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Posted: 22-04-2007 13:36 Post subject:

my mum used to do the bus thing when she lived in various places in europe

something i sometimes do is random city walking, where you mentally toss a coin at each junction (eg. think 'left!' and follow that, rather than thinking about it). I've managed to get wonderfully lost in london like that, and it's always interesting.

Posted: 22-04-2007 19:03 Post subject:

Posted: 26-05-2007 06:48 Post subject:

This wasn't entirely random travel, but is perhaps unusual enough to post here:

£2,000 taxi for afternoon with Aristotle
Fiona Hamilton

An elderly traveller who finds airports “a bit gloomy” hired a private cab to transport her to the spot where Alexander the Great studied under Aristotle – for an afternoon.

Kathleen Searles, 89, indulged her lifelong dream to visit Aristotle’s School, near the modern Greek city of Naousa, by using a minibus service from her home in Sudbury, near Colchester.

After travelling thousands of miles overland, Mrs Searles spent four hours touring the ancient landmark before turning around and heading home again, all for the fare of £2,000.

The distance covered, including some diversions on the way back, was 6,000km (3,700 miles).

The retired laboatory assistant told The Times last night that she did not object to flying but took her astonishing journey because she found airports “a bit gloomy”.

“I’m not all that enamoured with airports these days as I don’t like being taken around in a wheelchair,” she said.

“This way was extremely easy and it was door to door.”

Mrs Searles and her 73-year-old friend Wendy Turner, who lives in a nearby village, travelled to Calais by ferry, journeyed through much of Western Europe and sped through the Balkans before arriving three days later at their famous destination.

“Travelling by road was a good idea as I am rather elderly so I didn’t want to go for too long,” Mrs Searles said.

“I’ve always been extremely interested in Alexander the Great and I’ve been to Greece before but never to Aristotle’s School,” she said. “I just thought, well, if I was going to do it, I’d better get on with it.

“One could have spent a lot longer there but I think I did very well. I’ve read a lot about it so it was really just checking things out. The whole journey was most delightful.”

Mrs Searles said that she had been “distinctly struck” by the comfort of driver Julian Delefortrie’s nine-seater minibus on a recent trip to the Globe Theatre in London and had the idea of travelling in it to Europe.

Mr Delefortrie usually takes passengers to the airport or within England.

“She asked me to go to Europe and I love driving so I said I’d do it,” he said. “She didn’t want the hassle of going to the airport and she wanted to see a number of different countries, which we did.

“It was very beautiful, especially through Austria, and the motorway system in Europe is absolutely brilliant.”

He estimated that with food, accommodation and his fare of about £2,000, the cost of the trip probably reached £5,000.

The trio arrived back in Sudbury two nights ago – 11 days after they first embarked on their unique trip.

In a lightning European tour, they stopped just twice – in Munich and Belgrade.

The trip home was substantially more relaxed because it took six days. On a whim, Mrs Searles decided she was keen to tour Budapest so the tour was diverted through Eastern Europe, before also stopping in Belgrade, Austria and Germany on the journey home.

Mrs Turner described her friend, who sat in the back seat of the minibus – “like the Queen of Sheba” – as independent-minded. “It was a whirlwind trip but it was absolutely fantastic. I’d love to do it again.”

Mrs Searles has not decided on her next trip but said she would travel to Europe by road again.

The teachings of Aristotle are believed to have heavily influenced Alexander, who resolved to spread ancient Greek culture in the vast empire he subsequently carved out in modern-day Turkey, Egypt, Iran and India.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1838474.ece

Posted: 10-02-2008 22:32 Post subject:

Gnarly Old Git Completes Coast to Coast Walk!

Yes, I took advantage of the unusually mild weather yesterday to plod around the countryside. I started from Marazion (on Mount's Bay) and aimed to get to Hayle (on St Ives Bay).

The plan was to do as much of the walk as possible off-road, and to avoid main roads as much as possible. But after a mapped footpath failed to materialise where I expected it, I ended up going round three sides of a large ploughed field before I found a farm track leading to a minor road.

Soon after, I came across this unusual signpost:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/rynner/IMG_0307.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/rynner/IMG_0308.jpg

(They may have erected 1000 of them, but it's the first I've seen!)

