a weekend of mountain bike racing and my 11.5K race and the girls' 5K race were over the same terrain that the cyclists used later on - dry, dusty and hot and with lumps in the middle of the trail. I was rather jet lagged and losing concentration towards the end and managed to hit one of these lumps, found myself in a heap and had to avail myself of the first aid support at the finish - ouch! Our Lyndall managed to survive the run without mishap and the following day completed the 55K cycle race in fine fettle - cold beer was in order that evening.

The weekend after this we hit the St Lucia parkrun by the river in Brisbane, as you can see I was modelling my stylish trail race running vest. After many weeks of drought Brisbane welcomed a rainy morning and we got absolutely drenched during the race director's briefing - soon dried off though!

Back to the hills

Guess who got lost!

Nearly two years since I last did a fell race. Sixteen years ago I ran a couple of back to back fell races on Dartmoor, on the Saturday was the 11 mile Sticklepath Horseshoe which was followed on the Sunday by the Sourton Tor race, a 14 minute up and down quickie. This year, being in the vicinity, I spotted the Sourton Tors race - not quite the same as it started further away. This was a thoroughly enjoyable tramp on the hills, a traditional style fell race with registration and prizes out of the back of a car in a pub car park. Not that either of us won anything but it won't be two years until my next one.

A wet morning in Ulster

Recent park runs completed include Penistone in Yorkshire where we followed the flattish West Pennine Trail on an interesting surface - it looked like tarmac but was springy, nice to run on it must have had some ground up tyres mixed in. Also two in Northern Ireland - a sunny jaunt round the grounds of Stormont Castle and a very wet morning in Wallace Park in Lisburn. The latter is an undulating three loop course in a lovely park with a fine example of a band stand - I spotted myself in this photo of the race briefing - must have been about 200 runners under cover there.

Heading for Devon

Taxi!

Trundling down to our new house in Devon with all our worldly goods in a transit van, (well three vans in a row) we've been pitstopping halfway at Droitwich staying at the Chateau Impney (see post from May). This particular hotel is a popular wedding venue especially with wealthy Asian families from Birmingham. We spotted one wedding where 5 brightly coloured brand new Ferraris were revving up in the extensive and beautiful hotel grounds. On another occasion we spotted a stretch Porsche - here's Vicky trying to persuade the driver to let her go for a spin in it.

Just a quick one!

On arrival in Devon we fairly swiftly repaired to the Bell Inn, our nearest pub. We knew that a selection of real ale was on offer but this time we were delighted find Otter Brewery's OPA. The regular at the bar told us this stands for Old Peoples' Ale but of course Opa is Dutch for Grandpa so Vicky took to this quite rapidly. Other ales from local breweries were also tasty! Plenty of parkruns to go at down here and we soon ticked off several including Exmouth and Teignmouth both going up and down the sea front. Haldon Forest was a pleasant parkrun through the woods on the fringes of Dartmoor. However on August bank holiday we thought we'd better have a go at the Lustleigh Show 10K just 3 or 4 miles up the road - well this was almost a fell race with getting on for 300 metres of climbing mostly off road. And a hot day it was too. However Vicky was very well prepared and was equipped with most of the gear required for running the Marathon des Sables.

Where's my camel?

Midsummer running

Puffing bit here

Here's the new parkrun in Derby, described as flat - it wasn't quite! It's on the course of an old railway line, but I don't think an express train would have coped with the ups and downs, more likely it was an old industrial branch line. Derby may be a long way from the sea but but you may be interested to know that in the middle of the 19th century the MP for Derby was Samuel Plimsoll who gave his name to the Plimsoll Line  the indicator on shipping worldwide that shows if they're overloaded! Plimsoll's efforts to get parliament to pass legislation making his line a compulsory item were initially thwarted by lobbying from powerful shipowners but in time the law was passed and became an international standard.

Swag!

We seem to have been park running and not much else this year but Vicky had a very good go at the Denbigh Triathlon. Starting off the swim she was disconcerted to find that she was in the same lane as our friend Tony who had announced that he was using an unconventional swimming stroke. Sure enough there he was all six feet two of him swimming the back stroke! She got comfortably ahead of him and managed to avoid colliding as they passed, had an excellent cycle and run and then went on to win the ladies over 60 award - here's a photo of the haul of goodies she was presented with: a nice medal, a super trophy, useful buff and a rather odd star prize (for June) a woolly bobble hat!

