TurfZone – NewtonChurch
It’s almost 24-hours later, no zombie hordes have descended upon the town and I’m up at silly o’clock again kick scooting my way down to DCP, that’s Dalkeith Country Park, there, to pick up where I left off after last night’s turf session was moistly interrupted by the most persistent heavy rain. This time I’ve checked the weather forecast and its good, and, I’m carrying my waterproof jacket as well, though now that I’m doing that, I’ll probably never need to use the thing. However, it also serves as a windproof, so nothing lost.
Now, before we launch into another nocturnal turfing adventure, I want to reply to an email from last night blog posting, this one requesting how I’ve set up my Swifty Air kick scooter specifically for night turfing sessions. Okay, I’ll be brief and simply list the items.
- Front lighting – pair of Knog Blinder Road 600 LED lights.
- Rear lighting – pair of Knog Blinder Link LED lights.
- Luggage – Rixen & Kaul Aventour Compact 3L handlebar bag.
- Luggage mount – Handlebar Adapter Caddy (on stem).
- Phone mount – Lamicall bike phone holder.
Okay, on with the adventure. Same plan as last night and no point taking zone Restoration as it was still blocked to me. So, out along the tarmac road heading towards the Smeaton gate and zone DoNOTCrossEsk. The weather was nice and mild with minimal wind, good t-shirt and shorts weather, though I should add that when I first set out from the house it felt chilly to begin with and my waterproof/windproof jacket came in handy for the kick scoot down to Dalkeith, all largely downhill and it takes a wee while to get the body warmed up. Not much effort goes into kick scooting downhill.
Zone DoNOTCrossEsk was an easy take; the gate was open and I only needed to walk a few meters up the rough gravel track to take the zone. Noticed an unusual glow in the north sky, wondering if we have some noctilucent clouds showing again. Unfortunately, the lack of a clear view and other obscuring clouds meant I would need to wait until later, hoping for a better viewpoint. Interestingly, noctilucent clouds are noted as extremely rare but I’m seeing them quite often. I wonder if “extremely rare” is a result of not many people actually being outdoors around silly o’clock and looking up at the sky or even knowing what they are looking at? May explain why there’s so few UFO sightings.
Next two zones, TheUnknown and YouAreTheAce, are located down a rough track following the north side of the River Esk. It’s heavily churned up by horses and in parts almost impossible to ride the kick scooter. You end up pushing, or even carrying, the kick scooter in parts and it’s a right pain in the arse, I can tell you. However, I have a plan this fine evening. Yes, I’m going to actually walk.
The plan is to leave the kick scooter in the trees at the start of the tracks. It’s unlikely to be discovered that time of the night. For this event, I’ve brought the wee North Face Y2K shoulder bag I bought a few weeks ago. It’s ideal for holding the mobile phone, spare light, and clothing if need be. The track is a mess, any areas where water has been running off the hillside are well churned by the local riding stables. The mud has the consistency of either wet chocolate cake-mix or a fairly dry brickies mortar mix. There’s lots of sand along the track and that helps keep it dry, so could be a lot worst, especially if there was clay underfoot.
Both zones were taken without issue and walking makes it easier to avoid brushing against the vegetation along the sides of the path, the main aim to avoid picking up any ticks but also to avoid the stinging nettles. In the event I only picked up one of the pesty little blighters, on my ankle. Easily removed back home. Always find the walk back out seems quicker than the walk inwards? Not sure why this is? Oh, caught up on a badger in the way back. Noticed a grey patch moving ahead and shone the torch on it. The badger stopped and looked back, gave me the once over and calmly trotted on.
I followed quietly behind, slowly catching up with the badger. It was either unaware of my presence or not bothered at all. Probably the former, I imagine. When I got within about 10m I decided that was close enough and politely coughed. No point getting too close and startling a potentially angry badger! The badger rumbled off into the trees. Quite a thrill getting so close and surprising it wasn’t bothered by the light.
Next zone was BridgeOfFaith, the bridge still closed to traffic. After that along to zone NewtonChurch, reached via a gap in the estate boundary wall. Better views here of the noctilucent clouds, at least I’m fairly certain that what they are. Quite of lot of other clouds in the foreground and it’s also beginning to get light. The sight had me wishing I was along the coast at Aberlady Bay, with wide open vistas, better for photography.
Now heading for home, picked off five more zones within the park and another seven along the way. The third highlight of the night was encountering a young fox cub, in fact, I almost ran the poor wee thing over. Must have been withing two metres before either of use noticed each other. All in all, a very pleasant turf session. Makes me wonder why other turfers don’t go turfing at night? I guess that’s because they are sensible and no as daft as PlanetGary!
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