I
felt a tad rough when I woke this morning. Perhaps quite so many pints of “Snow Top” at 6% ABV wasn’t such a good idea.
As
I read Facebook over brekkie I saw an old colleague had died. I first met Alan in the year 2000. I can’t pretend that we hit
it off right away. But for ten years there was a mutual acceptance. In 2011 I
had one of those episodes when (to coin a
phrase) I found out who my friends were. People with whom I’d worked for
years sharpened the knives and stuck them in my back. Alan didn’t. He surprised
me. He looked out for me. I knew he’s been ill, but he’d only been retired a
few years; he deserved a little longer really.
Facebook
is useful for finding out things like that.
However
on the more negative side one of the committee members of the Geocaching
Association of Great Britain was stirring shite on a national Facebook forum,
and those who should have known better were fuelling the squabble. I also saw
that an ex-friend (who has fallen out
with several people) was giving the arrogance to a local Facebook page.
Why
do people delight in these arguments?
We
got ourselves and the wolfpack together, and drove into London. We wanted a
decent dog walk, but this time of year so many places will be mud and swamp.
We’ve had our eye on the Green Chain Walk for some time. It’s a linked system
of open spaces between the River Thames and Crystal Palace Park supported by
the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich. There’s all
sorts of tarmac-ed footpaths linking loads of different public paths, and some
decent fellow had hidden over fifty geocaches on a circular route along the
way.
In
the week I posted on the Internet to see if anyone would be up for a walk. There
were people who wanted to come along, and by one of those co-incidences which
make life such fun, we met two fellow hunters of Tupperware just as we were
starting.
Seven
of us (and my two small dogs) had a
rather good walk. Bearing in mind how cold it was, Fudge didn’t have a choice
about his coat. For once I stood up to the little pup and he wore it(!) There was very little up or down
compared to our usual walks. There was incredibly little mud, but I managed to
fall over in what little there was. As we walked we saw squirrels and
parakeets, and even an urban fox shamelessly going into someone’s garden. As we
walked through one woodland area we found a bra and knickers laying on the
ground. Things must get racy in Downham. Because the route went through public
parkland we were able to find a table and benches for our picnic lunch; that
made things easier, even if Treacle did insist on climbing all over the table.
There
are a few
photos of our walk here.
Geocache-wise
this was an excellent walk. Having fifty-plus caches at minimum distance apart clocked
up the numbers. And the hides weren’t “another-film-pot-under-a-rock”
but a mixture of caches, some of which were rather challenging. Usually I
wouldn’t consider so many targets on a winter’s day (wanting the longer summer’s days for this) but this route was ideal
for today. We found all but one of what we were looking for; and a quick email
correspondence with the chap who’d hidden them made it quite plain that the one
that had eluded us has gone missing.
This
walk really is what geocaching is all about. We met new friends, and who would
think you could walk nine miles in countryside in the suburbs of London?
The
plan for the evening was to go down to the Festival of Lights in Cheriton, but
by the time we’d got home, had a shower, fed the dogs and fed ourselves, time
was pushing on. It had been cold whilst walking today; my nose had only just
stopped running. I didn’t want to get it running again. My hip was a tad
painful from where I’d taken a tumble earlier, and with an early start planned
for tomorrow, a night in front of the telly was in order…
I
wonder what’s on?
