Turf Zone – CrosbySnake
One might think that traveling all the way down to the south of England via the east coast, then back up the west coast, turfing on each of the 12 days of the trip, there would be plenty of stuff to write a turf blog about, and indeed, you would be quite correct on that assumption. However, the biggest challenge I face is actually starting that blog, and a turf blog about 12-days turfing is daunting to say the least, is getting those words down on paper as it were. I’m like the hard-up artist faced with a blank canvas or a wordsmith staring blankly at stark sheet of white paper. But wait a moment, it does appear that I have started this turf blog, so getter get on with it. As this may be a very long turf blog, I’ll post it in two parts.
Day 1 – Monday 27th April.
The initial idea for this trip evolved from ChoccyMuffin’s plan to take the train down to Worthing, a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, to visit a friend. However, when you have a serious case of turf addiction something as simple a plan as that is just not good enough. So, after a few days of deep-thought, we came up with a plan to make some way, well 11/12th of the way, towards gaining the UK Explorer medal, which involves taking at least one zone in all 12 regions in the UK.
We were already off to a good start with 3 regions each, namely Scotland, North East England and North West England. We planned the trip to ultimately give us 11 of the 12 regions, leaving only one more to get, Northern Ireland, which will require a separate trip later. In addition, we would also get the Pentaregion Star with 5 regions and the Decaregion Star with 10 regions.
Our ultimate destination for the first day of the trip was Durham in Northumberland, though we decided to head for a stop-over in Hexham. Leaving the boring A1 for everyone else, we decided to take the more scenic and interesting A68, notwithstanding that there was a zone at Carter Bar, a unique, that both of us wanted to bag. We also managed to spot another unique at Rochester, a zone called FortEscort, located on a Roman camp. Hexham not only offered us a coffee/mint tea and scone/cake but also zone TotemPolesZon which has Monument status and two turfer uniques, dazgraham68 and TheJuicer. I should add that we were driving, not riding our Brompton’s. They were stowed in the boot.
Next stop Premier Inn Durham East, where we had booked a room for the budget sum of £43.00 for both of us, not including breakfast. Our initial thinking was that we would look around elsewhere for breakfast but that never worked out and we stayed with the in-house eateries for all our breakfasts. Before we had dinner, we jumped on the Brompton’s and explored Durham, adding another turfer unique, alihodge, to the collection, though no zones had monument status in Durham. I’ll add here that in addition to collecting zones for the UK Explorer, I was also after turfer uniques and monument zones.
Turf Zone – BrightonPier
Day 2 – Tuesday 28th April
Our second day saw us braving the perils of the frighteningly busy A1 motorway towards Lincoln, at times wondering why on earth we were doing this, especially when a 44-ton articulated Tesco mega-monster overtakes you less than a meter away. Our main mission for the day, in addition to actually driving all the way to Lincoln, was to bag the Yorkshire & The Humber region. So, this meant a stop off to take a few zones before we reached Lincoln, which is located in the East Midlands region.
The UK Explorer blurb states only one zone is required for each region but we made doubly sure and took a few more, just in case, then checked they were indeed located in the Yorkshire & The Humber region and we would not find ourselves having missed a region later on. We chose Wetherby for this and also found a nice cafe for welcome refreshments.
No turfer uniques or monument zones were available in Lincoln. As with Durham, we used the Brompton’s for an enjoyable turf session in Lincoln before dinner there by adding the East Midlands region to the tally. And, of course, 5 regions gave us the Pentaregion Star medal. Only another 8 regions now required.
Navigation on our trip was fairly straight forwards with the latest technology doing a fine job of getting us where we wanted to go, though not always appearing to do so. Rather than use the built-in satnav on the Ford Focus we connected my mobile phone and used the Android Auto app to display Google maps which seems far superior to the Ford offering. It offered up useful alerts for police ahead, roadworks, the best route and even objects on the carriageway. However, occasionally we had only minimal time to understand the instructions on which lane we should be in, the issue compounded when traffic was heavy. But in the end, we arrived safely at our destination.
