Starting at the car park at Finkle Street, near Wortley, a walk along the Trans Pennine Trail to Oxspring and back. Just over 10km. The path is really well maintained, mainly tarmac, although there are a couple of sections at the Finkle Street end that get churned up by trail bikes and horses so would be very muddy after rain.
Quite a boring section of the trail, mainly tree lined the whole way so the views are restricted, although there are many intersections with public footpaths and bridleways so lots of scope for making loops out to the farmland and hill.
It was about 9am when I started and there were a lot of trail runners, bikers, dog walkers, horse riders and many families doing bike rides in the sun.
I was going to go on to Penistone but found the path quite boring despite the people around ! so did a loop of Oxspring village and back to the start.
Main point of interest along this section was the tunnel at Thurgoland, sound of horses clip clopping there way through was loud !!!.
Best part of the morning was the ice cream sold at the farm shop in Finkle Street, I didn’t check the flavour though as I just stuck my hand in the fridge and picked out the first one. Turns out it was Lemon and Ginger, nice but not what I was expecting with the first mouthful. Our Cow Molly.
Walk along the canal to and around Pennington Flash nature reserve.
Really great day for walking if slightly warm, mix of canal towpaths, muddy paths through the woods and tarmac roads. Started from the park at Dover Bridge, had a couple of stops around the flash to watch the wildlife. There are some hides around the lake but unfortunately they have been closed since the pandemic kicked in,
Very peaceful walk but it was early, just a few dog walkers and bike riders. Families were just starting to arrive at the flash to enjoy the facilities,
Was going to do an eight miler round Stocks reservoir but my back and right hip were playing up, so just did a few miles out and back from the car park. Will have to return as it was a quiet area (only myself at the car park pre 8am) with outstanding scenery.
Stocks reservoir and the moorlands are in an Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) and Special Scientific Interest (SSI). There are lots of things to do here, especially hiking, trail running, biking and viewing wildlife. There are quite a few active farms in the area, mainly sheep and I passed a couple of places selling eggs on the minor roads along with honesty boxes and suggested donations.
A nice lunch time walk along the canal to Haigh Hall park and back, a bit overcast with sunny spells and quite warm.
Love these barges, once thought about living on one of these when I was in London but the rent and moorings fees were way too much for me at the time (30 odd years ago). Only thing about them is you have to be really organised as they are very narrow, but chugging up and down very slowly waking to a different view every day appeals.
With just under a year to go until the Cateran Yomp 2021 I will class this short walk as my first training walk. Actually did this to add a few kilometres on the #100for100 challenge. It is the 100 year anniversary of the Royal Signals this year and has all the phsyical get togethers, events, reunions etc have been cancelled due to Coronavirus there are a few virtual challenges and events running.
Metrics as recorded by Garmin Vivoactive 3, nice walk around the reservoir with a brief walk up to the cliffs above. Couple of breaks for water etc on the way around.
After the 2020 event was cancelled due to the covid pandemic and deffering due to an heel injury for the 2021 event I am hopefully finally Going for Gold at the Cateran Yomp 2022, raising funds for ABF – The Soldiers’ Charity. If you stumble across this any support you may offer will be gratefully accepted. Or sign up yourself and come enjoy Scotland in June.
I did volunteer at the September 2021 event and despite spending 9 hours in a field in the middle of rural Scotland it was a really enjoyable event. Lots of tea and snacks made the time fly, The participant and volunteer numbers were well down on previous years but £400000 was raised for the charity which was great,
So time to dust off the boots and start training again.
Lucky old me won a pair of socks courtesy of Trail Walking magazine and Bridgedale.
2.3 miles to the base of the hill leading up to the temple complex., set off early but was still baking by the time I got there.
You can get horse rides on this beach, most of the horses are at the town end of the beach. Bit like Blackpool and the donkeys really, but hotter.
A few small stalls on the way up , so stopped off for a welcome Watermelon shake.
Made a donation and carried on, there were a number of donation boxes throughout the temple complex to help feed the cats, dogs, dogs and cats , and monkeys. Funnily enough I only saw 1 cat, no dogs, lots of monkeys though.
Lot of steps on the journey, more bloody up.
A few shrines on this part of the hill, there were people praying so did not want to take photos, but not a lot to see really. Except for the monkeys 🙈🙉🙊. There are lots of them, but they do not bother you at all like other places. In fact they try and avoid you where possible, they seem quite shy at having photos taken. When I raised the camera to get them face on they just turned away, guess they do not have Instagram.
I wanna be like you.
