Learning Curve

Some Test Images . 

Five Go Wild in The New Forest.

My very good friend JP hit 60 in August and retired from HM Map Factory after a long and very illustrious career.  To help him celebrate and to kick off what we hope will become a regular thing some of his old colleagues joined him in a bike ride in The New Forest yesterday. 

Some of us used to do this 20 years ago so it was good to re-visit old haunts.  We had the free-wheeling competition on Hampton Ridge, and the ritual Fording of the stream at Ogdens.  

Between the five of us we did over 175 years at Ordnance Survey and between us on Thursday we had exactly one map and no compass. Which pretty much sums things up. We stopped for Haribo along the way. 

 We did get slightly lost but the smell of beer seemed to guide us to the pub. 

A Brilliant Day 

Pulborough Paddle.................

...........................or, the HBBR voyage to seek the navigational limit of the River Arun.

The River Arun used to be connected to the River Wey by the Wey and Arun Canal. this effectively connected the capital London to the south coast and Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy, by an inland waterway.   

Officially abandoned in 1871 when it was superseded  by the railways, much of the canal sections particularly towards the Arun end have all but disappeared, however the enthusiastic volunteers of the Wey & Arun Trust have worked hard to restore much of it at the Wey end. 

Chris Partridge of Rowing for Pleasure has already reported on this trip.

 How we battled through jungles of reeds and endured untold privations to reach the pub our goal.  

We got there just before the tide so the last few yards were a bit bumpy, but we did reach the point at which the canal turned off the river. 

Not much to see now but Chris Waite is positive this is the place. 

We should have brought a couple of shovels.

You can watch the whole weedy adventure in its unexpurgated form below.