Turf Zone – SeaArt
Seven days into round #192 and my tally for round uniques towards the 1000 required for the Diversiest medal now stands at 413, more than a third of the way there, or abut 2/5th of the way, though I think almost half way there is more encouraging. It would have been ideal to have kept up the 100 zones taken on each of the first two days but scorchio weather, streaming eyes and sneezing due to hay fever and an aching back, all combined to put a stopper on that. However, I’m still making good progress and with another 23 days still remaining and bar any unforeseen circumstances, the Diversiest medal is still on the cards.
My strategy for this challenge is the block clear any areas I visit for round unique zones and having popped into Edinburgh early this morning, before the sun started cooking everything, I’ve been thinking about how best to actually achieve that. Yes, it might seem simple enough but the trouble with turfing is that there’s nearly always just one more zone, then another, and another. So, where do you stop?
My session yesterday was to the south of Edinburgh, starting off from Blackford pond. The first thing I did was set some boundaries, basically physical features on the land where I’d turf no further. Not only does this set limits to both the area covered but also to time spent. So, to the south, a line from Blackford pond to Cameron Toll. To the west, the A68 road and to the north, The Meadows. Lastly, to the west, Morningside Road. None of these are totally rigid boundaries and are simply guides with the actual limits based on the zones themselves.
I think it’s important to easily recall what zones you have taken and which zones are still available as round uniques. No point wasting time re-taking zones you’ve taken previously. That’s the beauty of block clearing zones. If you take all the zones within an area, you can be sure you don’t need wonder if any are available and can concentrate on other areas. It was suggested that you turfing along linear routes might be more productive but doing so may make it difficult to know what you have and haven’t taken should you return to adjacent areas later on.
This morning saw me in Longniddry, Port Seton and Cockenzie, braving the miserable dizzle and crazy-mental traffic all heading for some big event in Gullane where they hit little balls with sticks into far away rabbit holes. No worse, I guess, than being a turfer! Didn’t take all the zones in the area, just the ones in urban areas and I hate trying to find zones in Seton Sands caravan park which was suprisingly busy with holiday makers. Takes all kinds, I suppose.
There was also something else I wanted to share and that was noticed during a session yesterday evening to Prestonpans. I’d just about finished block clearing the town when I noticed three red zones showing on the app. Now, I was almost positive I’d taken these and initially thought I’d simply missed them. However, it turns out they were taken by another turfer, pinkgirl, and I’d not noticed her while I was turfing. The previous day I’d switched off the zone lost notification, thinking it was of little use to me. However, I now realise that it would have alerted me to another turfer in the area and I would not wonder if I’d missed any zones.
Now, a few thoughts, pointers and other stuff.
- there are 28-day rounds and 35-day rounds.
- a 28-day round requires an average of 36 zones per day.
- a 35-day round requires an average of 29 zones per day.
- block clearing an area of zones help you keep track.
- ignore time-consuming isolated outlier zones.
- use a car/public transport to save time between areas.
- look for areas of high zone density for efficient turfing.
Finally, did a wee exercise to investigate the idea of using an e-scooter to see what times might be achieved for taking 10 zones. Notwithstanding the fact that using it would be illegal here in the UK unless you have permission from the land owner. I was surprised to find that using one would be unlikely to better my time of 7:05. The main reason being that the maximum speed of the e-scooter is generally 15.5 mph and that is slower than I can pedal a bicycle. Of course, there are faster e-scooters out there, some of which will reach speeds of 60 mph. Personally, I would prefer to stay alive.
Using the Loanhead Ferret Run as an example. The e-scooter at 15.5 mph would complete the 2.40 km (1.5 miles) distance non-stop in about 5:48 minutes. Add to that 9 take times at 18.4 seconds, deduct 9 x 5-second GPS bonuses and you get an overall time of 7:29 and that does not include time lost slowing down at each zone or accelerating away from each zone. Yes, I’ve only looked at this in simple terms and there’s more to it. I’ll be sticking to my bicycle, thank you.
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