Walking Women Lake District Holiday Part 1.

Saturday 16th February

I should have dropped off the dogs at Karen's en route, but I didn't, so, of course, I was running late. My train pulled out of the station as I was passing the main entrance. I was so close the time of departure was still up on the TV screen - but had gone by the time I reached the platform. And the Station Clock was 5 minutes slow!

Eventually caught the 11o3 train to Lockerbie via Birmingham, instead of the 1022 to Carlisle and had a breakfast roll and a decent cup of coffee (I do believe us Brits have finally got the hang of making coffee!) whilst I was waiting.

This all meant I was about half an hour on my connections for the rest of the day - and missed supper and introductions at the Glaramara Centre in Borrowdale. But I did get to sup 2 and a 1/2 pints of good ale in the pub at Keswick, in front of a roaring fire, and chat to Debbie and Richard (some walkers I met) instead.

I've walked 'the mile' which is a path on top of the sea wall sandwiched between the beach and the railway line between Teignmouth and Dawlish many a time, waving at the passing trains. It made a change to be on that train watching the surf instead of paddling in it. I also saw a heron in the marshes as the train passed the Double Locks in Exeter.

Got a deal of knitting done whilst reading Stephen King's "The Good Guy" - suitably light and engrossing. Wouldn't want anything that needed concentration, particularly as a load of inebriated football supporters boarded my carriage at Crewe, waving cans of Newkie Brown, and singing very different versions of "Show me the way to go home" to the one I know. One of them must have been rude to a WPC as he got strong armed off the train at the very next stop: seemed a bit OTT as they were all quite merry and not at all belligerent. A British Rail Transport cop offered to escort me to another carriage - but I'm not at all bothered by a spot of insobriety and a few rude, boisterous songs (I've heard worse language in the labour room!). Anyway, I took my HAs out.

Coming in to Penrith, I could see mountains, hills in the distance - all a bit steeper than my beloved Dartmoor. The picture is of the ruined castle opposite the railway station, lit up by the setting sun. By the time I got off the bus at Glaramara - pleasantly tiddly and ready to socialise some more all my fellow walkers, bar a couple, had gone to bed! Dirty Stopins!

I have a room to myself here, and get to bed earlier than I have done in months. I'd forgotten my toothbrush and the sink made gurgling noises. I've decided to go 'high' tomorrow!

Woke up on Sunday 17th February to a glaringly frosty scene outside the window and peaks with snow topping. My first time in the Lake District and the weather looked to be amazing! There was a choice between a 'Intermediate' and a 'High Intermediate' walking group - so I joined the 'high' group with our guide Polly and her dog Dylan. Poor old Dylan had had to have a pin put in his back leg as a pup, and it was giving him arthritis at the tender age of 3 1/2yrs. The vets had recently operated in an attempt to remove it, and failed - but despite this he had plenty of Spring as you'd expect from a Springer - just had a noticeable limp by the end of the day and a bald patch.

Here we all are gathering outside the Centre...
WE were the largest group today, with a much smaller group walking the 'Intermediate' hike. There was a large range of ages on the holiday, with the youngest woman in her 20's and the oldest in her 70's. The majority had come unaccompanied (lots of women had left partners and children at home!) and many were returners - Walking Women's Holidays (WW) are ideal if you want organised walks with congenial company - I often like to go off on my own, but this adventure took the effort out.

The walk was fantastic: up the road to warm up, (the picture looks back at the outdoor Centre) past Stonethwaite School (lots of 'thwaites' around here) and then gradually climbing up through the trees, to open moors and icy streams tumbling down...

all the way up to Dock Tarn.

We stopped here for a midmorning snack. Then on over the hill to be confronted by glorious views.

On down the hill, with the ice making so many different sculptures for us to admire, to a frozen lake where we stopped for our packed lunch and went in to the lakeside cafe for hot chocolate. The ducks were performing that entertaining activity of trying to land on the frozen surface - digital cameras have that frustrating delay after you click the button, so I missed the action shot. There were also lots of children and grownups smashing the ice at the edge and sliding large chunks across the surface - we decided it's probably such fun because it's like harmless vandalism!

See the little teddybear above the door?

And off we go again, to walk alongside a river and into the woods...

In the woods there was a river that had to forded: some folks had trouble and got their socks wet. I crossed further back upstream - deeper water but bigger rocks!

The path led us down through a steeply wooded valley to emerge by Lodore Falls - and the Hotel by the same name, on the shores of Derwent Water. This is a picture of the falls themselves, but it was getting dimpsy and they were in heavy shade. The sheep are Herdwicks - they were all over the place. And that's a picture of the Hotel Lodore with the wooded valley that we clambered down behind it.

