The above video is more than just a video, you can pause the player then use the controls on the right to zoom in and out, rotate and drag the map around to see the various parts of the route.
According to the various online sources the weather was going to be awful. Certainly the drive to Wales on Saturday was fraught with shiny wet roads and a bright sun low on the horizon.
Since we can be pretty sure that at least one of the three peaks in the challenge is going to be wet a little rain wasn't going to stop us from training, however we didn't especially want to get washed down the valley as we went to walk by the river and behind the waterfall.
For the tracking I used the "Map My Walk" app and other than a little data loss at the start due to human error it's recorded the track pretty well. The app claims that the walk was a little over 9 miles but if you watch the tracking above you'll see one specific part where we suddenly head in a very straight line, cutting possibly an additional half mile off.
The pace was good, a little too fast for comfort but then you need to be pushed to get the benefit out of training, this wasn't a site seeing ramble.
Walking behind the waterfall was great. I'd overheard other walkers saying that the water level for the river was quite high and that some of the caves along an alternate route were flooded, this did however may a very powerful, quite beautiful waterfall. Looking at the picture above it appears that I'm walking away from the water when actually both myself and the person taking the picture are behind the waterfall, it's a difficult picture to capture.
We didn't stop often, one 20 minute stop for lunch and a handful of stops at junctions to let the tail enders catch up and not get lost.
The pack mixed up a little, most people got their chance to lead or to follow. At one point we even had a brief climb up a rock face, maybe 12 feet high, if that but my first experience in climbing none the less. Perhaps I'll see about a visit to our local climbing wall, it may be a bit more fun without waterproof clothing and a backpack to worry about.
Come the end of the nine mile walk I was glad to see the car park!
It's an interesting mix of emotions, I had a beaming smile on my face throughout the walk but I was certainly being pushed at come points when trying to clamber up loose rock paths.
Hopefully there will be another walk over the Surrey Downs this coming Sunday.
1 comment:
it look's like a nice walk, is that a marked route or was it made up by someone who had been there before? is the waterfall named?
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