1st-10th November, Souling in Warburton

The Warburton Souling Gang ready to hit the road

The Warburton Souling Play is a traditional play performed at this time of the year (All Souls) in pubs in the towns and villages in the area.

It’s both fun and interesting. and if my liver is up to it, the last performance of the year will take place this evening at the Saracen’s Head, Warburton, a small town near Lymm, Cheshire.

The year’s final performance is always a good do, attracting an audience from all over the region. The post-Play party is now a firm fixture in the diaries of many singers and musicians – the session doesn’t usually finish until the early hours of Sunday morning. I usually cancel Sunday. 

Turkish Champion in action

One way of getting a free beer!

Such an ugly bunch I’ve never seen before!

Beelzebub ignoring the dress code

Out to scare the kids

Added 12th November 2012: Photos from the 2012 season

5th November, Tockholes recce

Cheshire Tally-ho! Hare & Hounds

Members of the Cheshire Tally-Ho! all have to take their turn in setting and laying a trail. To do so properly involves some planning and a recce of the route – the route needs to be runnable and have a nice balance of tracks, hills, fetid swamps, bogs…and a good pub at the end.
And so it was that Fast Blackshaw, who had planned this route on behalf of the two of us, drove me north, on a very sunny morning, to Tockholes, near Darwen (‘Darren’ as it’s pronounced locally) in Lancashire.
Parking next to the Royal Arms at Ryal Fold, we walked (no running today!) SE up to Darwen Moor. Autumn colours were still very much in evidence:
Our sometimes muddy route included a brief liaison with the Witton Weavers Way before going over the northern edge of Turton Moor.

The Peak and Northern Footpaths Society have done a good job in signposting many of the paths around here:
We continued east-ish almost as far as the A666 before turning north-ish, skirting Darwen Moor.


There were good views over Darwen and Blackburn, and over to Pendle Hill. Then it was time for lunch and messing about with the camera on my Bat-phone, the poor phone may never recover:

Suitably refreshed, we continued our recce around Darwen Moor in the continuing sunshine.

 Near Cadshaw: trees in winter mode

As Darwen Hill came into view we saw what appeared to be the prototype for Thunderbird 3 in the distance:

 

The Jubilee Tower, Darwen Hill

The tower, which dates from 1898, was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The old wooden dome at the top of the tower blew off in high winds and was replaced with a fibreglass in 1971. That dome suffered a similar fate to the old wooden one a couple of years ago. A new powder-coated stainless steel dome was winched into position from a helicopter earlier this year – I wonder how long it with stay put? The winds can be quite strong around here.
Shadows lengthened as we dropped off the moor, the autumn sun colouring the landscape beautifully:
Four hours after setting off on our recce we arrived back at the car to find a huge bonfire being built for the evening’s festivities. Tockholes has hosted a bonfire party for the last ninety years, the very excellent Royal Arms playing a key role in the organisation of the event.
‘Tis a good route, if a little longer than is the general rule for Tally-Ho! trails. The route is highly runnable, even the boggy bits. Hopefully the extra distance won’t be noticed by the hounds.
This is what we did:

Approx 9.5 miles with 1500ft of upness. Ish.

You can tell when the area's in decline....

Agden in Cheshire

Test

This is a test posting using my laptop that runs Linux (Ubuntu) and windoze xp - one at a time. It's wearing it's Linux hat this evening.

I can't find anything like M$ Live Writer that runs under Linux - there's probably something out there, I've just not discovered it yet. I'm typing and posting this directly into Blogger. So it might not work too well.

My OS system of choice is Linux, it's quick to load and run.

It does have disadvantages though. Whilst there is lots of software out there that runs happily under Linux and is broadly comparable and compatible with M$ stuff, specialist programmes like Memory Map for example is written for windoze only. It is possible to run windoze within Linux, but it's a faff I can well do without. And it's beyond the level of my expertise - by a long way 

The main reason for exploring Blogging using Linux is because for some (probably very simple) reason, Firefox (under XP) has just started to cause me a few problems:

1) I can't open my webmail emails (Hotmail) although I can see the inbox contents. I can't access Hotmail folders either (Sent box etc)
2) I can't view the photos on my blog - although I can view photos in other blogs
3) It's most unhappy looking at my Picasa site
4) There are some webpages that 'cannot be found'

I don't have these problems when I used Explorer in the same session. Or using the family PC - also running Firefox under xp.

I wanted to reduce the image to 800 x 600 but my first attempt wasn't too successful although it's certainly smaller than the original 4mb.

Milly on the Limestone Way in 2010

It looks like this is going to be a steep learning curve, but I've started so I'll finish.

If there are any Linux geeks experts out there who may be able to help, I'm a willing listener....but a slow learner. A bear with little brain in fact.

25th September, Via de la Plata, Day 7

To San Pedro de Rozados

Rising at the ridiculously early hour of stupid o’clock was a struggle but it had to be done.

There was another peregrino up and about, a French lady who had crocked her ankle. She was expecting to move slowly, hence her early start.
The breakfast table was set for the peregrinos, I grabbed a couple of cakes and made a butty and at 6.30am (the one in the morning) went on my way into the dark morning.

Getting light at 7am

Half an hour later it was fully light

Today’s camino, now coinciding with the GR100, was generally on wide farm tracks which made for fast progress. At the point where the GR100 and GR181 crossed I’d covered 10km and so stopped for a breakfast cake and glug of the finest Spanish Corporation pop.

I was able to really motor along, the path surface being so good. The only problem was the repetitive nature of walking on flat surfaces caused me to have painful feet. My Meindl walking shoes we getting a bit old but the Vibram soles were showing very little wear. Despite this the soles of my feet were feeling quite bruised.

The scenery on this section hadn’t been particularly inspiring so I was pleased to be moving so quickly. A result of this was that by 40kph (=1pm in English money) I rolled into San Pedro de Rozados:Finding the albergue wasn’t quite so easy so a visit to the local bar was called for. As it happened the albergue was owned and run by the bar. A couple of coffees and a bite to eat later I was unpacking my kit and getting ready for a shower.

Unfortunately the gas boiler was seriously (and dangerously) iffy so I ended up with a cold water wash down. Not ideal – but I was clean and I’m still alive.

As the day wore on, more peregrinos arrived. some stayed in the albergue, others opted for more luxurious B&B – type accommodation. My trip was on a budget so the albergue it had to be.

 The albergue dorm – with the dodgy boiler in the bathroom

The weather was deteriorating, ie: it was raining horribly. And it was cooling down. It was now more like a wet Sunday afternoon in Ingerland….a bit grim.

The gathered peregrinos arranged to meet up at the bar in the evening to eat together. Eating, if you hadn’t noticed, is important to me. I enjoy eating. If the size of my girth is anything to go by, I enjoy eating a little toooo much.

I won’t bore you with the gory details of the meal. Oh, okay, I will.

Primaro: A very meaty (and delicious) soup with bread.

Secundo: Yummy chicken with red peppers cooked in olive oil, tomatoes and salad.

Los postres (pudding): Ice cream like wot I’ve never had before.

This lot, along with half a bottle of wine cost me 9€. Not bad at all.

The bar owner / landlady or whatever said she would be open at 7am for desayuno. That’s breakfast to you.

Total distance for the day: 26km – that’s because I didn’t get lost and there weren’t (m)any diversions.