Around Rural Willand 5

Mornings at Ali's mum's house are free time for me. Ali's mum does not surface until about 10 a.m. and Ali likes to stay in bed. I wake naturally when it gets light which is about 6 a.m. and whilst lying half-awake under the bed-clothes is nice for maybe half an hour, after that I am raring to go. Even after a longish run there is still free time so I started listening to Bruckner's 5th by Celibidache. Wow! sums it up. I mention this here because it reminded me of running. The beauty of the countryside flows past me much as does Bruckner's music. A bit like Grieg's Morgenstemning doing good justice to a real sun-rise or Rossini's Overture to Guillaume Tell  to a real storm although those examples are too specific whilst with Bruckner it is more generic.

I left the house at my usual 06:30 to find the earth shrouded in mist. But that was not going to stop me because, having once tasted the Culm water meadows, this my last run had to extend the experience. So I exited Willand via the Bradfield corridor turning left at Stenhill (just to ring the changes) - a mistake: this road is single track at best and full of potholes and random stones. Not only that but the local farmer appears to use it as a cattle trail and furthermore it passes a cattle slurry pit that oozes across the road.

I took the footpath down to the river: another mistake as it passes between the river and the Uffculme sewage treatment plant. But, having put that behind me and having wiped my feet on clean grass, the rest was bliss. The first stretch of river was a repeat of the previous run.

Culm water meadows east of Uffculme

This is what I mean by a path 

Even though the mist persisted, running on this stuff is pure heaven. The grass is soft and wet, the ground under is not smooth, and there are no fences to hem you in.

A bend in the river

Hunkin wood where I turned back towards Uffculme

Hunkin Wood aka Five Fords is on the edge of my map. Here I spied a large dog and its human baring my way forward but, in any case, I had kind of decided to turn back at this point, following the road back into Uffculme and thence home. Later on the dog passed me along this road, riding on the front passenger seat whilst its human drove. Did it have a seat-belt on? Pity I wasn't quick enough to snap a picture.

Uffculme village square

"Uffculme Straight", nearing home

Should I get to visit Willand again, my intention is to follow the river further, perhaps as far as Culmstock.

The path continues to Culmstock and beyond

Around Rural Willand 4

The last time I was staying in Willand I was running via Uffculme and noticed the walk along the river, so this visit I determined to investigate.

There are several satisfactory barefoot-running corridors from Willand: the road to Halberton,  the road across the Culm to Bradfield, the "Uffculme Straight" (B3440) and the cycle-way to Tiverton Parkway station. Whereas the road to Waterloo Cross and the M5 is too busy for comfort and the main road the Cullompton is stony and almost as bad.

So this time I took the cycle-way (I saw not a single cyclist) which terminates at the station foot-bridge.

Tiverton Parkway railway station

The footbridge

The footpath to Appledore

Looking back from same

The footpath from Waterloo Cross to Appledore goes across fields - smooth going to start with but becoming rather stony under-foot and not at all clear exactly where the path is meant to go. The footpath from Appledore to Uffculme is a stony track and thus harder going.

The footpath from Appledore to Uffculme

River Culm at Uffculme

Once in Uffculme I dropped down to the river and followed the much-sought-after river path. The right-of-way follows the river through grassy meadows and one meets owners taking their dogs or families with children. I imagine it an ideal place for a picnic in warmer weather.

At this point the sun breaks through the clouds and I am grateful for its warmth. The ground is heavenly under barefoot, and the outlook euphoric.

Weir

Looking back at the weir

This weir is a complex affair with sluice-gate and crosses the river at an angle. I suppose it directs water to nearby Coldharbour Mill. I wanted to pick my way across the weir but there were onlookers and I am afraid of what they might think of a 60 year old playing child.

Dogs and their humans

By now the morning clouds have fully lifted and my euphoria is heightened - I want to go on and on running beside this river forever. Sadly the footpath ends at the next road-bridge where I turn right through ColdHarbour and back along the "Uffculme Straight".

Another weir, this time no mill-race

Total distance 8.88 miles, average speed 5.06 m.p.h.

Around Rural Willand 3

This run was more satisfactory than my last. I do not mind roads if quiet and not too stony, but the goal is to find barefoot-friendly paths and this run satisfied. I started out towards Cullompton then turned right through Brithem Bottom - a splendid name, I wonder who Brithem was? The path was the right-of-way over Turley Down and took me right through the middle of fields. Great for me, but it must be a trial for the farmer.