Cruising along

Meanwhile I had a crack at the Ruthin evening 5K, I'd done this race three years ago and despite all the shenanigans with my health issues since then I managed 21:51, less than a minute outside my previous time - so smiles all round, that's me in the blue with the fancy shades with Paul G on my left, he's been running very well lately but with about a K to go I got past him as he blew up a bit. More parkruns to report on include Conwy a couple of times, Conkers (down in south Derbyshire in the National Forest no less), Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough and a parkrun in one of the loveliest of settings at Fountains Abbey - the slightly undulating course goes right round the abbey twice. And here it is:

What's this doing in the middle of our parkrun course?

Jet setting on the Riviera

It's that Riviera Touch

Busy a lot lately and I've been trying to get in a blog entry at least once a month but - whoops - totally missed June! There's a lot been going on, I saw an ad for a trip to the the Polish Riviera and followed it up with a booking. We flew from Liverpool to Gdansk and found ourselves a few miles up the coast at Sopot a seaside spa town. This was the place to be in the 1920's and rich tourists flocked from all over Europe to be seen in the riviera of the north. Spot boasts the longest wooden pier in Europe plus some fine old hotels and a very good pedestrianised town centre. It's on the up and up and although there were very few foreign visitors when we we there there's obviously a big rejuvenation effort going on, with lots of construction etc.

The Sopot Lighthouse!

In anticipation of rising sea levels (and seemingly against local opposition) they're raising the height of the sea walls - we encountered a group of labourers from Cornwall enticed over by the prospects of €400 per day wages! We were particularly taken with the railway system and senior citizen tickets to the middle of Gdansk and north to Gdynia were cheap as chips. Gdansk was full of old churches and other attractive medieval buildings and, as in Sopot there were plenty of tourists, just that they were mostly Polish and mostly large groups of schoolchildren come from all over Poland to learn about their heritage. A week here was just about right, we found an excellent brewpub in Sopot with some fine ales, a larger brewpub by Gdansk railway station was a bit more prosaic with less exotic beers but the food was fine.
And, what a stroke of luck, we found a parkrun! Parkrun has been going on in Poland for several years and there are maybe seventy park runs in various locations in the country - we ran twice round a very pleasant park to add another country to our list.

Heads of the Valleys

Twice round - no short cuts!

Difficult to believe that this lake at Parc Bryn Bach was once a desolate industrial wasteland. They filmed alien landscapes for Dr Who and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy here! It's now a lovely leisure park with plenty of activities such as fishing, kayaking, walking and...guess what! Park running. Twice round the lake on a gorgeous sunny morning and we were set for the day. The park is at Tredegar very close to the Heads of the Valleys road which runs perpendicularly to the north of all the well known South Wales valleys such as Rhondda, etc.

Our next parkrun was at Worcester Woods a pleasant gallop round another well wooded park - we didn't stay at Worcester but found something a bit special over at Droitwich - this was the Chateau Impney, a fantastic French inspired palace of a hotel in beautiful grounds. A good price as well if you want a fairy tale weekend away!

And then came Storm Hannah, this calm peaceful lake at Bala in mid Wales was transformed by howling winds and pouring rain into something else! Just about all the park runs for miles around were cancelled, but not Bala! We made it down from Denbigh to find a paltry total of 30 runners there - and what good fun it was battling against the storm and getting drenched - highly recommended - this includes the very nice cafe which I'd award ten out of ten for their sausage sandwiches!

Back to some limited running!

Up we go!

This is what I'd rather be doing. This is our Mary at the top of the climb at the Ilkley Moor fell race. Not sure I'd manage the big grin though. I haven't done a fell race for nearly two years but I'm hoping that the latest cardiac tweaking will get me to the point where I can be up there again - maybe something to aim for for 2020.

You'd better be quick!

In the meantime I'm marshalling at Bodelwyddan Castle parkrun watching Vicky sail past with a big grin on her face. Still it was good to get involved and to get a slightly different perspective. Just one week later I was back in the fray albeit tail walking at the back of the field - at least I figured in the results and clocked off another parkrun.

A finish with a view!

