Rambling and Right of way

I decided after a week of fitness that I would go out for a walk today as it was my afternoon off. I had bought a book of walks for the motorist which was very useful, as it had a circular walk and clearly identifies where you can park your car. Unfortunately today, even though it is the 5th March I was beaten by Snow! yes i did say Snow!.

Not wanting to be beaten and the roads locally clearing nicely due to a bit of Spring sunshine, I chose a walk I knew of but had never really done fully before (which wasnt in the book by the way). It was starting in Westward Ho! by the Braddicks owned Elizabethan pub and then following the coast Path towards Bucks Mills (Bideford bay area). The ground for the first mile is tarmac but then goes to open land and obviously with the weather it was very wet underfoot. I had my new ish North Face trainers on (only wore on the high street), but really should have opted for boots given the conditions. Anyway the sun was out and at one stage I even had to put my sunglassess on (though this was short lived), and I also decided a hat would be a good thing too.

After plodding on at a nice pace and not seeing hardly anyone I was enjoying the walk, I had set Runkeeper up (my Iphone Application) and that had picked up the GPS and was following my route. The only person I came across was a Mountain Biker with 3 dogs not on a lead, who sped past me as I started and again when he was on his return. He had no consideration for other path users and on both occasions I had to give way to his dogs that were taking up the whole path. If you are reading this Mate then have some respect for others!

I came to a signpost in a particularly boggy area after I had already navigated many others, which told me I had done 2 miles, there was 4 miles to Bucks Mills and 1 mile to Abbotsham(if I came off the path). Unfortunately as you read on I made the wrong decision here and decided to head off the path and do a circular route, hoping to pick up one of the other footpaths around Abbotsham and come back on.

Anyway this footpath brought me into a village area of a few houses which I think was called Green cliff, by now very wet and muddy I had taken my eye off the surroundings. I followed the road for a little way, then as you can see if you look at my map, (http://bit.ly/TeQ4V) around the 3 mile point, I had a little detour. It had a footpath sign on the farmers field so I could see in the distance a well worn path going up the hill and through a gate which would take me back onto the cliff path. So I follow the path and nothing! it comes to a fence, no method of getting across and no sign of any further paths which lead to the one I saw at the start of the path. So back I trudge. A little stop on a farmers gate to take some nice picturse of the fields and to have a quick coffee from my flask and I'm moving again.

Onto the road, I end up by the paper shop / post office / shop in Abbotsham I know where I am now, driving this road very regulary (its always a pain in this village as school / church goers park either side of the road for about 200m and its very difficult to see something coming the other way. I'm suprised someone has never been hurt here). I'm drifting, Through the village I have a plan now as I said I know the area reasonably well, but I am distracted by another one of those footpath signs aaaarrrgggghhh!

Anyway I take the road which looks like someones drive and go down it, this can be seen on the map around the 4 mile point where I go off road in zigzags. There was a stlye so over I go and through the field where the next gate the farmer had put up a sign saying it was this way the path and for the Ramblers association not to be so pig headed and take the sign down spoiling other walkers routes. (obviously been probs there before). I walked in the direction getting extremely wet in my feet as it was the bottom of the field so alot of the water had settled there, another style over I went a little way and a gate? The gate gave no indication that was the next part of the route except for a Devon County Council sign saying keep dogs under control, but a look at the field which was all cut up said you are going no further!

I took a path which lay between the two fields I walked and headed on, a signpost stating that I would soon end up in Cornborough which again is not far from my destination. I also thought I could get back onto the cliffs from here as in my running days I used to take a route from Westward Ho! to Cornbrough and beyond ending up at a footpath leading to the cliffs. As I was walking down the road again, I bumped into 2 Farmers rescuing a lamb and mother who had done a runner from their field, exchanged small talk and they went on in the motorised jeep thingy whilst I walked on. A downhill stretch was most welcome even though to get to the cliffs I knew I would have to go up at some stage. At the bottom of the hill the road was flooded for about 50 metres (deep water) , it was at this point I thought cheers farmers for warning me the road was flooded ahead. With nothing else to do but gingerly cross and hope it wasnt to deep, I did just that, luckily the water only coming up to my ankles but swamping my feet all the same.

I had to take a picture at this point, along with emptying the water out of my shoes and wringing the socks out.

I walked on then getting to Cornborough and the row of posh houses there, I went into one of the closes looking for a route down the cliff and found a pathway between two houses, unfortunately as you can see at mile 5 it was a wrong turn, the path led to a field which was fence and a sign saying trespassers will be prosecuted miserable gets! Further down the road when it looked like all would be in vain and I would have to walk on the road all the way back, I saw another footpath sign! Now I can hear you saying youve had no luck so far so stay on the road. I had to try one more time and if it worked it would cut a mile of the journey.

Anyway through a gate I go and I find myself on National Trust property Kipling Tors and a path going down the cliffs RESULT! The picture shows the view from the first clearing, the path was steep and very slippy as the sun hadnt melted any of the snow, it was also quite dangerous in the fact the snow had also brought down many of the gorse bushes and in places the path was blocked. So if anyone in the National Trust is reading this, then Kipling Tors needs sorting out! This brought me down to the caravan park oppostite the Elizabethan pub and my Car waiting paiently for me, unfortunately due to lack of planning it didnt have any claen trousers or a fresh pair of socks but it did have some clean trainers and it was warm to get the rest of my coffee inside me.

All in all an adventurous walk, with more challenges than expected, maybe I should purchase a map so I know where these rights of way are. I will say though that after going down dead ends although the farmers have to allow you through, they sure make it difficult for you to find your'e way.

Another lesson learn't is the fact that however small a walk you are planning it may not always turn out like that, and some spare clothing should always be carried.

