Miscellaneous adventures

Well, it's been a while... we've been doing stuff, but just bits and pieces that I haven't quite got around to putting in blog form. The Memorial Day weekend (which is the same as the late May bank holiday in the UK) was pretty fun.

On the Saturday we went tubing with an outdoors group we're part of. What's tubing? Well, you get one big inner tube per person - and don't forget a spare for the cooler full of beer and snacks - find a suitable river, plop yourself in and float blissfully downstream.

Or that's the theory. The instant our tubes touched the water, a gentle drizzle started. Which progressed to cats, dogs and stair-rods. Then the thunder and lightning began. At that point we had a brief debate about whether we were safer in the middle of a river or on a wet, tree-covered bank, and decided to beach on a sand-bar until things calmed down a bit.

After that, it was actually quite a good trip. Here's us at a point where it wasn't raining.

From left, that's Amie, Dave, Graham and me. Don't we look relaxed?!

Sunday afternoon Graham and I decided to head out west to Lake Mineral Wells State Park. We drove for the first 45 minutes in yet more pouring rain (what, you thought Britain had a monopoly on bad-weather bank holidays?) wondering if this was really such a good idea. However, after a lunch stop in Weatherford, it cleared up a little and we had a nice sunny evening at the park. So much so that we were kicking ourselves for not bringing tents and staying the night!

One of the attractions at the park is Penitentiary Hollow, a feature which Wikipedia describes as "somewhat unique", but I can't find any other information about. It looks kind of like a little canyon, but on closer inspection it seems to be made up of huge individual blocks of rock, rather than being carved through the landscape.

There are chunks of varying sizes scattered all the way down to the lake, as if a giant picked up handfuls of rocks and flung them around a bit. There are big cracks you can walk through, and steps to climb up the side.

Like so many Texas state parks, this one is centered round a reservoir, and we ate ice-cream and admired the view for quite some time before reluctantly getting in the car again.

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One hundred churches

About the middle of January, I was walking to school one afternoon when it occurred to me that I must have visited quite a few churches on my explorations. I started counting them. But I quickly ran out of fingers, so when I got home I plotted them on Google Maps. Not only was the number much higher than I was expecting, it was also tantalisingly close to one hundred. Only a few dozen to go. So of course, every walk since then has had to include at least one church! Last Monday I visited my hundredth church: St John the Baptist, Dethick. It was a beautiful little 13-century building with an unusual tower - I was glad it had claimed the 100 spot. I haven't been inside every church. Sometimes they were locked; sometimes I was in a hurry and didn't try the door. St Leonard's Church in Alton had bellringers practicing, and I almost interrupted a funeral when I stuck my head through the door of St Mary's, Marston-on-Dove. A few, such as St Oswald's, Ashbourne, and St Wys...

Derwent Valley Heritage Way: Steep drops ahead

It's been a long time since I fitted that much up and down into an eight-mile walk! 740m of steep climbs and steps. My legs were not very happy with me the next day. Between Matlock and Cromford, the Derwent River runs through a deep valley, with Matlock Bath - a landlocked town which pretends to be a seaside resort - down at the bottom. The ridge of high ground used to run all the way round to Scarthin Rock, cutting off Cromford from the rest of the valley, until somebody blasted a hole through it to build the A6. Matlock Bath: pavilion and amusement park I started in Cromford and climbed over the ridge at Harp Edge, then followed a path along through the woods, with the ground dropping sharply away to my right. There were a few small caves among the trees. At Upperwood someone had thoughtfully provided a bench. I wasn't in need of a rest just yet, though. In fact, I was feeling so bouncy that I went down an entirely unnecessary flight of steps, instead of staying on the reaso...

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as ...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

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