Clocking off another country wasn't as difficult as all that. During our recent visit to Northern Ireland we sneaked over the border into the Irish Republic to find the Castleblayney parkrun. And what a glorious setting with a friendly crew of runners and organisers. We ran two laps round the wooded Black Island which weren't quite there yet with the bluebells, only a small number of runners and Vicky got her highest position for many months with a good time to boot.

Translate that!

Here's Vicky at the causeway onto Black Island at Castleblayney. It's not really an island but it is almost an island in a lake in Ireland. In the far northern wastes of Canada is the largest island on a lake on an island in a lake on a island. Figure that one out - I've seen this on Google earth. In fact here it is - this is all on Victoria Island and there's not much there! Victoria Island itself is slightly bigger than Great Britain, has a population of just over 2000 and is pretty inhospitable. Don't think there'd be much call for a parkrun there do you? Certainly no lady of the lake!

The blue is all part of an unnamed lake!  

Winter in the parks (or beaches)

Cliff Richard eat your heart out!

So I've missed the end of February and all of March. Hardly surprising as I had other things on my mind. However the heart procedure was seemingly successful and things are now going well. And we've been keeping up with the parkruns. A rather slow one (for me!) at a delightful little park in Glossop, where our Mary beat me out of sight, was followed by our first beach parkrun. Here's Vicky approaching the finish line at Pwllheli, a new parkrun entirely on the beach. We should really look at the tide tables before doing this one again - a high tide had left the sand wet and soft, just look at the deep footprints! This was our second trip to Pwllheli in less than a year - highly recommended  (by us) for a short break. There's a lovely little SPAR grocery in the middle of town, more like an old fashioned delicatessen.

By hook or by crook!

NN

Next up, and final run pre-op, was Watermeadows parkrun in Towcester, Northants. The night before we'd had a fine couple of beers at the Towcester Mill Brewery Tap - it's a very well organised, well run brewery but as I stood at the bar I kept hearing the old regulars saying "I'll have a crooked hooker please." Which could be misunderstood somewhat, Crooked Hooker is the name of the regular brown bitter brewed here and is clearly a very popular tipple. The parkrun  itself was several laps round the meadows, only the third running of this one and I wonder if they have an alternative wet weather course as some sections get very greasy - as you can see from the photographic evidence!

Oops!

Glossop parkrun
(Beaten by our Mary who finished in 24:46 - age grade of 75% which for park runner statisticians is extremely good for age!)
Me 41st 25:56
Vicky 97th 34:48

Hafan Pwllheli parkrun
Me 14th 28:11
Vicky 45th 44:49

Watermeadows parkrun
(First parkrun for sister in law Teresa - plenty more to come we think!)
Me 49th 24:51
Vicky 174th 33:33

Here comes the sun!!

There's a sunny smile!

Three days in Scotland and it rained constantly, back down to Wales and the drizzle was unending. And then on New Year's Day, lo and behold, the sun emerged. We trekked up to Ormskirk to do the local parkrun to find nearly 500 other runners blinking in the unfamiliar bright light. We're not used to running with such a large group, however there were more big parkruns  to come in January as you will see.

Oh my gluteus maximus!

Next up was Birkenhead parkrun, this is in a fine and notable park which was designed by Joseph Caxton and became the inspiration for Central Park in New York (no parkrun there as yet!) This snap is of the Roman Boathouse on a nice sunny day, not how it was for us unfortunately - during our run it was cold and bleak! Vicky and I were accompanied by a very determined Linda McK whom we hope will do more park running in future. (And we were joined by over 500 other runners!)

Nice gates!

Some rather fine park gates to admire at Princes parkrun in Liverpool. This was another gloomy day - lots of runners though, another 500 plus in this one but the park seemed to cope. This was another park designed by Joseph Paxton who also happened to be the head gardener at Chatsworth House while he was designing all these grand city parks.

These gates were better than they look!

Even grimmer was the weather at Huddersfield parkrun and even more runners braved the gloom 729 of them! Despite my best efforts the photo we had taken of us by the park gates was of poor quality. Is this  a reason for returning in the summer? Don't count on it. Still it was a nice gallop round a fine park.

So there you are, nearly 2200 runners at just four chilly events. Safety in numbers perhaps, but we actually prefer the smaller low key parkruns.