The Steppingley Step

Managed a 12 mile walk on Sunday 17th – my first walk of any significant length for a while – when Steve, Hai and I completed the local LDWA’s ‘Steppingley Step’. The other route options besides the 12-mile route were an 18-mile route and a 26-mile route, but 12 miles is about my limit for an enjoyable day’s walk; much over that crosses over into slog/endurance event. Matthew did the 26 mile route, in only about an hour more than we took. Let’s not ponder that one.

The ‘Steppingley Step’ was one of the LDWA’s Challenge Events. Matt has been a member of the LDWA for several years; I did join for a year a while back and went on one walk with the group in early 2018, but didn’t pursue any more walks with them, feeling that the pace they set was a bit fast for me. Also, the walk I went on, of 14 miles in length, was on the shorter side for them; many of their walks are in the 18-20 mile range. Matt had drawn our attention to the ‘Steppingley’ event and I did fancy a walking challenge, not having done one for a while, so signed up. Steve tried to interest a few more people in the office; several did express vague enthusiasm but then failed to sign up in time.

The walk started from the village hall in Barton-le-Clay in Bedfordshire – no idea why this village in particular; perhaps one of the organisers lives there. The 12 mile route headed initially west from Barton before turning south to climb the hill (and steps) up the Sharpenhoe Clappers (this, along with several other hills in the vicinity, seems to be owned by the National Trust). Then across fields to the village of Harlington, and across more fields to Westoning, where the checkpoint was. Then northeast towards Pulloxhill and then back southeast across more fields back to Barton.

We were supplied with various instructions beforehand about things we had to bring, including a compass – I did buy one a while back, but have struggled to make sense of how to use it so was glad that this didn’t turn out to be necessary. The reason it wasn’t necessary was that the route organisers supplied both a GPX file and an amazingly detailed route description – snip below. Despite appearing at first glance to be written in some sort of code, it proved invaluable on the ground.

We knew the three of us were likely to make fairly slow progress so had resigned ourselves to lagging in the rear. In the first half of the route we were joined briefly by a chap who turned out to be the back marker (we hadn’t known there was going to be one) and warned us that we couldn’t fall behind him or we’d get disqualified, and we’d also be disqualified if we failed to make the checkpoint at Westoning before it closed at 11:30am or (we hadn’t known this and had assumed it would just mean we’d miss out on tea and biscuits). However, after pausing to check in with base, he stopped tagging us so I assume he was told that the rules weren’t quite as draconian as he’d been assuming.

Although I’d initially been confident that we’d reach the checkpoint in good time (having left Barton around 08:15am), we in fact only just made it before it closed – as we reached Westoning I tried to speed up discreetly without appearing to chivvy the other two (not sure that came off). Thankfully the volunteers at the checkpoint (another village hall) were lovely, ticked off our numbers and allowed us to sit down for 15 minutes or so while they cleared up around us. They did offer us all the remaining biscuits given that we were officially the last people through, but we stopped at a restrained fistful of Jaffa Cakes each.

Us at the checkpoint at Westoning Village Hall

Think we made it back to Barton for about 2:30pm. We each got one of these certificates for participating.

The building pictured on the certificate is the Pulloxhill water tower, which we passed on the walk - in fact we stopped beside it briefly to consider its potential for conversion to a desirable residence.

The Pulloxhill water tower

The weather was lovely – cool but not raining – but after all the recent rain the (many) fields we had to cross were extremely muddy underfoot, with that clay-type mud which clings to your boots and hampers lifting your feet. By the time we finished I think I was carrying half my own body weight in clay. On that note: Steve wondered whether the village name 'Barton-le-Clay' was of French origin and had something to do with keys (Barton le Clef?), but actually the Wikipedia page has it that Barton was recorded in the Domesday Book as ‘Barton in the Clay’, which would seem to sum up the area quite accurately.

A clayey field towards the end of the route

Here's the route as the GPX file displayed it (I managed to scupper MapMyWalk tracking):

New flooring; long distance walkers; breakdown cover

New hallway flooring and built in mat area

As of January this year, we have super new flooring in the living room and hallway at the house (and the same purchased for the dining room, though not laid as yet). We’ve subsequently moved Ruth’s bookcase into the living room and I have to say it does round off the room quite nicely. We managed to have a bit of a purge of books and a consignment of some others to the attic. Spirited little Harley has now mastered the new flooring and is able to come skipping into the living room of an evening, though Catherine Howard hasn’t.

In January, went on my first walk with the Beds, Bucks and Northants section of the Long Distance Walkers Association, after joining on Matthew’s recommendation and in a fit of New Year enthusiasm. Mustered with Hai, Matthew and a cluster of LDWA members (a few around my age, but most of them older) in the car park of The Caldecotte on a particularly awful morning of cold sleety rain. The walk leader had changed the route on account of the weather, so in the end we ended up going for a walk up around Caldecotte and Willen Lakes and Campbell Park – pleasant, though mainly territory that I know quite well already so perhaps not as interesting as it could have been.

The weather got progressively worse as the walk went on, becoming a semi-blizzard at one point. We huddled in a bandstand by Willen Lake to eat our sandwiches. Was glad of the flask of hot tea I’d brought with me. A brisk pace was set by the group members; I certainly felt well exercised afterwards. Total distance 14 miles.

Mustering at the start. Me third from left

Lunchtime sleet

 By the MK Rose. Me centre of pic with red rucksack. Think that was Hai on the left

Our group in Campbell Park. Me second from right

Walk route, showing start and end by Caldecotte Lake

Being a cautious type, have had breakdown cover for all of my driving life, albeit some of it as an extra name on Ray’s cover. Always with the AA until this year, when Ruth persuaded me that the AA was expensive and I should shop around. Indeed the renewal quote I got was quite expensive, but with hindsight what I should have done was phone them assertively and ask if they could do me a better offer. However, didn’t do this and Ruth found me a – certainly much cheaper - quote from Green Flag via a price comparison site, which I took up, albeit with some reservations about how many vans Green Flag actually have, whether they are indeed a proper breakdown service etc etc.

Having done the above, irony happened. A week before my AA cover was due to expire, I had occasion to call the AA. Started to back out of parking space at the OU and immediately suspected that all was not right with the car on account of the loud banging coming from its front end. After attempting to inspect car myself for trapped branches etc, gave up and used the AA’s delightful app to report a breakdown. How much simpler is that than in the old days, when you had to ring and attempt to explain where you were (well, and find a phone as the first step, in my earlier driving days). Got a pretty much immediate response from the app to say someone was on their way, and was able to track the progress of the AA vehicle from its starting point (somewhere near Bradwell Abbey) to where I was. AA man quickly diagnosed a broken nearside suspension (coil) spring and informed me that it was “a recovery job”.

Quite a long wait subsequently for the recovery vehicle, though once he'd arrived the nice driver did allow me to sit in his cab to warm up. Warned me that the hooking up of my car and towing it to the garage of my choice was going to be a slow process, so left him with my keys and called a taxi home.

Called Anglos the following morning to double-check that they did indeed have my car. The resulting bill to replace the spring was around £120, which I didn't consider too bad. Have actually never had to be towed before, so not bad going over the course of c. 30 years. The AA man theorised that broken springs are often caused by speed humps, though I blame all the damn potholes.

After this positive eleventh hour experience with the AA, am now with Green Flag. Huh. Thankfully the car has been fine so far, but my experience of GF has already been tainted due to the fact that, as I took out my cover via a price comparison site, I don't have access to the Green Flag smartphone app. As I had been considerably impressed by my first use of the AA's app, this is extremely annoying. Haven't quite decided whether to cancel my cover and crawl back to the AA.