And so we wended our way back along the flat valley to Glaramara, with Polly tempting everyone with the bus: nobody took her up on the offer, but I wonder how many would have followed if just one had caved in? We'd hiked somewhere between 9-12 miles: Kathy and Alison tried to work it out with a map and a wheelie mileage calculator thingie later that evening. I thought it was a great walk - varied terrain, fabulous views and the weather was perfect. Even better - we've got two more days of similar walks to look forward to! WE had a good three course supper and I finished off the evening with a pint of beer (keg, but beggars can't be choosy) and knitting in front of a log fire (there were four of us knitters). You'd think I'd have slept like the proverbial log, but the room was too hot and there was a huge mirror on the wall by the bed which was most off putting - who knows what lurks in that land of Alice? I didn't figure out how to turn the radiator off until the next morning so had to resort to opening the window wide...

Thailand 2006 take six

Saturday 28th October and I'm now half way through my adventures. This Grandmother from the one of the numerous Hilltribes in Northern Thailand (Karen, I think) was on a street stall outside the Imperial Mae Ping Hotel selling lots of handcrafted goodies. I bought some beautiful embroidered purses for pressies to take home (haven't got room to carry much!). Grandmother posed with her grandson for me - isn't he just gorgeous?

A few of you Blog commenters have asked me what Hashing is. I did put a (admittedly obscure) link in Thailand take four... But from this site I quote: "Basically hashing is a form of non-competitive cross-country running with the main objective of working up a decent thirst. Great emphasis is placed on the social aspects - particularly the communal boozing session at the aprés-hash. It's a fun activity and not be taken at all seriously.

Now that we've cleared that up, on with INTERHASH! After buying the aforementioned goodies, I stroll back to EagleHouse2 to collect some laundry, then drop in a nearby cafe for breakfast and internet thrown in for a couple of quid. Then I go to catch bus to the Stadium - only to find I've missed it! Reading the programme a bit more closely I notice the last one went at 11.30hrs and it's now midday. How stoopid is that. I find a Canadian Hasher and a couple of Aussie Hashers wondering around in a similar predicament - and we join forces to share a taxi for 70Baht each.

I get on the coach for Run number 20 descibed thus: "A-B run Country lanes thr0ugh orchard area into high hills, especially the medium run. wonderful views of rice paddies and orchard, and the villages below, spectacular steep finish from the temple and wade knee deep river to the circle".

This pic is of hashers piling off coach and listening (or not) to the Hares describe the route. There were a large number of Malaysian and Aussie hashers on this one. I made the mistake of going long when I should have gone short - Shade? What shade? There were two hills to climb in the heat and humidity - the hare at the back took pity on me (and a couple of others) and showed us a shortcut skirting the second hill - so I never reached the temple, which is just as well as there were over a 1000 steps up to it and I think I'd have died... don't know why they can't just arrange down hill hashes! Despite cheating, there were still some stupendous views...

Didn't bother with wading in the river on the way back to the circle - didn't know what might be lurking in there! The circle was great - not too long. There were lots of the feral Thai dogs wondering around looking hopefully at the sandwiches which had been provided. One particularly healthy looking young dog stole a young hasher's camera and ran amok with it! Sister Michael, a scothasher who I remember from Cardiff Interhash, was also on this hash and got a 'down down' for accidentally going long instead of short - he's the guy with the enormous beerbelly girth in the fluorescent yellow/green shirt kneeling with his fellow victims in the pic. He entertained us with an aria from his amazing repertoire of bawdy tunes.

Back at the stadium, I run into several hashers from the South West of England - but STILL no Bangkok and Ferret (who, if you recall, I'd entrusted my hash goodie bag to!). I go back to the hotel relatively early and am asleep by 10pm. Hatrack, by all accounts, didn't get back until 3am because he was sharing old navy/asian memories with ex-pat buddies. I sleep in to 8am.

