neil.baldwin – Page 14 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

London to Brighton Vintage Car Run 2015 #LBVCR

The first Sunday of November is as usual the London to Brighton vintage car run and as we have been doing for the past, well more than 20 years, we are helping out Rory get his vintage Humberette down to Brighton, in one big long traffic jam.

Helen and I opt to meet everyone at Crawley rather than getting up at 4 in the morning for the official start in hyde park at 7. It was foggy in parts when we left at 8:30 from home. The M25 was busy but moving at full speed. Just before the M23 we checked in with Rory to find out where they had got to. That had just left the usual coffee stop just before the M23 so we headed south on the motorway to park up at Crawley.

After last years fiasco when the official stop was moved to a Honda dealership just outside Crawley then missing out the High Street, the compromise this year was stop at the dealership and drive up the High Street. A real shame but it did mean we could meet at the White Hart.

The car broke down just before the stop, when it overheated. Mark thought he might have to deploy the fire extinguisher! They had to push start the car to get moving again, and when it stopped in Crawley the radiator cap had be replaced by a cork and paperclip indicator. Ozzie Dave was with us for the next part of the journey which continued at 12:00 about the same time as most years. The traffic was not quite as heavy as I remember from previous years.

We overtook the car and stopped a few times, then peeled off to Brighton just before Burgess Hill. The traffic jam to Brighton delivered us to the hotel by 14:00 just on time for checking in. Dave and I headed to the sea front and Helen went shopping. Martin was down on the seafront at the entrance to Madeira Drive. We saw the Humberette arrive, then we walked down to the parking area, where we jumped the barriers to get to the car. We hung around for a while chatting, and watched the spectacle that is a starling murmuration over the pier that is still standing.

The fog had burnt off in Brighton and people were wandering around in t-shirts and sitting on the beach enjoying the sun. Helen read somewhere that it was the hottest November day on record!

When it was time to go back to the car I volunteered to be the passenger so as to get the car loaded on the trailer quickly. I was the only ones Rob trusted to do it properly. By the time the others reached office on foot the car was loaded and tied down all Rory had to do was just check that it was to the correct specification. Luckily for us smokehead parked near the tender vehicle and as there was only 5 of us we all managed to squeeze into his Renault Megane and we headed back to the centre of town through the traffic jam was trying to leave Brighton.

It turns out we had parked in the wrong car park we have parked in the NCP car park but if we had part that the RCP car park it would have only cost us £10 for 24 hours rather than the £26 that the 24 hours going to cost us.

We agreed to meet up at 7:30 to go out for something to eat so I had 2 hours to relax and have a shower before heading out. We met up the in reception where the drinks were two for one, Helen enjoyed her large glass of wine for the price of a small one.

No one would commit to the type of or which restaurant type to go for, we ended up at an Italian called Donatello, mainly because we could not see an establishment with a free table for 10 or agree where to go. They sat us at a round table so no one felt they were out on a limb. The food was tasty but nothing special, we all had starters, and drinks (except Jonah) and some had desert, the the final bill was £23 per person including service charge, which is good value for money. We stopped ofc at a pub for a pint, I had a nice IPA, then headed back to the hotel and bed.

We met up at 09:00 in reception and headed to Bills for a cooked breakfast, I had the veggie one which has toast spread with spicy humous and another with guacamole, which is very tasty. Next we did some window shopping and a few if the girls bought boots, and Rory bought some frog salt and pepper pots. We left at 12:30 ish and dropped by one of Helens relatives for a spot of lunch, then headed home. The traffic was busy but we were home before the real rush hour at 17:00. Another great London to Brighton.

The cosmonauts exhibition at the London science museum

We unexpectedly got a free Saturday when a visit from my brother cancelled because their cat was sick. We one idea we had thought of this as a trip to the London Science museum to take a look at the exhibition of Soviet space programme which up until now has been pretty much a secret.

We were up at a reasonable time and headed to Berkhamsted station, as luck would have we were there with a short wait for the 09:18, or so I thought. I dropped Helen off at the entrance to get the tickets whilst I parked the car. I parked a short walk to the ticket machine but when I got to it there was a sign apologising for it being out of order. The next machine up a flight of steps only took coins and I did not have sufficient coins to make up the £4.20. Back down the steps it was a 100 yard run, (I was running out of time) to the next machine, I popped in a card but the payment failed, then failed for all three cards that I had in my wallet. Helen turned up as I was starting to register to pay by phone, and between us we managed to find the change but the train station as due imminently. I did the 100 yard sprint to the far machine, followed by an eternity entering the handful of coins, then a 300 yard sprint to the car, and back to the platform. I arrived as the train doors opened, so a the effort got us on the fast train and spared us a 20 minute wait. Out of breath I found a seat and settled in the the 40 minute train journey.

