Regular visitors to Planet Gary may have noticed that I’ve mentioned on various occasions that I’ve lost much of my enthusiasm for turfing. I’ve taken all the easy medals, taken most of the unique zones that don’t require travel to strange and distant lands, and to be honest, I’m bored with it all. And more than once I thought about giving up entirely. I even thought about starting again from afresh with a new username. However, planning my Midlothian A2Z Mission – taking 26 zones in alphabetical order – has got me thinking.
One of the aspects I enjoy the most about turf was gaining medals. So, I thought, why not make up my own turf medals and go for them. Okay, they won’t appear officially as part of turf but that doesn’t matter. And since I started turfing back in December 2020, I’ve thought up quite a few new medals that I suggested might be created by the Great Turf Wizards of Sweden. Sadly, none of them came to fruition.
However, here on Planet Gary anything can happen. So, here’s some Planet Gary un-official virtual medal ideas. And if you want to try any of them yourself, further details on the Unofficial Medals page.
- A2Z Mission – take 26 zones in alphabetical order.
- All Night Turfer – for turfers who starts at sunset and stop at sunrise.
- Daily Dozen – take 12 zones a day for 10, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 or 365 days.
- Fife Coastal Path – take 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 or 250 zones on this route.
- John Muir Way – take 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 or 250 zones on this route.
- Night Owl – taking 100 zones between midnight and 4:00 am.
- Police Scotland – take 5, 10 or 20 zones at Police related locations.
- Region Medals – for taking all the zones in Scottish regions.
- The Grand Turf – turfing by car but not leaving the vehicle.
- Turfoween – take 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 zones during Halloween.
- Turf Ranger – camp or bivvy overnight in a turf zone.
- Seven Hills – take the zones at the seven highest points.
- Snowman – take 10, 25, 50, 75 or 100 zones in the snow.
- Water of Leith Walkway – taking 60 zones over 13-miles.
Birding Medals
- Birder – identify 10 species of bird at no more than 10 zones.
- Twitcher – identify 25 species of bird at no more than 10 zones.
- Ornithologist – identify 50 species of bird at no more than 10 zones.
Bridge Zone Medals
- Bridge Spotter – take 10 different zones with the Bridge Zone attribute.
- Bridge Master – take 20 different zones with the Bridge Zone attribute.
Ghost Minute Medals
- Ghost Hunter – complete a Ghost Minute at 5 different holy zones.
- Ghost Buster – complete a Ghost Minute at 10 different holy zones.
- Ghost Chaser – complete a Ghost Minute at 20 different holy zones.
Holy Zone Medals
- Grail Knight – take 5 different zones with the Holy Zone attribute.
- Grail Lord – take 10 different zones with the Holy Zone attribute.
- Holy Grail – take 20 different zones with the Holy Zone attribute.
Train Station Medals
- Trainspotter – take 5 different zones with the Train Station attribute.
- Station Master – take 10 different zones with the Train Station attribute.
That should keep me interested for some time. And I think I’ll need to create some un-official virtual medals to go with them and to award to myself. Feel free to have a go yourself. Please note these do not form part of Turf and will not appear in the Turf app.
Planning for my Midlothian A2Z Mission is progressing well. I now have my provisional list of 26 zones. Just some fine tuning required before I get started. Here’s my provisional list of zones.
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- AuldCoal (Bonnyrigg)
- Bannockrigg (Bonnyrigg)
- CatSchool (Bonnyrigg)
- DobbysSock (Bonnyrigg)
- Eskbank (Eskbank)
- FreeKick (Bonnyrigg)
- GeorgeWarMem (Bonnyrigg)
- Hardengreen (Eskbank)
- IKnowBroom (Bonnyrigg)
- JamesTheLean (Dalkeith)
- Kippielaw (Dalkeith)
- Lauder (Dalkeith)
- MinerMemorial (Dalkeith)
- Newbattle (Eskbank)
- OldDalkeith (Sheriffhall)
- Penicuik (Penicuik)
- QueenDean (Penicuik)
- RoslinGlen (Rosewell)
- SandQuarry (Rosewell)
- TongueSpatula (Bonnyrigg)
- UpperDalPath (Dalhousie)
- VickysGardens (Newtongrange)
- WhyMurderDean (Newtongrange)
- Xing (Edinburgh)
- YouAreTheAce (Dalkeith)
- ZoneMayBurn (Loanhead)
And you can see they cover a wide area of Midlothian including Bonnyrigg, Eskbank, Dalkeith, Newtongrange, Roslin, Loanhead and Penicuik. There’s even a trip into Edinburgh for the X zone, Xing, and into East Lothian for the Y zone, YouAreTheAce, though to be fair it isn’t that far away. One other zone that is adding a lot of time to the challenge is the Q zone, QueenDean, in Penicuik. It’s the only Q zone in Midlothian, so will have to do. My original 260 minutes time limit might be rather short now that I see the list and the amount of cycling required. But all part of the fun. Wish me luck.
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