Rosedawn Ramblings

A beautiful location, almost perfect running weather (just a bit too warm), a course that really suited me and a goal achieved – I loved this race! Lake Vyrnwy is located about 2 hours away from Stoke-on-Trent, and about 20 miles over the border into Wales, with most of the journey along winding country lanes. But it was definitely worth the trip. It has a very interesting history, and there is a lost village under the lake, which was created with the construction of the dam in the 1880s (see http://www.lake-vyrnwy.com/ ). The race started on a lane in the hamlet of Abertridwr – there were hundreds of runners crammed into a very small space and we didn’t really know the race had started until the people in front started moving. It was a slight downhill and then the only real uphill section on the course – just less than a mile up to Lake Vyrnwy. Running Route It wasn’t too much of a climb though (nothing like Anchor Road) and soon we were emerging from the tree-lined road and...

When I read Cheryl Strayed's  book " Wild " (now also a film with Reese Witherspoon), I was very much inspired by her story of walking the Pacific Crest Trail , up the west coast of the USA. The sheer scale of the endeavour, with most of her time spent on her own just walking with one foot in front of the other, was mind blowing. I'm not sure it made me want to walk hundreds of solitary miles, but it did make me wonder what was possible and what I'm capable of doing. Fast forward a couple of years, following an amazing trip to Australia and New Zealand (which looked like this):  Then illness, an operation, injury and a bit of exercise apathy. I needed a new challenge, something to distract me and something to get me fit again (lots of holiday cake to be exercised away). I've started playing netball again - go Team Knights - which has helped me with my fitness and has been brilliantly sociable. I've been making hundreds of cards for Rosedawn ...

I'm feeling a little bit lost. After all those weeks of travelling and running in different, interesting and sometimes exotic locations, we're home again now. The last place we ran before coming home was Victor Harbour... It looked like this: Whilst away, I ran regularly but never more than 3 or 4 miles at a time, so home again, I set myself the goal of gradually increasing my longest runs each week. I was even quietly contemplating an autumn marathon. I built up over 3 or 4 weeks to a long run of 10 miles and was feeling positive. And then came  back down to earth with a bump after an unexpected visit to my GP resulted in surgery under general anaesthetic less than 24 hours later. Wounds are healing and pain is receding but I'm not allowed to run. It's been 3 weeks and counting... Grumpy to say the least.  So what to do? How to keep myself occupied and not just sit and eat chocolate all day?  I've been doing as much walking as pain levels and gener...

Time is about to be called on Big Trip 2015. We're at our final destination and have just a few days left of our travels to enjoy. We spent the Easter Bank Holiday weekend in Adelaide. It felt a little strange being back in a city, with traffic and people and shopping centres, but we managed to escape to see the sea on Good Friday - the sun shone on the first of the bank holidays as we joined an exodus from the city on the tram down to Glenelg. Blue skies, clear water, sunshine and ice creams followed by fish and chips back in the city with friends of friends... Just what bank holidays were made for! We also had time to explore a couple of museums and galleries - the South Australian Museum had an interesting exhibit with Antarctic connections which Jon got lost in for a while and I enjoyed the exhibits on indigenous arts and crafts as well. We found a Bradman exhibit at the State Library as well as a display of WW1 photos. I found an odd but definitely fascinating exhibiti...

It's been an emotional few days as we bid farewell to New Zealand and begin our journey home... and NZ said goodbye to their cricket World Cup dreams too. We travelled from Fox Glacier up the west coast to a place called Hokitika, which describes itself as the "cool little town". There was certainly something quirky about the place, which had its heyday in the late 19th century when they discovered that there was gold in "them there hills" and greenstone in the rivers. There is still gold to be found if know where to look (not a clue) and have vast quantities of dredging equipment at your disposal (which we didn't). Greenstone (also known as jade or pounamu) is now protected and can only be collected by those with a direct link to the local Maori who lived in the area before European settlement. Hokitika also happens to be the setting of The Lumineries by Eleanor Catton, which you may have read. I'm working my way through it on Audible. Given we couldn...

When we were planning our tour of the South Island of NZ, there were two places added to the list of potential destinations pretty early in the process. The first, Wanaka, was somewhere I'd visited in 2004 and it was on my trip highlights and I'd always wanted to return. The second, Lake Matheson, was an elusive destination on that same trip. I got close but never made it... time, weather and access got in the way. Compared to many other of NZ's famous lakes, including Taupo, Wakatipu and Wanaka, Lake Matheson is tiny, with a circumference of less than 4k. But it's famous nonetheless, primarily because of what you can see when you look in it, or at least what you can sometimes see...  We arrived in Wanaka after a 2 hour bus journey, on the back of our very enjoyable 27 hours in Twizel. Getting off the bus on the lakeshore, the view over the lake was much as I remembered - hills, mountains, trees and lots of activity on the lake. The only difference at first look was the...

From Wanaka to Fox Glacier An early start, we're up with the sun The hills glow eerily in the early morning light Breakfast on the lakeshore, pink in the sky Seagulls on the prowl, don't let crumbs fall. The bus arrives, luggage loaded on board A seat by the window, we've a long way to go Out past Mount Iron, then off to the North Winding round Lake Hawea, looks choppy and cold First stop Makarora, time for tea and a wee Then back on the highway that took 35 years to build Winding a course up through Haast Pass Clouds hang low in the valley, threatening and dark Crossing rivers, streams, gullies, falls and creeks Bright yellow signs proclaiming their names Surrounded by native rainforest, ancient and strong Farmland, buildings, animals and people rarely in view The clouds lift, the road turns back to the  Tasman Sea Waves crash on the shore, driftwood strewn on the beach The road climbs, Knights Point Lookout comes and goes Don't look down, the cliffs fall away steeply ...