The distance between Marazion and Hayle may be 6 1/2 miles according to the signpost, but my route was longer, because of planned and unplanned detours!

There were a couple of other Fortean-type events of interest. I passed a cottage called Chyryn, which, being loosely translated, means "Ryn's House" (which was nice!)

I had a book with me, a thriller which includes a couple of murderous twins in its list of characters. When I reached The Star pub in St Erth, the list of entertainments for the coming week also incuded a pair of twins!

My walk effectively terminated at the White Hart in Hayle, a reputed haunted hotel, which has been mentioned on this MB before.

Posted: 11-02-2008 08:17 Post subject:

The fishtail motif, both as signs and sculpture crops up occasionally on the National Cycle network. This one's on the Bristol to Bath section, appropriately enough at Fishponds:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8484/8178248093_37854cbd95.jpg

edited Aug 13 to replace defunct link

Posted: 11-02-2008 08:27 Post subject:

Interesting!

Although I didn't consciously connect the signpost with a fishtail, I did post this elsewhere just a few minutes ago:

Cormorant swallows pike:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7235464.stm

Spooky, eh! Wink

Posted: 01-05-2008 07:57 Post subject:

A capital adventure, without the capital
By Paul Stokes
Last Updated: 2:28AM BST 01/05/2008

A traveller has completed a tour of 26 European capitals without as much as a penny in his pocket - and in the process raised £1,600 for cancer patients.

Kris Mole relied on nothing but the milk of human kindness in his quest to visit the cities without paying. The 24-year-old spent 165 days being thrown off trains for having no ticket, begging lifts from passing motorists, hiking alongside motorways and living rough.

He set out on his 9,763-mile odyssey to raise money for Cancer Research UK after his aunt, Susan Proto, 56, was admitted to hospital with the illness.

She died a week into his travels, making Mr Mole, of Southwick, West Sussex, all the more determined to achieve his goal.

He made the concession of getting a ticket to Sweden then stayed with people he had contacted through websites or used his initiative to find work or lodgings as he crossed from country to country.

In Slovakia he found unpaid work as a motivational speaker at a conference, which earned him food and a roof over his head. Elsewhere he was beholden to the generosity of total strangers.

Mr Mole said: "One guy was kind enough to give me a lift, then gave me a bottle of brandy which came in useful later in the day when I had to use it as payment for a Polish man to let me ride with him to Riga in Latvia."

In Estonia a stranger bought his ferry ticket to Helsinki. There a Brighton restaurateur paid for his flight to Athens. His flight home was provided by his uncle, Michael Proto.

Mr Mole, who plans to write a book about his adventure, added: "It is hard to explain how amazing it can feel when someone gives you a loaf of bread, for example, when you haven't eaten for 36 hours."

The itinerary

1 Sweden: Stockholm

2 Norway: Oslo

3 Denmark: Copenhagen

4 Germany: Berlin

5 Poland: Warsaw

6 Slovakia: Bratislava

7 Austria: Vienna

8 Slovenia: Ljubljana

9 Italy: Rome, pictured

10 Serbia: Belgrade

11 Bulgaria: Sofia

12 Romania: Bucharest

13 Hungary: Budapest

14 Switzerland: Bern

15 France: Paris

16 Spain: Madrid

17 Portugal: Lisbon

18 Luxembourg: Luxembourg

19 Belgium: Brussels

20 Holland: Amsterdam

21 Czech Rep: Prague

22 Lithuania: Vilnius

23 Latvia: Riga

24 Estonia: Tallinn

25 Finland: Helsinki

26 Greece: Athens

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1915400/A-capital-adventure%2C-without-the-capital.html

Posted: 22-07-2008 21:14 Post subject:

On recent bus trips in West Cornwall, I had noticed a strange white building on the crest of a distant hill. I didn't know exactly where it was, and GoogleEarth didn't clarify things either, so today I resolved to try to walk there and solve the mystery. It gave a purpose to a country walk, and would take me to places I'd not seen before, although I suspected the goal of my search would turn out to be something boring like a cement factory.

I started in Goldsithney and headed east. A glimpse or two of the structure told me I was in the right area. I came to St Hilary,and it seemed from my map that I might find a footpath in the direction I wanted near the church there. (But my navigation was handicapped by the fact that my map is old and torn, and St Hilary is right on a frayed double-crease!)

