Wild Navigating

Whilst Gem and Gubbs were on their anniversary weekend away, Saturday saw the turn of team members Julie and Jo, and support team member Jeff to have a go at completing Stage 5 of the trailwalker route, Houghton to Washington. Gem and Gubbs had completed this section previously with support team members Tracy and Peter so, as the team was split this weekend, it was the ideal opportunity for Julie and Jo to see what this part of the course entailed. It also gave Jeff the opportunity to experience some of the terrain and views that the Hardcore Four team will be experiencing in July, and also gave him a bit of of variety and a break from his cycling training for his upcoming Lands End to John O'Groats challenge!

As there is not a car park available at check point 4 (outside of the actual Trailwalker event), we parked at the nearby Amberley station and started the walk by heading on a short journey along the country lanes to the start of stage 5.

Jeff teaches Julie to map read

Now, it is not unfair to say that when it comes to directions, Julie is somewhat ‘navigationally-challenged’. It is also not unfair to say that Jo may have inherited this interesting quality from her mum! However, in order to nurture any directional skills that may be lurking in the back ground it was decided that Julie should be the chief navigator for this section of the walk. Jeff took the opportunity to use the walk as a kind of map reading/wilderness expert/Ray Mears-in-training lesson for the two main ladies in his life, passing on useful hints and tips that they could use on the day!

Things did not start out well when Jeff asked Julie to use the ordnance survey map to locate where they were currently standing, and in which direction they needed to travel. 'Orientate the map to the direction you need to go in' suggested Jeff helpfully, to which, rather than simply turning the map around in her hands, Julie decided to keep the map still and physically move herself around the map instead! After some rearranging of the map within the waterproof map cover – (which involved turning the map the right way up!), we located the route and began walking.

Support team member Jeff came along for the walk

The first section of this part of the course, as seems to be the case with most sections of the course immediately after check points, was uphill. Although the uphill section of this part of the course was no where near as long or as steep as some other section starts of the route we have experienced so far on our training walks (e.g. Gem’s nemesis Beacon Hill!). The climb was relatively long, gradual and undulating which gave Jeff the opportunity to teach Jo how to use her walking poles correctly. Apparently the most efficient way to use them is to plant each pole next to the foot remaining on the floor, where the other foot would have been, at about the mid-foot level, and to repeat this motion for each step taken. Although at first Jo struggled with the coordination of this, she soon ‘took it in her stride’ so to speak, and it did actually make the walking seem easier.

Using Amberley Castle as a land mark

The walk from this point was relatively straight, following the path and ignoring footpaths forking off the left and right, although this gave the opportunity to stop at regular intervals to check the map for any land marks we could see around us, in order to keep track of our progress and test our navigating skills. Even though both Julie and Jo found this a bit tricky to start out with, they found that if they thought about it hard enough, they were soon able to pick out copses, rivers, lakes, neighbouring hills, roads in the distance, and… sheep (although these could not be located on the map!!).

Waves of yellow flowers – spring is here!

This section of the walk really allowed us to see the change in the seasons since we began our training, and the oil seed rape fields that were green and bare in the winter months, were now bursting with waves of bright yellow flowers.

At this point of the walk we also learnt Julie’s new ‘Wild Navigation’ theory that ‘If there are puddles on one side of the path, then this means that… something, something, something’. After persuading Julie that she might need to expand this theory just slightly, she decided that ‘If there are puddles on one side of the path, then this side of the path is towards the south’. As the puddles were on the right side of the path and that was the direction of the sea, Julie decided that this was now a proven theory! Things got a little bit more complicated further on down the track though where a puddle covered the whole of the path!

Julie - The New Wild Navigation Expert

We also learnt Julie’s new International Signal for ‘Mind that Poo!’, which involves swirling your walking pole around in one direction above said pile of poo to warn walkers behind you not to step in it! Some of the other Trailwalker teams, who may be reading this blog, might just spot this signal in use during the event (handy for the night stages!).

The path was nice and easy to follow (this is probably not a stage that is going to need too much referring to the map and instructions), and we carried along until eventually we passed the huge pile of dung, which had given support team member Peter his new nickname of ‘Dr Dung’ all those weeks ago. However luckily for us, the pile had compacted itself and lost it’s smell during that time, so thankfully it now resembled a big pile of compost rather than a huge mountain of steaming s**t!

Make sure you head the right way here to avoid disqualification! 

There are a few points nearing the end of the stage that you will need to keep an eye on the instructions to follow the correct forks in the path. Probably the most important of these is the fork that is signposted one way for ‘South Downs Way A24 crossing’ and the other for ‘South Downs Way Alternative route Avoiding A24’. The Trailwalker instructions state that any team that takes the A24 crossing path will be disqualified (as this is a shorter route) – so make sure you follow the sign for the path avoiding the A24!!!

Cooking ingredients at your fingertips!

Shortly after this sign, you start your decent down across fields and through wooded copses in towards Washington. On passing through one of these copses we were hit by the overwhelming smell of strong garlic.  On turning the corner we were met by a sea of Wild Garlic covering the banks on both sides of the path. Julie and Jeff, getting in to the ‘wild navigation’ spirit sampled a few small leaves… Jo decided to eat some mini eggs instead!! For any budding cooks out there, if you’re after some wild garlic for salads, pastas etc this would be the place to come. Julie and Jo had been at a farmers market earlier in the week where one stall was selling small bunches of wild garlic for £1.50 each, which is absurd considering you can forage some of your own for free!

At the end of this section of the walk, on trailwalker night we would stay on the near side of the A24, turning right in to private farmland. We didn’t fancy getting shot at by any angry farmers for trespassing on this occasion though, so we crossed the bridge over the A24 and followed the country side lanes and footpaths along a longer route to return to Washington car park where we had earlier left a car.

The total route was 7.3 miles (a breeze compared to recent training!) completed in just less than 3 hours (due to the many map reading and navigation stops!).