View from the other side of the hill. A European drowned and was dragged out of the water on this beach, about an hour after the photo was taken. Saw online he may have been Italian and possibly suffered heart attack. I have been on this beach before and it is quite shallow and no current so swimming is not hard there, so maybe just the heat got to the guy. The white temple is the most scenic part of the complex, but my camera battery was just about done. Also it was more up and I was getting hot and tired so just headed downhill.
At the bottom of the hill there is a small fishing village and fish market, lots of restaurants with that days catch and tanks full of crabs, prawns and other weird looking things. If you are not too keen on the smell of fresh fish you wouldn’t like this place. Bit early to eat so I carried on to find the Songthaew back to Hua Hin.
I had a soda water at one of the small shops and to ask the way, the servers in there couldn’t decide the best/quickest way to the station. So took the majority decision on the route by a show of hands.. .i.e who thinks left then right, who thinks right then left ?
They voted the wrong way in the end (a bit like Brexit) and the route took me back to the beach, down a bit, back inland and along. But 15 minutes later here it is.
10 minutes and 24 pence later I was in Swensons cooling down with a Strawberry and Banana ice cream.
Had dinner at a local Thai place in town, Panang curry. It was spicy, salty and sweet but no nuttiness as there is supposed to be. Could taste the lime in the curry sauce though. Also no veg in the curry, I think they were cutting corners. £3.50 with the beer.
Had a few more beers at a couple of bars and then had a coffee at Starbucks before getting a taxi back to the hotel.
Couldn’t decide if I wanted an iced black coffee or a hot black coffee, so the waitress persuaded me to try this thing. I am a sucker for a nice smile. First time I have had anything but black coffee for years, the sun must be getting to me. Iced Salted Caramel Frapuccino and cinammon bun I think.
Haven’t done much last couple of days except eat and swim. The pool has been very quiet and apart from a few kids using the paddle pool area I have been pretty much alone there. Most of the guests in the hotel are Asian so not sure if it is just a cultural thing about the pool.
Keep coming across different weird models in the hotel, also stumbled across a small pool with 5 or 6 terrapin/turtle things in it. Thought it was just a model until they started moving. Not very big pool and the poor things were trying to get out so cannot be too happy there….. do not like to see this kind of thing in a hotel.
The Bluport mall has a good selection of restaurants, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Laos, Pizza. etc some quite cheap and some expensive. The usual suspects are also here, KFC , Burger King, Starbucks etc.
There is a small food court area serving street food type dishes, this is usual for Thailand shopping centres. These are cheap. Had a quick walk through with my phone but will try and get a better video with my camera later in the week.
Had roast duck, roast pork and crispy pork belly with rice in some kind of gravy for £1.56, also came with a small bowl of broth which was tasty. I think the dark sauce was Hoi Sin with green chilli. Was sweet but not very spicy. Mango and sticky rice with coconut cream sauce for afters, my favourite (one of many) £1.20 for the dessert.
The card on the tray is the payment card, you load the card with cash at a kiosk and then use the card at the different stalls. You can keep using the card until it expires (not sure how long they last), anything left on the card you just cash in when ready.
Kit Kat in a bun, who would have thought.
The take away salad bar puts Morrisons to shame.
There is a 6 screen cinema in the mall, all the screens are showing the new Avengers movie. It is forecast rain in the afternoons for next few days so may give it a go.
Hotel restaurant was quite lively yesterday so had tea/dinner there. Spicy seafood fried rice (prawn, squid, mussels, clams) and some Thai fishcakes.
Took the minivan from Kanchanaburi to Hua Hin, costs about £12. You can get it cheaper by buying at the bus station but booked it at an agent as they arranged pick up from the guesthouse to the station. Took just over 4 hours in total.
Staying at Sailom Hotel, about 2 km out from the centre but easy enough to get to when needed, There are regular Songthaews running up and down the main road outside the hotel, cheap and easy to use. The hotel is right on the beach, has a cooling breeze off the ocean, it is a very quiet spot and even has some English channels on the tv. Rooms are a bit dated but are comfortable and the mattresses are not too firm. Don’t think i have mentioned but a lot of places, especially budget end, have very firm mattresses. In fact some of them are like sleeping on concrete, I don’t mind but can be a bit concerting if you fling yourself face down on the bed and don’t bounce.
Had the pool to myself yesterday afternoon, nobody else used it in the couple of hours I spent there. There is another smaller pool that had a few people around it. Think i will spend he morning at the pool again if it stays quiet.
Ate in the hotel yesterday and it is a bit pricey so will go out later today to find somewhere that has cheap eats.
Not a bad location for the included buffet breakfast though.
Bluport mall is 5 minutes walk away and will have all the usual mall facilities, expect there will be a cheap food court there so will check it out. Maybe go down the bar street tonight and pick up something cheap and cheerful, also some food. There is always street food in the bar streets.
Go with Brian 