Everyone seems to be on the underground go somewhere it was extremely at which Helen doesn’t like. Helen was taken out on the escalators when the lady in front of her who was towing one of those bags with handles wheels stopped as soon as he got off the escalator but left the wheeled luggage behind Helen had nowhere to go. A few stops on the Piccadilly line followed by a couple of Victoria line stop and followed by a third of a mile walk down the tunnel and the pops up white outside the science museum. On the escalators ascend from the underground we saw a man descending with a China plate with a slice of chocolate cake on it, we looked at him confused, he smiled back.

We already have tickets for the cosmonaut exhibition but we have noticed that there was also a Alec Soth photography exhibition going on at the same time as we were early we got tickets for the exhibition and have a look around and even had time for a coffee before we went to the main event.

The exhibition was very good although very popular. Apart from the engineering model, actual space craft, space suits and other equipment there was personal items and other stuff which I think makes all the difference to an exhibition. Helen insisted on a look at the shop before we exited. To spare Helen having to fight her way back to Euston I suggested a cab to the Welcome institute for lunch and possibly a look at the exhibition of coloured mist which had been in the papers. We had lunch and bought a few books from the Waterstone’s. The wait for the mist was 45 minutes so we gave it a miss, and headed across the road to Euston. We only had 5 minutes till the 13:24 departed.

We did battle with the car park at Waitrose and picked up some dinner. Then we went to a metal detector shop in Northchurch as Helen fancied buying one and last night had googled and found to her surprise we had one locally. It turned out it was not a shop but someone’s house, we had to call to make sure we had the right place. We pulled up outside a big house call Northchurch House, which was quite big and old, it was on a sweeping bend between Northchurch and Ashridge. When we pulled up the owner was waiting and the front door and welcomed us into his house. We went through to the large lounge which was half occupied by unsold metal detectors and an impressive light diffuser for taking pictures of products. Helen explained that she wanted to have a go at metal detecting and wanted a mid-range metal detector. He explained what was available then went on to demonstrate a model in Helen price range, he did a really good job because Helen decide to invest.

A few pounds lighter we headed to Helen’s folks and to test the detector out and watch the rugby world cup semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand. We only had twenty minutes but Helen managed to get her first find and lump of rusty iron, she was really chuffed. I must say the features available since I had a go are amazing you can do all sorts of tweaking to target the types of metal you want to find.

New Zealand won the rugby in a match with a close score but NZ seemed to have the edge.

Osprey at Weston Turville reservoir

Since the first week of our holiday I had seen reports on Twitter of an Osprey at Weston Turville reservoir, a local to home reservoir. It is pretty small as reservoirs go there is a sailing club but they sail small boats like Lasers. I would say it is about 200 metres by 300-400 metres. I thought I should check it out, so I dropped Helen off at her folks and popped round.

The signs were good there were bird watchers there with scopes and binoculars. I enquired about the Osprey it had apparently made an appearance earlier and caught two fish, but had not been seen for a while. Time lapse and birding are quite complimentary as you can set the camera up and use the waiting time to watch for birds. That is exactly what I did, I tried out my new panning device bought on Amazon for less tgat £20, basically a good quality kitchen timer.

I had done one sequence and popped over to start a new one, taking in the sailing rave tgat had just started and noticed that the other bird watchers had got all excited. The Osprey was back, it circled over the water for a while, giving me a chance to get some shots, as it passed over the bank end of the reservoir, then headed off towards Stoke Mandeville. Mission accomplished, next I popped up to Coombe hill to get some more sequences, there was s nothing like doing something to get proficient at it, the old 10,000 hours theory.

I put the GoPro on the panorama plinth at the monument, at the top of Coombe hill, it got some funny looks and some questions but I managed to do 20 minutes which equates to 120 degrees of panning. Some people were I view at times but I hoped that it would add to the final video, remember every day is a school day.

The rest of the day was spent processing photo’s and videos and catching up on missed TV especially “This is England 90”

Journey home via Stourhead National Trust

There was not much to do in the morning as we had cleared most of the house the night before. We left the hut at 09:35 with Helen’s parents with us for the journey home, lunch would be at Stourhead NT which was about the half way point and convenient for lunch. The traffic was heavy but nothing really held us up apart from the odd queue at major junctions. Stourhead Was busy as the sun was out and it was warm, but we easily found a table in the Cafe.