I love England for its right-of-ways. Or should one say rights-of-way?  Since moving to Ireland we have seen the instigation of several way-marked longer walks like the Wicklow Way, but nothing like the vast network in England. Besides, the right-of-way law is different here in Ireland and in the favour of the land-owner. And most land-owners here don't want folk walking over their land.

Ascending Turley Down

and down the far side

looking back, having reached the road

Heading north I had to divert to investigate the aqueduct where the Grand Weston Canal crosses the course of the broad-gauge branch of the Bristol and Exeter railway. Running gives time for pondering - I wondered which came first, canal or railway? Wikipedia reckons this section of the canal was opened in 1814, whereas the railway was built 34 years later. It must have been quite a challenge building an aqueduct in retrospect, but back in those days they thrived on challenges.

The Aqueduct and course of the railway 

Looking North

It actually has a name!

The railway bed from the aqueduct

Looking South

Eleven miles of the canal starting at Tiverton are still navigable as the house boats testify in the picture above. Sadly the broad gauge railway no longer exists although there is "the last remaining" broad gauge locomotive on view in the South Devon Railway museum .

Halberton parish church

The next port of call was the village of Halberton where I took a short-cut through the church-yard and by the village pond. All English villages of any repute have a duck-pond and I have to say that this one is above average. It even had ducks.

Halberton village pond

And then back along the busier road from Halberton to Willand for a much deserved breakfast.

Total distance 8.35 miles, average speed 4.83 m.p.h.

Around Rural Willand 2

My second morning's run from Willand. The ford at Goodiford Farm was a nice surprise but the road north from here was narrow, besmeared with dung and stones and potholes, and hard of foot. If one purpose of these posts is to grade running routes according to barefoot-ability, this particular route did not score high!

Goodiford Farm

From Croyle House to Stenhill is a bridleway - might be OK for horses that are shod, but not when barefoot as it was very stony. But a lovely show of primroses partly made up for my discomfort.

Along the bridleway

The same

Bradfield House

Returning along the road via Bradfield where I caught this farmer herding his herd. To think that those brown things might be possible precursors to clotted cream!

Culm water meadows

Total distance 6.96 miles, average speed 4.97 m.p.h.

Around Rural Willand in 8 days

Actually it was only 5 days. The occasion - a trip for Ali to visit her mum and for me to chill out. I followed a rigid schedule of a (barefoot) run first thing each morning followed by reading, eating, Downton Abbey, taking Ali shopping and not much else. Prepare to be bored - the next few posts will be a record of these morning runs. Here's the track of the first, a short run to get me in the mood...

Statistics: 5.9 miles, average speed 5.44 mph.
Map created by Mobile Atlas Creator using OS maps
Tracking by OruxMaps v6.0.7 on my recently acquired Samsung S3 many thanks Jonathan!

This morning's news

Here's a couple of extracts I thought were interesting from the news this morning:

In April 2000, in a wave of new millennium optimism, world leaders promised to deliver something at the beginning of the 21st Century that in many developed countries had been taken for granted by the end of the 19th Century: Primary education for all children.

This basic gap was going to be fixed within 15 years, so that by April 2015, the unacceptable position of millions of children never even beginning school would be consigned to history. This was one of six Education for All pledges, which included targets such as girls having equal access to learning, and a halving of adult illiteracy...

It's perhaps worth thinking about what else has arrived since the education pledges were made in April 2000. YouTube, the iPhone, Facebook, hybrid cars, 3D printing, Twitter, the Mars rover, Wikipedia, China's and India's space programmes, mobile broadband, Skype and mapping the human genome. Unlike building primary schools, somehow these all proved possible.  BBC

and, somewhat unrelated...

The part of a bee's brain that allows it to see has been recreated by scientists in a computer simulation and connected to a drone - not of the bee variety, but an unmanned aerial vehicle...

"Bees and all other insects are miracles of engineering which we are nowhere near equalling," said Prof James Marshall.  BBC

Such are the amazing but paltry advances of our civilisation...

Are aliens and God mutually exclusive?