Turf Zone – CathedralPath
Day 3 – Wednesday 29th April
Cambridge was our destination today, “that” university city we have all heard about. It’s a lovely city with some amazing old buildings such as the towering cathedral, masses of historical and architectural wonders, and not forgetting the pleasant cafe where we stopped for the usual, though I cannot recall what it was called. Actually, it might have been in Peterborough where we stopped on route to Cambridge. That’s one of the problems you face when travelling between cities, each day’s events seem to merge together and you wonder just which city you are in that day.
This is particularly apparent each morning when you wake up in a Premier Inn bedroom, which are all clones of each other, with only slight differences to alert that you have actually changed location. Then you have the corridors, which are even more alike. God help you if you forget your room number as the access cards are blank without any room reference. One Premier Inn we stayed at was rather lacking in signage directing guests to reception. It was pot luck if you get there or end up locked in the cleaner’s cupboard for the night.
Anyway, Cambridge was a nice place, only spoiled by the number of students, all looking far too young and healthy, though just about everyone looks young when you reach retirement age. Not so sure about the healthy. But on the plus side, lots of people riding bicycles, which I love to see and masses of dedicated cycleways for them as well. However, one thing I didn’t like now that we were south of the Scottish Border was that cycling in England is very controlled. You cannot ride your little orange Brompton anywhere willy-nilly like you can in Scotland, no, someone will shout at you if you do, or at the very least give you stern looks. But before log I became an expert at being the daft-laddie, fully trained in ignoring any sign or notice with the words “No Cycling” or similar, emblazoned across them, even flashing ones.
The day saw the now usual format for our trip, stopping off along the way for a few zones and any turfer uniques or monument zones in the area, along with the essential cafe visit. A late afternoon turf session in the city gave us turfer uniques ellemme, runsaway and CambHannons and a monument zone, HillsRdWar. Nice one. Our zones in Cambridge also gave us the East of England region bringing our tally to 6 regions.
Turf Zone – CloseToBeach
Day 4 – Thursday 30th April
Today we were aiming for Rainham, London. The reason for this was that we wanted the Greater London region but didn’t want to go into London to do so. Fortunately, Premier Inn Rainham is located a few minutes from the M25 London Circular, just on the outskirts of Greater London, and also close to RSPB Rainham Marshes, where we stopped but our hopes for a cafe were dashed as the cafe was no longer in operation. However, when we started cycling towards Rainham ChoccyMuffin spotted a notice for a cafe at the nearby Purfleet Heritage & Military Centre. However, the cafe was more a Naffi offering little more than strong army tea and chocolate bars.
Anyway, feeling in need of some proper sustenance we followed the cycle path into Rainham, heading for Rainham Hall, a National Trust property ChoccyMuffin wanted to visit. I was content to watch the bikes while scoffing scones and drinking coffee. Oh, it’s a hard life turfing sometimes! Next, we checking into the hotel then grabbed a few more zones with a walk around nearby Belhus Woods Country Park. Dinner was at a local eatery called Sir Henry’s which was rather disappointing. The food was, well, let’s say the restaurant at the Premier Inn would probably have been better.
Days 5, 6 and 7 – Friday 1st to 4th May
The next few days we stayed with Margaret and Colin, a friend of ChoccyMuffin from when we lived in Peebles. We were well looked after, the grub was 5-star and they showed us around Brighton and Worthing, even happy for us to continue turfing and allow ChoccyMuffin to keep up her Daily-5 zones. And the best thing of all was that Colin had a couple of motorcycles in the garage, a Triumph Bonneville and a dream bike from my younger days, a 50-year-old Honda 400/4. They also had an interesting brick in the back garden, a REDLAND FLETTONS, a new one for my digital collection. More soon.
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