I did another leg in my cross-England cycle today, going from Staines to Putney in London, along the River Thames towpath for pretty much the whole way, except for a pleasant excursion through Richmond Royal Park. I was, as before, following National Cycle Route 4. It was a relatively short day (I started so late that I only had three hours of light) but quite nice. Photos are at the end of my Bedwyn to London set.
Remaining is another section through central and East London. I may do a convoluted route, finally coming off Route 4 and going from Wandsworth to Croydon to Greenwich, as this allows me to take advantage of two different marked cycle routes and do the Wandle Trail that I had planned to do before. Then from Greenwich, it would be Route 1 east, finishing up eventually in Canterbury. Probably two days needed for this Putney to Canterbury stretch. After all that, the first half remains – Bristol to Bedwyn – uphill all the way, and another two days.
And after that, I’m planning to do the South Downs Way by bike (it’s regional route 78) from Winchester to Eastbourne. This would probably take the form of a continous three-day journey – or maybe two days if I’m feeling fitter (the route is a lot more hilly that Route 4 though.) Any takers to join me on that? It should be superb.
Day 6, Glen Dye
14-15 had quite a chasm on it and it was tough to get across the river dry-shod. By now I should have been accelerating, but the other extract, below, shows why not – a very technical area, full of little hills and depressions, controls and confused orienteers. 16 was fine, 17 was also OK – some random Yorkshireman asked me at this point where he was, to which I pointed vaguely in the region of 17 and said “Somewhere here.” “Yes, I know that, but where here?” he said, but I had sped off. He wasn’t a little kid – so he should relocate himself and waste his own time. I guess he must have pissed me off, because I made my only other mistake at 19 – misreading the description for 18 as 19, I search in a thicket, on the edge of a small cliff, not for the depression 50m to the south where the control was. 20 was a bit mean – no one likes an uphill finish, but putting the penultimate control in a 10 metre pit was a bit much! And then it was on the the finish, the end of another six days and time for a nice lie down.
This was part of the Royal Balmoral Estate, and the M21S course first involved a monster 4.1km walk (!) to the start. It was easy to see why this was necessary though, after studying the map, due to the shape and location of the most technical parts. As I was running the short course, the course route basically went in a straight-ish line right back to the start. Today was the day however that I made the most number of mistakes – most of these, apart from one, were small, but most also were stupid mistakes (what was I thinking?! type mistakes) rather than “worthy” ones.
11, 12 were fine, although the line of “plodders” to 12 really annoyed me. All longer courses were forced along this narrow strip due to course constraints, but it was very annoying having plodders blocking the way. Yes, I know orienteering is suppoosed to be inclusive and all, but why bother entering a competitive event, if you are just going to walk the whole way around? Why not just go hillwalking or rambing or something! This again annoyed me, and I therefore immediately made my biggest mistake of all, to control 13, the one that allowed Tony (who had started 4 minutes behind me) to catch up and stay with me for the remainder fo the course. I took a lazy route onto the spur, which meant I wasn’t sure how far along the spur I was. I hesitated, then went away from another control, which was (and I don’t think this is in the spirit of the competition) placed only a few metres away from the control I was looking for. I had to do a formal relocation off a track lower down, and come back into the control, number 13. Five minutes wasted here. 14 was only 150m further away but I still wasted one more minute here, by overshooting the control, missing it by 2 metres up (it was hidden below a bank) and then having to come back. 15, 16 and 17 were simple enough although 15-16 was treacherous underfoot. All in all, not a great run, peppered by lots of small mistakes, and this proved to be my second non-counting day. 
I haven’t had a fautless run for years, but here, finally, it was. I had been dreading this area – it was right beside Glen Dye, the only area I had been on before the six days – and I vaguely remember a physically tough, very marshy area. It was not to be – the course led up well around a marsh, then gradually up a hill – just gradual enough for me to run it – a lot of other people walked it which made a difference I think. It was an area of quite dense forest and not many ground features, such that if you made a mistake, it would take a long time to relocate. So I’m thankful I didn’t! The extract shows the nicest part of my course, as we come down into a pleasant wooded glade. The short leg shown was one of my best splits of the six days. The course then went steeply up hill to another “bingo” control that I thankfully spiked, before hurtling down straight-forwardly to the finish. By the time I got to the high bit, I knew I was on course for a great run, so I put on even more speed, so much so that I didn’t have enough energy for a traditional sprint finish. A good thing perhaps as the finish route led along a busy road and down a steep bank.
Day 1, Cambus O’May