But eventually I passed the Old Vicarage, and then a graveyard, and finally found the east end of the church itself. ButI couldn't locate the footpath I wanted, so I went back and around the south side of the church.

And then I literally laughed out out loud - the white building I'd been seeking was actually the spire of the church, surrounded by scaffolding which had been enclosed in some white sheeting!

According to a leaflet appealing for restoration funds, "For over 600 years the beautiful spire of St Hilary church has been a landmark of West Cornwall. The church stands on the high land between the two seas and its tower and spire have been for centuries a day mark for ships in St Ives and Mounts Bays."

There is another little mystery within the church: a Romano-British engraved stone of obscure origin. I cannot find much on the web about this at all. (The 'Constantine stone' is said to date from 307...)

All in all, a good Fortean day out! Very Happy

Posted: 03-09-2008 19:02 Post subject:

Man sails globe by throw of dice

A Hampshire yachtsman is to sail around the globe single-handedly - with his route dictated by the throw of a dice.

Rob Clark, from Liphook, said he was inspired by the novel The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart, to undertake the voyage in his 42ft (13m) Grand Soleit yacht.

In the book, a psychiatrist allows a dice to decide many aspects of his life from having affairs to what he eats.

Mr Clark said the dice would determine day-to-day movements but big decisions would be made by voting on his website.

One decision the public will make is which direction around the world the 36-year-old will sail.

Mr Clark, who runs a conference production company based in Bristol, said he decided to undertake the Where to Next? adventure because he wanted to do something new with his life.

"I got restless," he said.

"It's not a good time to run a business at the moment and I realised I was never going to be Richard Branson, never going to be a millionaire and thought it was a good time to take a sailing trip.

"This came at the same time as I was reading The Dice Man and the two things combined and evolved and I realised I could do something a bit crazy.

"The journey is literally going to be down to the dice.

"I hope it's going to be an adventurous trip and I am going to give the dice some difficult options such as going against the current and destinations which do not have ports or harbours."

Mr Clark, who is currently living on his boat at Wickham in Hampshire, intends to set sail on 21 September.

He added: "I will throw the dice for the first time on the day before and it will decide where my first port of call will be, so I can't make any plans until the dice have been thrown."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7595768.stm

Posted: 04-09-2008 11:35 Post subject:

The journeys described on this thread have a lot in common with the dérive, a version of psychogeography advocated by Debord and the Situationists. They seemed to focus on the city and man-made environment and wished to strip away the goal-oriented world of work and custom to uncover a deeper reality about the places we often inhabit without knowing.

Psychogeography seems to have many strands and factions. Here is a page of links - some seem to be dead-ends but that may be deliberate!

http://j25.org.uk/psychogeography.org.uk/

A group in Manchester have an agenda which excludes the occult. Two substantial pdf files recap some of the theory and record some of their explorations:

http://www.materialistpsychogeography.co.uk/

I think we used to have at least one poster who was involved in the earlier Manchester Area Psychogeographic project. I recall some interesting links he or she posted.

I apologize if my account of the subject is rather vague.

My own journeys are less randomized than they ought to be. With a choice of towns to visit for shopping, I decide on the basis of traffic conditions and time of day. Now and then, I will set out for a destination I do not know but I am quickly discouraged if it means heavy traffic. Getting out of the groove is often as hard in leisure-time as it is in work! Smile

Posted: 04-09-2008 13:18 Post subject:

Posted: 25-11-2008 18:28 Post subject:

I travel using a combination of wikipedia and google maps... Last night I went all the way from moscow across the trans-siberian railway, through to the russian far east, northeastern china and north korea. Interesting stuff.

Posted: 21-10-2009 08:21 Post subject:

Here's an idea:

Rock band Ash to zoom around the country in A-Z tour
Steven Morris guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 October 2009 18.43 BST

So, Aldershot does not have the glitter of Los Angeles, or the rock'n'roll heritage of Liverpool and London.

What it does have going for it, as far as the rock band Ash were concerned tonight was that its name begins with A, making it a perfect location for the first gig of an eccentric A-Z tour of Britain.

Though the band has sold millions of albums worldwide and can fill big venues in much larger towns, it has decided to spend the next month or so criss-crossing the country in alphabetical order, playing more obscure halls and clubs.

