Off up the Nile - 24 December 2007

With Sunday's fog refusing to lift all day, the prospects for an early flight on Monday were not promising. However, the weather bods predicted clearing winds and they were correct with Monday dawning crisp and clear. Gatwick was typical pre-Christmas chaos but we departed on time in a plane full of package tour-package passengers.

Paris looked stunning from the air as did the Italian lakes, a little relief from the tedium of the 5-hour flight to Luxor. There was some delay at Luxor airport as two pieces of our party's luggage had not made it with the rest but eventually we were delivered to the MS Serenade, one of 400 cruise ships on the Nile and our home for the next 7 nights.

Dinner was a special 6-course Christmas Eve banquet followed by a 'floor show' consisting of a dancer with a swirly skirt - not a patch on the one we saw in Cairo and a very flabby 'belly dancer', again not a patch on the one we saw in Aqaba. Should anyone suggest that belly dancing was a good way to loose flab and tone the body, this lady was living proof of the fallacy of that argument.

Christmas in London - 15 & 16 December 2007

Someone has just completed some research and declared, on the basis of various measurable qualities, that London is the best capital city in the world. We feel, on the basis of a few years of experiencing it both ways, that Christmas is more suited to the middle of winter than the middle of summer and part of this impression is undoubtedly due to the fact that Christmas in London is very special.

The City Fathers and the retailers put a major effort into making London an attractive Christmas destination, as there are all manner of things to see and do, many free.

So this weekend we decided to check out some of the city activities starting with the traditional City Guilds Boat Race, part of the Bankside Frost Fayre. As we were then so close to the Tate Modern, we thought we would pop in and check out the large crack in the floor, the most recent “installation”. Although I would not put us in the class of ardent modern art appreciators, this ‘work’ is quite impressive in its delivery although I must admit that the engineer in me was more concerned with the technicalities of how it was done rather than any social comment it may have been making but, as they say, art can be appreciated on many levels.

Crossing the river we wandered up though Covent Garden where we found some aerial ‘angels’ and then to Carnaby Street, which is sporting some rather dashing ‘paper chains’ strung across it.

Hyde Park is host to a Winter Wonderland with a rather magnificent transportable Ferris wheel as well as the largest of the dozen or so ice rinks that have sprung up in London this winter.



While on our way to visit the new New Zealand Memorial by the Wellington Arch we were passed by a massed motorcycle ride of Santas. We have no idea what it was in aid of but they were certainly getting into the spirit of Christmas.

As high as a Kite - 25 November 2007

The area where today’s walk was based is a success story in terms of the restoration of the Red Kite population and it is not really a matter of whether or not you may spot one, but how many you can see at any one moment.



As we crested the ridge by Cobstone Mill there were three or four Kites cavorting in the valley below us: they really are quite magnificent flyers, having a wingspan of almost two metres.

Other wildlife spotted were the deer. For the first time we saw two deer crossing the road as we drove in, while on the walk we spotted at least another six. Unfortunately their sense of our presence is so much keener than our sense of their presence that we do not have any photos to prove they were there. However, we did manage to get a snap of a Kite soaring over the school at Ibstone as we finished the walk.

Below Cobstone Mill is the attractive village of Turville where the TV series The Vicar of Dibly is set. It is also frequently used as a set in Midsummer Murders.

Stile styles - 17 November 2007

In the six years that we have been doing country walking in the UK we have used hundreds of stiles: ladder stiles, squeezer stiles, standard wooden stiles, stone stiles, in fact we thought we had seen every stile style there was. However, today we came across our very first clapper stile. It appeared to be a standard 4-bar gate and it was not at all obvious how one negotiated it. The bars are counterweighted with blocks of wood and pivot at one side of the stile. As you put weight on the bars they simply press one another down until it is easy to step over. As you release the bars the counter-weight blocks of wood make a clapping sound as they return to their rest position.



Our circular walk from Hungerford, started along the Kennet & Avon canal. We passed two fishermen in tents, who told us they had spent the night braving sleet and snow. The temperature wasn't that great when we passed them: after the beautiful weather all week, it was disappointing.




After the walk we drove through Savernack Forest. This was the central reason for the weekend away in this part of Wiltshire. We last visited in January and discovered the 4-mile beech avenue, originally laid out in the 1790’s, which is the longest avenue in Britain. We wanted to see it again in the autumn. Although the autumn leaves have had a bit of a battering, the avenue still looked lovely.

From there we travelled south to Pewsey another pretty little town then back up to one of our favourites in the area; Marlborough.

Sunday was a total washout - so we went home.

If you go down to the woods today ... - 11 November 2007

We must have been focusing on the colours, rather than the track and instructions, as we got ourselves hopelessly lost about a mile into today’s 7-mile walk. Further on the instructions talked about the summit of Gibbet Hill so we figured we if we kept taking tracks that went uphill we would arrive at the summit. We did, but could find nothing that indicated we were there or anything that suggested this spot may have once had a gallows. Some passing cyclists told us we were not quite in the right spot, the summit of Gibbet Hill is slightly lower than the part of the ridge we had climbed to. A little further on we found Gibbet Hill and the concrete pad that marks the spot where the gallows were.

From there we worked backwards and found the trail we should have been on. Once we had aligned ourselves with the instructions we set off downhill and in less than 10 minutes were hopelessly lost again. - Must be time to hang up our boots!

Perhaps we had not actually found the track again, who knows? Fortunately the GPS was happily bread-crumbing our trail allowing us to see the direction we were meant to be heading to return to the start point so we abandoned the instructions and headed for the car. By this stage the trail on the GPS looked as if it had been made by a drunken three-legged ant.

Out in the middle of the woods, we came across a house and the lady there confirmed that we were headed in the correct direction to return to the village where the car was parked. By the time we were back at the car we had walked 4 miles and seen very little of our planned route. Next time, maybe?

There was little chance of getting lost at our next stop, Winkworth Arboretum, as the paths were well marked with numbered posts that corresponded to numbers on the leaflet we were handed as we entered.

Saturday in Sussex - 10 November 2007

The autumn colours should still have been looking great this weekend, but unfortunately a big storm swept through the UK on Thursday, and a lot of leaves must have ended up on the ground. Despite this, we still went ahead with plans to revisit several National Trust properties, in Sussex, which are known for their autumn colours.

First stop was at Sheffield Park Gardens. There was still plenty of colour, which always looks good reflected in a lake, a number of which features in Sheffield Park.

Our second visit was Nymans, which has gardens surrounding the ruins of the house. Finally we spent the rest of the day, walking around Wakehurst Place. These extensive grounds are looked after by Kew gardens, and include water gardens, and many trees. These were also looking colourful. Adjacent to the grounds is the Loder Valley Reserve. They only admit 50 people per day to walk around this reserve, and we were fortunate to be able to add this to our afternoon.

Burnham Beeches in bronze - 4 November 2007