The courgette and minted pea soup went down well, as did Helen’s cheese scone. We did a light stroll around the park via the gardens, but did not bother with the house. There was a wedding on and I suspect there is most weekends, the photographers seemed to be numerous on the ground so probably an expensive one.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful other than wasting 30 minutes having to stop at a Tesco to check the pressure of the tyres as the warning light had come on. We stopped at Waitrose in Berkhamsted for some dinner then dropped Helen’s folks off at home before getting home to have a ready made curry, watch the rugby, and start to download the 600 odd pictures that need to be sorted and filtered.

Last day of holiday at Croyde Bay

Another slow start for me, the more enthusiastic ones were down on the beach walking or paddling, followed by hot drinks. People had mentioned plans, pottering around the local point and beach, and body boarding. For myself I thought it would be good to go to Lee and walk out to Bull Point and back.

View from Coastal Path just past Morte Point Devon

Helen’s dad and I went for the walk, we drove to Lee which is a lovely little village nestled into a deep valley. The walk starts in land and very steep up through some woods with lots of rhododendron making it dark and damp. After plenty of huffing and puffing we were out of the woods and into the sun although there was still some ascent to do. The footpath took us over the rolling hills and we had to descend two further deep valleys before we got to Bull Point light house our turn around point. We were hoping that the path back would be less brutal but it was, the valleys have streams in them which eventually need to get to sea level so the three valleys we had negotiated in land were that much deeper when they got to the sea side. Mostly they were steps maintained by the National Trust, most of them very deep. When we finally hit the road again at Lee it could not have come soon enough. The hotel at the bottom and of the village was still shut, and apparently had been for the past 8 years, they were having problems with planning permissions. There was however an Italian place selling food, but J wanted a beer and they did not sell alcohol, so we walked towards the car and dropped into the Gamas Inn where we had a very welcome half of bitter, brewed on the premises, and a cheese and tomato panini, which was very welcome.

When we got back to the hut no one was there, so J went to read his book and I went down to the rocks to see if I could spy the others on Croyde beach, with my binoculars. They were body boarding or swimming (ed: the braver members of the party swimming without wetsuits!). It was an usually high tide, which might relate to the imminent full moon (or Supermoon). We did some tidying up and got ready to go out to dinner, at The Rock in Georgeham, but unfortunately C was feeling ill, so missed out.

I had salt and pepper squid, followed by spaghetti a la vongole, very nice, and cheese cake for dessert. The bonus was that they also sold Timothy Taylor’s Landlord ale which went down a treat.

Not on Lundy but a walk around Morte Point

Three of the party went to Ilfracombe to catch the boat to Lundy, the wind was blowing so my decision not to spend 4 hours on a boat was vilified. Breakfast was at a leisurely pace and Helen and I left the house at just after 10:30, destination Mortehoe, where we have done a very enjoyable walk on a few occasions.

There was a shower coming in as we parked up so we delayed our start with a look around the museum and then a coffee. The museum is a small eclectic collection of stuff about Mortehoe and surroundings, apparently you could rent a rabbit farm for £40 a year then sell the rabbit meat at 19d per pound, which would bring in £15 per week, which seems good business.

The National Trust coffee shop was closed on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s but there was a coffee shop and deli just down the road, I fancied a cake. The coffee shop was a bit of a disappointment they only had filter coffee and no cake. The deli supplies were a bit thin on the ground too, it gave the impression they were either shutting down for good or the winter months.

At the southern edge of the village you can pick up the path that goes around the point, we chose that end to gave us the wind behind us for the best part of the walk, as it turned out we would also be facing the direction for the best light too. The weather was in fact great for photography with small cumulous clouds growing and high altitude whispy ones on a blues sky.

Just round Morte point we found a convenient bench out of the wind and hung around a while doing some time lapse sequences. I’m quite getting into them and will do a blog post with my workflow soon. This morning I was taking a look on eBay for cheap canon powershots that will run CHDK, you can get them for less that £50 which is a bargain.

The final slog from the coastal path back to Mortehoe took some considerable effort, but we took our time today’s walk was a very leisurely affair. At the village shop we got a loaf and headed back to the hut, but pulled into a parking space at Woolacombe to book a table for 7 for Friday evening at The Rock at Georgeham, a restaurant we enjoyed the previous time were were down this way. We stopped of at the local Nisa for some more supplies and popped into the amusements for 10 minutes but the quality and variety of games was disappointing, why do they insist of giving prizes as paper tickets, it is not the same as hearing the cash tinkle as it is paid out.