NEBOSH Exams

Two posts in one evening, well I wanted to finish off my Amsterdam ramblings especially as there may be more travels coming up again soon, and the second post I just had to tell of my passing the NEBOSH exams.
I recieved the results on Friday and could not believe what I was reading. It said Pass.... well if you look back to October, November and December posts when I was doing the courses, you will see I was not very confident of any success. It was all new to me and even the Fire Certification which I had done lots of in the Navy wasnt the same in civvy street. Anyway I got on with them and did answer all the questions on the papers, which probably saw me through in the end.
The first paper which is the General paper NGC1, I needed 45 for a pass and got 49 phew!, the second paper the Fire Certification, I needed 45 again and got 52 phew x2! and finally the practical exam in which we had no practice I needed 60 and got 62 phew x3!, I knew it would be hit or miss on the practical as I misunderstood the requirements of one of the reports and listed many many things which I felt were wrong with the Hotels Fire safety, I still stand by those and would not be comfortable staying there again as it a hazard waiting to happen. Anyway the paper, it turned out required me to note the precautions which were in place at the hotel and then recommend how they could have been further improved, so I missed a whole chunk of marks in that area which leads me to think the rest of that practical was pretty good.

Still a pass is a pass, I have contacted a few of the other students and two so far are really pleased with their distinctions, and the rest like me happy to have got through.

My next decision is whether to sign up with the governing body IOSH and get some letters after my name? I know its more than that, in fact the letters mean very little these days its the rest of the package that comes with it and the chance for further personnel development. It is a pricey annual membership and I have in the past been a member of the City and Guilds when I recieved my Licentenship in Engineering, when I passed all my qualifications and management experience onto them. I dont think I really gained much out of that, and this then leads me to wonder whether the IOSH would be any different.

I know the qualification and all the struggle to acheive it will be wasted if I dont stay current, but could I stay current by being active on the HSE web site and ensuring I read the right literature and attend there frequent free seminars? Or would it be better to network within the IOSH and get more out of it, than I did with City and Guilds? It is a choice and one I will be investigating fully, there isn't many people I can talk too with my thoughts but as Twitter seems to be a very good networking tool, I may try my luck on there. Anyway I shall look forward to my certificate arriving soon and will now insist that those at work call me the Health and Saftey Officer ...lol, I may even push the boss for a rise though I think that may be pushing things too far.

More about Amsterdam

Although it was last weekend when in Amsterdam, I hadnt really finished writing about some of the attractions there. A weekend can sometimes not be enough, with so much to do and we filled our weekend up without doing anything cultural. Museums are a plenty and situated well within easy walking distance of either the tour bus or the canal stops.

As already stated the tour bus had many attractions that came packaged with it, and as I said some better than others. One of the really good ones was the Amsterdam Diamond Museum, i am going to put a small video clip, which has some highlights on it, but it is not of brilliant quality. I bought a handheld cam corder just before I went to Amsterdam and as the budget was tight, purchased this little Toshiba , which records directly to SD card, however it is of poor quality and I have as yet been unable to edit the clips as I wanted. I think for my next trip, I will go back to my trusty DV tapes as I can edit those and the quality is higher.
Anyway have a look at the inside of the diamond museum, the dark bit at the end of the clip is a room shaped with mirrors which trys to give you the impression of looking at the different facets of the diamond. One of the factorys in Amsterdam is now producing diamonds of 121 facets which is an amazing feet of workmanship ( unlike my video recording).

Next door to the bus tour ticket shop is a Vodka Museum, yes Vodka museum, it is in the package funnily enough and if you wanted to see it as a one off, it would cost 7 Euro each. What a load of rubbish that was and if you are tempted dont bother unless you are a complete Vodka spotter. The only item of interest I saw in there was a bottle of Vodka shaped as a Kalashnikov rifle ( as they say in Full Metal Jacket or something like that the prefered weapon of our enemys).

A couple of shops further on than that was the Sex Museum which if you can get in without any giggling school kids being in there, is actually a very interesting exhibition and not as seedy as you would imagine. It has a couple of tacky items a mock up of an outdoor urinal found on the corner of many European streets with dummies of a prostitute and a policeman doing naughties in there, but other than that there is an interesting array of sex through the ages exhibitions in pictures and items. It is interesting to note that things don't seem to have changed much at all through the years except for maybe the amount of body hair in theose personnal places! There is one area where they cover some of the more extreme sexual activities, bondage, animals and wrong holes but it is clearly marked and you can avoid if you want. They also have a nice Vespa outside, which is the transportation of my dreams if I was allowed!

The last attraction I'm going to tell you about is the House Boat museum, unfortunately we had some problems finding it, in the fact that we we were sure we saw it on the canal after Anne Franks Huis. so we got the tram to the area then walked along the canal looking for it. After about an hour an no house boat, we checked the tourist guide and saw it had an address, we was on the right street but at the wrong end of it aaaaahhhh! Feet were very sore after all the weekends walking but after a pit stop in a local hostelry for toastie and Heineken we were refreshed to walk further up the canal. I have to say it was well worth it, the houseboat was well furnished and had lots of interesting artifacts and a nice slide show of different houseboats. It was quite reasonable in price and cheaper than the Vodka museum. The picture is of Row coming of the boat which was suprisingly spacious inside and for someone my size I could still stand up in there.
Well hope you enjoyed mini tour of Amsterdam, We did go to the Red Light area one evening and what was suprising was how pretty all the ladies in the windows were. Its a seedy area though and not one I enjoyed staying in too long. I dont know what sort of pressure the girls are under to work there, but the night previous to our visit, a prostitute had been murdered, there was flowers by what I assumed was her window, but suprisingly only the immediate windows in her area were empty, the rest were all working! You would assume that there is some pressure on them to work even when one of their colleagues is dead which is sad.