Every now and again we hear a mild suggestion that ET messages have been received. This recent report and here about unexplained multiples of 187.5 caught my attention but there have been others. The scientific community are of course sceptical, and so am I. But what if it could be demonstrated that we were receiving signals from ETI? Would that then rule out God once and for all? Or would the religions of the world merely hastily modify their theologies to embrace the aliens? As they eventually did with Galileo's radical ideas. Or perhaps the aliens never fell so do not need a Saviour? Should such musings rock my faith then I suggest that my faith is not well founded.

The Curragh and Corbally Harbour

Sunday afternoon. Another beautiful day though the air is still cold. I decided to try the Curragh route again and this time made it there. I parked my bike is a suitably secluded spot and, discarding shoes and top, ran about 4 miles across closely cropped grass and hills and dales. The Curragh is a barefoot runner's wonderland. This part of my afternoon's adventure was sheer bliss.

You can just see the "lookout pole" in the distance.
Click on the picture to enlarge it.

The Curragh is common land and grazed by sheep

And home to rough-biking, quads and horse riding

Atop the first "lookout pole" -
I found two and of course had to climb them

This tree topped hill had to be my next port of call

Getting closer...

A gentle climb to the top

Where I found the second "lookout pole"

That's me atop the second pole

Maybe a bunker? - there's an army camp near here

Finding my bike was thankfully intact and where I had left it I took the longer route around the Curragh and through the army camp, and then returned via Athgarvan to get to Corbally Harbour.  The last time I was there my four children were with me (I think) so it was a ways back. But I remember the strange construction in the next picture - it looks like the entrance to a tunnel, but if so it is closed off.

Was it a tunnel entrance?

The harbour and buildings

Looking northwards along the canal: must do this walk sometime

My bike, a little forlorn for being left beside the road whilst I went exploring

Having "done" Corbally I continued my rather circuitous route back home via Punchestown, Eadestown and Blessington. Back in the days when we took the children wherever we went the monument at Eadestown, overlooked by the statue of Mary, always tickled us and brought a laugh.  About here my legs started to complain and so it was with some relief that I finally made it back home.

Total bike distance 40.5 miles, max speed 30 mph, average speed 11.8 mph.

Punchestown longstone

Captain Tickell's Fountain, Eadestown

The RC church opposite the fountain

First swim this season

A gorgeous day and I should have taken my camera. So, this time I turned left, which takes you down a dirt track to the lake, and then along the shore, under Baltiboys bridge, and all the way to the Valleymount bridge. About 8 miles in total. It takes me past one of my swimming spots so I gave it a try - clearly I am not the hardy type like those that break the ice in the Serpentine - I did a few strokes and then got out rather hastily. A lovely feeling of warmth afterwards though. And then at Lonely Bay I dammed the stream in order to divert it. Not entirely without reason (not that I need a reason to play with sand and water) as it is a dirty stream (it comes through farmland) and the diversion will make it deposit further along the shore from another "safe" spot for swimming. Not that I can condone swimming in the lake - it is not approved and it can be unsafe. People have drowned.

Aslan

drawn by my granddaughter during a meeting

"Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances"

...

"Oh, if only we knew!" said Jill.

"I think we do know," said Puddleglum.

"Do you mean you think everything will come right if we do untie him?" said Scrubb.

"I don't know about that," said Puddleglum. "You see, Aslan didn't tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once he's up, I shouldn't wonder. But that doesn't let us off following the sign."

The Silver Chair, C. S. Lewis

He went for a run one day and didn’t turn right

Saturday 4pm and time for a run (bare foot). I called "Meg!" several times but no dog came - is she getting deaf in her old age? So I went alone starting along my usual route but, when I came to the usual right turn, I kept straight on and thus committed myself to a much longer route. A route I cannot take with Meg because it includes a few miles along a busy main road with no footpath.

The route is over 8.5 miles in total. I made it back OK though I found the last bit hard work.

I've coined a new words: "Carincidence" or "Concarrence" meaning when two vehicles travelling in opposite directions along a road happen to pass at just the point where I am running. This afternoon carincidences occurred a good deal more often than normal statistics would suggest and at times I was forced to climb momentarily into the hedgerow to allow free passage to the cars which, it seems, imagine they have the right of way.

I have been running barefoot for many years now and still have never met or even seen another barefoot runner. So strange when, for me, the experience is so liberating.

Place marker

OK so I haven't posted for yonks. I have my excuses (am very busy) but I know they won't cut. But here's a thing: why has my recent brief post "Silent Film" attracted so many hits?  About three times more than my next most popular post during the last month.