After a sandwich I went up to Baggy Point to take some pictures and left Helen watching Bridget Jones on Amazon Prime. In the end I never got to Baggy Point as I went down into the rocks and worked my way towards it, but eventually came to a dead end where the sensible thing was to turn back, and retrace my steps. I made the most of the opportunity by taking some stills and a few time lapse sequences.

I got back to the hut at 17:00 hoping to help Helen with the cooking for the evening, tonight would be Helens lovely veggie sausage and bean Spanish stew with baked potatoes. The question is do you add olive oil and/or salt or just leave them au naturel? I would go with the plain but the consensus is olive oil and salt, as the the people from Portadown say “just go with the flow”. (ed: the stew was of course, fantastic 🙂 )

(ed: The Lundyites had some great tales, they had seen seals and a porpoise. The trip was a bit bouncy, about one in ten of the passengers needed a sick bag but according to the friendly & helpful staff, it was nothing compared to the trip out on windy Tuesday. On occasions our party to had to hastily move to avoid being “caught” by a traveller loosing their sea legs/breakfast. There was a point where travellers were asked not to move about the boat as some big waves were coming up. Fortunately Lundy has a very good pub.)

Body boarding in Croyde Bay

Relaxed start to the day for me but three of the party went down to the beach at seven in the morning for a swim. Well I say seven but in reality even though Helen had prepared her stuff, she was still ferreting around and rustling about in our bedroom at 07:30! I got up at about 08:30 and made myself some breakfast, black cherry jam on toast and a mug of coffee.

The other came back at about 09:00 they had managed to get wet up to the ankles (ed: it was above the knee!) and complained that the water was cold. We sat around deciding what we should do with the rest of the day and someone suggested some body boarding. Great idea, so C & T and I got into our swimmers and headed down the lane to find an establishment that would rent out the kit. Our first stop was Baggy Lodge Surf Hire but there seemed to be no one on duty, so after trying to get some attention we headed down to the Croyde Surf school.

The surf school did not hire out kit without lessons but they kindly pointed us in the direction over the other side of the road where the caravan park shops are. We headed over and were soon kitted out with wetsuit, boots, gloves and a bodyboard each. We used the shops changing rooms to squeeze ourselves into the wetsuits, then wandered back across the road to the beach. We left Helen looking after the kit on a handy rocky outcrop and headed to the waves.

Surprisingly in a wetsuit the keeps you warm in the sea, unless you put your back into the wave then the water goes right down the neck and through the wetsuit giving you an all over chill. Being novices we took some time to figure out how to catch a wave, but after about half an hour we had figured that you needed to be not too far out, and wait for the wave that sucks you in before you launch yourself forward using the purchase you get from your feet on the sea bed.

Rather than go back to the shop we walked back to the hut to have a shower and extract ourselves from our wetsuits. Then I drove down to the shops with Helen and dropped off the gear. We had also decided to stay in and I had volunteered to cook pasta for dinner.

I had seen a recipe in the Tesco magazine for baked chick peas and J had purchased some while they were out for a walk near Appledore. You bake them with a teaspoon of olive oil and smoked paprika to which you add honey and seeds for the second part of the bake. It took a lot longer than the recipe but I think it was a combination of the oven and the fact I did double the quantity. I will try again at home, with my own trusted oven. They tasted fine with extra time in the oven.

I had a portion of the cheese cake I made earlier in the week. The middle was not divine but the edges were still split, so the fridge is not the answer. We watched the bake off then went to bed, C, T & J were going on a Lundy boat trip on Thursday the rest of us were undecided.

Pirate golf at Woolacombe and a long walk back

Grey start to the morning and another leisurely preparation for the day. We left in two cars to drive to Woolacombe for a round of Pirate golf. We took the really small lanes via Georgeham to Woolacombe, I suspect there may have been a longer but takes the same time route further in land. We had to do a lot of giving way, and had to reverse once. Confusion with a cyclist meant we had to sit behind them as they cycled up the road. The cyclist waved us past but in the confusion we missed the opportunity to pass and then the road narrowed, the cyclist shook his head in disgust!

At Woolacombe we parked up they have a car park where you pay £3 if you leave before 13:00 and £5 if you leave after 13:00, which means if you turn up at 16:00 and park for even 5 minutes it will cost you £5, is that the most expensive parking around? The pirate golf is an unusual 15 holes, and although it has a pirate theme that is more the surroundings than the golf itself. Each hole is basically a straight forward rolling patch of green carpet, some of the holes are in dips which makes getting a hole in one fairly simple and keeps people moving on. T was winning most of the time, until C awarded him a 7 on one hole, then I got a hole in one at the penultimate hole and pipped everyone for the win.