After leaving Aldershot in Hampshire, the three-piece group will head for Bradford, more than 200 miles away. Then it's on to Carlisle, Dundee, and so on.

The band will conclude with gigs at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, followed by Worcester, Exmouth for the troublesome X (a slight cheat) Cool

, Yeovil and on the final night Zennor, a remote parish near St Ives in Cornwall, where a sell-out crowd (of about 75) will pack the village hall.

There are some big old treks: after playing Falkirk, for instance, the band will face a 350-mile trip to Gloucester. Oldham to Plymouth (just under 300 miles) doesn't sound much fun and Rotherham to Swansea (more than 200 miles) probably won't be a bundle of laughs either.

The tour is the band's attempt to reach different audiences in different ways. It is not promoting an album. Instead the tour ties in with the release of the first of 26 individual songs that will be available one every two weeks for the next 12 months.

Bass player Mark Hamilton said the opportunity to try something different came after the band's deal with a major record company ended.

They had produced six "conventional" albums but decided to do something new. They set up their own independent label, aiming to keep new songs, rather than albums, coming out.

"Most people now download individual songs rather than buying albums," said Hamilton. "We wanted to put the focus on the individual track but make them very regular." The tracks are available by subscription, on vinyl and in digital format. The first, True Love 1980, has been released and is selling well.

"You have to keep the quality up. Every song's a single so they'll be scrutinised much more. You can't have album fillers," said Hamilton.

They have enough songs recorded in their New York studio ready to go. "But if we come up with a song tomorrow that we like we can record it and it can be inserted into the schedule," said Hamilton. "We can be much more spontaneous."

The logistics of the tour, though, have been a nightmare for Ash's agent and manager, Tav. Finding a place beginning with A was not a problem but the challenge came when they had to find a venue beginning with B that was free and was within striking distance of band and bus.

Tav said: "For a while it looked as if the X problem might have been insurmountable until a bright spark came up with Exmouth. They had more options for Z but plumped for Zennor. The population is something like 200. It should be interesting. As long as we can get the bus down the lanes."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/19/rock-band-ash-a-z-tour

I have connections with many of these places: my grandparents lived in Aldershot, and the Zennor Mermaid has been mentioned several tines on this MB.

Posted: 03-08-2010 23:45 Post subject:

Today and last week I've been exploring the area around the highpoint of Carn Brea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carn_Brea

The first time I attempted the walk from Camborne to Redruth. I've done this twice before, but in the opposite direction, and both times in the winter months.

I knew I had to leave Pengegon (a suburb of Camborne) by a path heading east and uphill, but I picked the wrong path - it soon shrank from suburban road to track to footpath, and the footpath became overgrown with brambles and almost impassable. Eventually I reached the top of the hill and finally reconnected to the route I should have taken.... Rolling Eyes

In the next village I found a 1957 Ford Prefect for sale (with film and TV appearances to its credit!). The last time I saw the pub there, it had a Christmas tree outside.

Later, below Carn Brea, I saw something red on the hilltop. A tent, a bungalow? Surely not! But then it lifted off, and I realised it was a paraglider! (I got several good photos.)

Later I rediscovered a footpath through Redruth which I last used maybe ten years ago...

Today I decided I'd climb Carn Brea. Despite having an OS Explorer map of the area, it was difficult to find the footpath I wanted, but eventually, in the drizzle, I reached the top, pretty wet from fighting through bracken and brambles.

The rain intensified, but I put my brolly up and within minutes it stopped! Finally the sun broke through, and the sea to the north was a most amazing blue. And I discovered for myself the Cup and Saucer rock (see link).

There were several routes down I could have chosen, but the one I took was almost as bad as the one I took up (v. steep path, wet bracken and brambles)

Eventually I arrived in familiar territory (without breaking an ankle or twisting my knee), and took another lane I'd not used for years...

I arrived at a bus stop on the main road just a minute before a bus was due back home.... which was nice! Very Happy

Posted: 04-08-2010 08:16 Post subject:

I'm off on an experimental bike-ride shortly. I know roughly where I'm going (it's out of the city), and have a destination in mind, but I'm not taking any maps and trying to avoid any main roads, just relying on my own sense of direction to see how I fare.

Will let you know my findings...