Althought the Moonwalk training was still in the early stages in December 2012 and the long walks were in single figure miles the weather made me reluctant to go out. Frost, ice and a forecast for sleet is never good walking weather. Still, if I was going to complete another walking marathon I had to do the training and I had a plan to cover the required number of miles. The only problem was part of it was new to me and I wasn’t entirely sure of the way…
6 December 2012
It seems a bit odd to be having Thursday off, especially as I know I have to work tomorrow. I’ve got pretty used to working the middle of the week lately and this almost feels like being back at the Mad House because I had a Thursday rest day for the last year there. The big decision of the day was whether to make today long walk day or to have a rest day and try to fit the walk into the weekend somehow. Both had their merits. Decisions, decisions.
A little lie in would have been nice but I got up at normal time, still wavering whether to walk or not. The outside world was a glittering frosty one with sleet forecast for the afternoon. If I was going to do it, it would have to be sooner rather than later. Tempting as it was to stay wrapped up in the warm I decided to go for it. Sometimes it’s hard to get out there and pound the pavements for mile after mile, today was one of those days. This Moonwalk is certainly keeping me motivated to get up and get out if nothing else.
The decking was like a skating rink and I decided it might be wise to avoid the little hill. Luckily I live in a crescent so I can go round the other way where there are two hills but neither are as steep although it’s about twice the distance. As I reached the bottom of the second hill the sun was trying to break its way through the clouds just above the icy roofs of the houses. The grass in the park at the very top was so white it almost looked as if it had been snowing and my hands, even with gloves, were painfully cold. I marched down the road towards the shore, trying to get my pace up so I’d warm up but my limbs felt stiff with the cold.
Just before I reached the green I noticed a footpath. I guess I must have seen it before but I’ve never taken much notice and I wasn’t too sure where it led but I can’t resist a footpath. Anything to get off the roads and away from the traffic. At first it went down beside the houses on the edge of the green Then it turned and seemed to be following the river. At this point it became quite muddy but luckily the mud was frozen solid and, as I came to a clearing in the trees, I was glad I’d walked that way because the view down across the water was interesting. The stadium was framed between the trees and the slope leading down to the water was a mass of different colours and shapes, all dusted with frost. A couple of dog walkers came from the direction I was going which made me fairly confident the path led somewhere and it was going in the direction I wanted to be going which is always good.
The footpath ended in some small roads whose names I recognised as most of them intersect the main road I normaly walk down. I kept going, trying to keep in as straight a line as I could until I came to some steep steps leading down under the New Bridge. At this point I stopped for a moment to look at the arches stretching off into the distance. It’s not a view of the bridge I’ve seen before. Skirting round the bottom of the car park, I could see the river to my right and pretty soon I came to The Cliff pub and I knew exactly where I was. There were seagulls circling overhead and the sky looked laden with snow.
As I rounded the corner who should I see but my friend Sally, sitting in her car waiting for someone. She spotted me too and wound down her window. “What are you up to?” she asked. I’m surprised she recognised me all wrapped up in my coat, hat and scarf with my water bottle round my waist.
“Walking down to the shore,” I told her.
“You must be crazy, it’s freezing out there. How far are you going today?” she knows about my Moonwalk training but she’s never seen me out and about before.
“Only eight miles.”
“Rather you then me. I hope you’ve got a hot drink in that bottle.”
If only. My water was so cold I didn’t really want to drink it and I have to say I did envy her a bit sitting in her nice warm car.
Before long I reached the footpath leading to the shore. There were two little dogs with an elderly couple walking towards me And the dogs weren’t on leads which is always a worry. As I passed, both dogs ran at my feet growling while their owners just looked on making no attempt to try to stop them. Thankfully I didn’t trip over them and neither of them actually bit me but it certainly made me speed up. I’m pretty sure, if the dogs had actually started to bite and I’d kicked at them, it would have been me the owners shouted at. When I reached the shore proper, the tide was out and little waves were lapping at the icy mud. The only other person about was another woman walking. She looked tired and, when she suddenly broke into a jog, I understood why, she wasn’t a walker she was a runner and, by the look of it, in the early stages of C25K where you walk for so long then run then walk again. She soon disappeared into the distance and I lost sight of her.