We grabbed a pasty from a little bakery on the front then headed down to the sea front benches to meet the non-golfers. Next activity was either the slot machines or a walk back. I opted for the walk back. We wandered down the beach along Woolacombe Sand towards Putsborough Sand. On the way we saw a dead young seal washed up, and a plastic crate that had what looked like mussels on stalks, they were still alive and were putting out tentacles as if they were trying to taste the sea. A look on Google when I got back but could not figure out what they were. At the Putsborough cafe I had a coffee and a slice of Banana Cranberry and Orange cake which was nice. At one point a squall passed over so we waited for the rain to stop, people taking shelter by returning to the cafe.

Next was the slog up out of the bay and onto the coastal path towards Baggy Point, about half a mile round we were hit by another squall and I had to get the poncho out, but it has seen better days and only managed to keep the worst of the rain off, luckily it was windy so we dried out quickly once the rain stopped.We decided not to go right round the point and took the route over the top that comes down into the national trust car park, but we sneaked over a field and came down just above the hut. The others got back an hour later. T ran back to Woolacombe to pick up his car!

For dinner we grazed on the contents of the fridge, most of it healthy.

A gentle walk from Saunton Sands to Croyde Bay

We woke a a reasonable 08:30 to rain, as expected, so we took our time with breakfast, followed by some card game version of Monopoly. By about 11 the rain had stopped and the weather looked good for taking photos. C&T were planning a bike ride and the others were going to Saunton Sands, so I hitched a ride.

I walked for a while on the beach at Saunton there were some surfers and bodyboarders. There was also a kite surfer, I think because the beach is not patrolled by the RNLI and as such kite surfers are allowed. It seems that kite surfers are often not welcome on beaches.

We walked about half a mile down the beach and then the others decided to head into the burrows, I chose that moment to head back to Croyde on foot, the burrows are sand dunes and therefore hard going under foot. I purchased some Polos from the souvenir shop, then headed up the stepped path to the famous hotel, and sneaked through the car park. Rather than the coastal path which heads high up above the road, and for a good part of it the view is obscured by the bushes. I thought it might be possible to walk below the road on the field.

It turns out you can’t walk in the field despite what looked like a path, so I ended up walking up the road. There are a few parking spaces along the road and I stopped and sat on the wall and took a time lapse of the view across Saunton Sands. At the end of the road the coastal path crosses and I was able to get down to the sea, for another time lapse. The tide was out so was able to walk straight across Croyde Bay which saves a lot of time. The hut is across the bay and up the coastal path, and there is a jetty you can take to get just about 100m from the hut.

Dinner was to be a fish and chip supper from the best chip shop in Braunton, South Sixteen fish and chips I volunteered to go and collect. After dinner we were planning some card games.

Walking to Baggy Point and cooking dinner

Early but slow start with a leisurely breakfast. Some of us left the house at about 10 for a walk to Baggy Point and round to Putsborough Sands for a coffee before heading back over the top. The weather was a bit grey so I put my 50mm on the camera which forces you to think a bit more, rather more than I do when I have my favoured wide angle lenses. Part way round we lost two of the walking party as they headed over the top to get back to watch the Davis cup matches.

At the Cafe there was a rush on and it took some time to get J and I a coffee and a portion of chips each. The trouble with going to the Cafe us that it is a long descent so to get back over the top we had a fierce hill to climb, however once tackled the rest of the way back to the north end of Croyde Bay is level or down hill. The path follows old farm tracks where you can see the way carts have worn ruts in the bedrock just below the surface. We also had to follow the path of a stream which had been paved with breeze blocks to make walking dryer.

The tennis finished Murray won but not without making it look difficult, then we turned over to watch rugby world cup matches. I had volunteered to cook and spent the afternoon in and out of the Kitchen. On the menu was my usual tomato pasta sauce, my new favourite roast cauliflower and hazelnut carbonara, and a BlackBerry baked cheese cake, with the berries coming from the bushes just up the lane from where we are staying. There were plenty about but not at the edges, they grow low so it was easy enough to kind of walk on them without getting too scratched by the brambles.

Timing for dinner went well with everything ready within 5 minutes of of the predicted 19:00. All the dishes went down well, I was pleased with the cauliflower dish I seem to have cracked it, so it will now be part of my small repertoire. The cheese cake was not as good as I thought it might be perhaps it was still a bit warm but it seemed a bit split. Not sure what I need to do to fix it?

Downton starts again tonight so it will be a late night all of 22:30 before it finishes, so a lay in tomorrow will be the order of the day.