Turf Blog 05-10-24

Turf Zone – BeThankful

Another busy turf day, this time into the big city, the west side of Edinburgh to be exact. It was the final area of the city where I still had a bunch of uniques to claim, around 90 of them by my rough estimate. Only two zones escaped my attention, one in Edinburgh Zoo which was deliberate as we are planning a separate trip there, the other was zone ThePlaygroup in Gyle Park, it was surrounded by security fencing while ground works were taking place. It will have to wait until another day.

2500 Unique – this medal is worn by the awesome turf-fellow who has grabbed at least 2500 different zones.

So, a good bagful of unique zones, 88 of them and I’m very pleased with that. However, it did take me almost 6 hours to do so which seems a long time for so few zones. I guess I’m just not very fast on a bike, more a steady plodder than a high-speed turf-demon like Hodge or Fearglas. And 42 of those were required to give me that all important 2500 Unique medal, one of the main aims of the visit today. Happy with that. Only problem now is that I need another 2500 (actually now only 2457) for the 5000 Unique medal. That will take quite some time.

Quite a lot of hills today, mostly around Corstorphine Hill, but all good training for my assault on the 50 or so zones I have yet to take in the Pentland Hills. Just waiting on my new bike to arrive, which sadly, has been delayed another week and is now scheduled for build and delivery week commencing 14th October. Slightly disappointing but only a week or so away. I guess in these days when you order from Amazon and it arrives next day we have come to expect such immediacy to buying goods online.

No issues with the turf app today, or yesterday for that matter. Worked perfectly throughout. I did roll back to the previous version as the latest beta version was reading out incorrect notifications, for example, leaving zone rather than taking zone, which was quite disconcerting. No issues with any loss of signal or internet connection either.

Turf Zone – Corhilldown

The trouble with hunting uniques, which tends to be in locations you are unfamiliar with, is that you spend a lot of time stopping to work out the route, or zooming into the app to see exactly where the zone is located. I should also add to that all the pedalling off the wrong way and having to about turn. I do wonder what non-turfers make of all this. To them it might look like we are lost and trying to find our way. Interestingly, not a single person asked if I was lost or looking for somewhere but I guess that the big city for you. It’s quite the opposite in smaller towns and rural areas.

However, I’ve some way to go to clear all the uniques in the City of Edinburgh. I’ve taken 1076 out of 1290, with most of those still to take out west beyond the A720 city bypass and in the Pentland hills. Doing well in Midlothian with 422 out of 469, again with zones still to take in the Pentland Hills.

Here’s something interesting, and puzzling. Yesterday I was granted my Monument medal, for taking 50 zones with the Monument attribute. Today, when I look at the stats on https://turf.lundkvist.com/, the total is now 52. And having checked the 88 zones taken today in Edinburgh, none of them have the Monument attribute. So, where have these two zones come from? The answer seemed to be that some existing zones have been granted the Monument attribute. Two more zones is fine by me if they count towards the Monumental medal. More soon.

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