Having returned from Spain on Sunday to some pretty standard English drizzle, Monday and Tuesday were very pleasant, even if a little cool. Tuesday was our day for a U3A walk so I took the ol’ Garmin GPS along to plot our route. You can’t beat having a toy to add interest, can you? We may have had two days of dry, relatively sunny weather above ground but given the huge amounts of rain and snow that have been falling on England this winter, conditions underfoot were still bound to be disturbingly muddy.
Muddy they were, definitely a job for walking boots. I much prefer walking in dry, dusty climates where I can concentrate on the scenery. I’m frequently told that England “is a green and pleasant land”. I wouldn’t argue with that assessment but I do get a little frustrated at not being able to admire said “green and pleasant landscape” because all my concentration is taken up not slipping and falling ignominiously face-down in the mud. Nonetheless, the company was good and the pint in the pub afterwards was good.
Our circuit began and ended in Wiggington, near Tring. The GPS claimed it to have been 5 miles. When I connected the GPS to my desktop at home and downloaded the route into easyGPS, that thought it was 5.19 miles. Because of the two steps forward and one step back situation courtesy of the mud, most folks’ legs thought it was considerably further.
Just for fun (and because I can), here is a Google Earth .kmz file of our cool but sunny day out. Assuming you actually have Google Earth, clicking on it should fire it up and display our wander. (The B### waymarks are bridges on the Grand Union Canal.)
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