Sunday 29th October - last day of Interhash.Slept in until 8am. Finally run in to Ferret and Bangkok at breakfast in the hotel and collect my goody bag - Tshirts, a towel, the Interhash survival guide etc etc - we don't know how we kept missing each other! That's the trouble with these daft names - I mean you can't exactly go up to reception and ask what room Bangkok is staying in, can you? Have noodles and enormous prawns for brunch and get on Coach E for run no 2 "Doi Wiang valley and dam is an incredibly beautiful valley with good easy running on small country paths and mostly shaded. There's a moderate climb up to the Stupa on the hill and great views, some interesting creek crossings and an interesting 'on-in'." Turns out there are an enormous number of us south west UK hashers on this particular run - see pic! What a motley crew. That's me on the left looking like I want a pee. Today I did the short: about 5.2 km. This hash was vastly superior to yesterdays - much more shady, running along jungle trails and a wonderful slither down between trees from the stupa on the hill where the Buddhas was all dressed in gold and saffron. We ran past some Thais preparing a float for the Loi Krathong Ceremony.The run yesterday was mostly along dirt tracks and began by circling around what appeared to be an industrial excavation site. Today's, in comparison, was beautiful, finishing at a Dam, where grass roofed houses littered the shore and young lads fished. I went swimming in the muddy water - blissfully cool and no leeches!

This was a picture of the scrawny chickens - not Fallen Woman!

The circle was OK start with, but then when on, and on and on - for over two hours! I'm used to circles that last all of

20minutes if that at my 'home hash' in Ashburton and I got a little bored.

Picture of several Thai lads bemused by the antics of the circle!

Buzby (a keen hasher from Exeter) was in his element and there was much foolishness and merrymaking.

We got back to the Stadium by 1900hrs - where I proceed to search buses. This morning I had purchased around 20 postcards and diligently stuck stamps on them all. I had put them tidily into a paperbag and left them on the bus! I never found them so I hope they went to a good home. After eating, I went off to watch the closing ceremony. It's a very odd thing that out of all the thousands of hashers present at this gathering, one should keep running into the same few people. It took me a few minutes to realise that I had once more met up with the Pussy Galore and Cumlord sat right next to me, that same couple who had fed me beers and sympathy the night I lost the bicycle key.

On November 5th the Thai people celebrate their 'Festival of Lights' or Loi Krathong.

"When the tide is high and rivers brim on the full moon in November, Thais pay
tribute to water. Held this year on November 5, the Loi Krathong festival sees
most of the population head to canals, streams or rivers like the Ping or Chao
Phraya to bless this element so central to their culture, and to seek
forgiveness for using and polluting it in the process. Thais say this thank you
with flowers. Only they don’t present bunches or even
garlands; they fit the plants architecturally into krathong —
elaborate natural rafts that they construct from materials found in the
traditional Thai garden or field. Most urbanites, however, buy ready-made
krathong from pierside stalls."

A miniature version of this ceremony, with processions by beautiful young men and women in full costume was put on for us now as part of the closing show. There is more information on Loi Krathong here. This year's Loi Krathong was to take place at the same time as the ROYAL FLORA RATCHAPHRUEK an International Horticultural Exposition as part of the celebrations of the 60th year of His Majesty the King of Thailand's ascendancy to the throne and to coincide with his birthday. Three million people were expected to descend on Chiang Mail and accommodation would be in short supply. Since I would be homeless the next morning I was mildly concerned - but I needn't have been. Another part of the Loi Krathong ceremony traditionally performed in Thailand is the sending up of huge paper lanterns into the sky: Several lanterns get stuck in trees and the Tourist Police had to run around with a long pole, dislodging them.The Kome Loy is a lantern that is similar to a hot-air-balloon. Because the air lantern must rise up to float in the air, it must be lightweight, therefore, it does not have a bamboo cylinder inside. In order to send the lantern into the air, it requires a method to heat the air. This is done by tying a small bowl underneath the open section of the lantern. Oil is then placed into the bowl along with a cotton cloth. As the oil catches fire and commences burning, the hot air quickly travels into the lantern and it soon rises into the air.
It is believed that by sending off these lanterns an individual can send one's sins and bad luck into the air. Usually before the lantern soars into the sky, an individual will pray that one's sin or bad luck will be transported on the lantern and floated away high into the sky. Sometimes an address is left inside. The purpose of this is when the lantern come back down to the ground, and individual can follow an address and seek for money from whomever wrote the address. Or even sometimes, the maker will put some money inside the lantern. The purpose of the hot air lantern is to worship and pay respect to the Phra Ged Kaew Ju La Manee. An old legend tells that during war, these lanterns were sent into enemy territory and exploded. The Interhash Mismanagement Committee had arranged for a thousand lanterns to be sent up into the sky - permission had to be obtained from the air traffic control so the timing of the release was crucial. The lanterns were beautiful - A spectacular finish to Interhash. Perth has won the vote for NEXT Interhash in two years time, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be going to Australia.

Back to the Imperial Mae Peng Hotel for the penultimate kip before I'm homeless.