At the last of the beach shelters I crossed the road and took a path through the frozen grass up to the big flats. I’d seen it on the WalkJogRun map and knew it led to one of the roads on the estate that I knew well because my sister, Alex, once lived nearby. They seem to be getting on with the flat painting, despite the weather and I have to say they are looking quite nice. Well as nice as tower blocks can anyway. As I passed I could see men high up on the scaffolding painting. Now there’s a job I wouldn’t like in this weather, the wind up there must be bitterly cold.
The road leading through the estate seemed to go on for ever. There are quicker routes but I’d plotted it all out to make sure I did eight miles and I wasn’t sure if my detour had added or subtracted miles so I wasn’t taking any chances. It’s a bit up hill too as it’s going away from the beach and, as I rounded a corner, I saw the jogger again in front of me slowing to a walk. It wasn’t long before I passed her and I smiled to myself at the thought that, for all her efforts, I was still going at the same speed just walking. No doubt about which I prefer.
The next part of my journey was all uphill, though thankfully more of a gentle slope than a hill really. I could feel myself slowing as I passed the park that leads down to Spring Road and Millers Pond and carried on, over the little railway bridge towards where I was pretty sure there was another path to the pond. It was exactly where it began I wasn’t too sure about. From the satelite map I thought I’d identified the place but, when I got there, although I could see the path quite clearly running behind the houses, each time I walked towards it I came to a dead end. Just as I was beginning to think I’d have to change my plans I saw a dog walker disappearing down a grassy bank into the undergrowth. I followed and found myself, after a little careful crunching down the steep slope, on a leafy woodland path. I breathed a sigh of relief and followed the dog walker into the frosty woods.
Everywhere I looked there was thick frost. The blackberry bushes looked like they had white fur and some seed heads a little further along had little crowns of icy thorns. So far the path was still just a track covered in fallen leaves, not the paved route I’d expected but I kept going, sure that I’d find it in the end. Then, round a corner, I spotted paving, hey presto, I thought, here it is, but I was wrong, it was actually a very small single track road and an icy one at that. I stopped and examined the map on WalkJogRun. I could see the path beyond the bushes on the other side of the road but I couldn’t see a way to it and I didn’t know which direction to go.
As I stood, wondering what to do, the dog walker appeared behind me and solved the problem. He walked up the road a little way and disappeared through a gap in the bushes. When I followed his lead there was a big frozen puddle in the middle of the gap. I stopped again, not sure if I should risk slipping on the puddle or going right through it and getting wet feet or if I should try to skirt round it through the mud. In the end the mud won and it turned out to be frozen too so at least I didn’t sink into it.
There was still no paved path, just a kind of flattened grass track through patches of longer grass and frozen wild flower seed heads. I kept going and followed it, crunching over the grass until I reached the trees in the distance. Then, as I rounded the corner there was the paved path. I stopped and looked back along it, comparing what I saw to what was on the map and trying to see where it bagan. Turns out if I’d gone the other way along the road for a while I’d have come to it. Given how icy the road was though I’m pretty sure I made the better choice.
Before long I rounded a bend and there was the pond in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was frozen solid. I’m pretty sure I could have stood on it, not that I was about to test that theory out of course because I really didn’t fancy a chilly bath. The poor ducks were sitting around the edges on the ice looking at each other as if to say, “what do we do now?” Their feet must have been even colder than mine and I felt sorry for them.
I did go as far as I dared on one of the little observation platforms, the one with a handrail just to be safe, and when I looked down into the water, I could see a five pence piece suspended in the ice. To make sure I looked closer and I could just make out the markings on the coin through the ice. Now, as I know money doesn’t float, I’m guessing the pond has been frozen for a while and the coin had been dropped onto the icy pond and then more ice had formed on top of it. That ice must be pretty thick.
After that it was the long walk up Spring Road, a little detour up past the college to add some distance and, before I knew it, I was walking past the church and the Red Lion pub into the village. As I was walking the last few hundred yards I could see the sky changing and I knew something was going to fall out of it sooner or later, I just not what. Not long after I got home and was sat with a nice warm cup of cocoa (yes there was a dash if rum in it) sleety rain started falling. At least it will have washed away some of the frost.