Aylesbury to Oving

Socks and sandals seems to have improved the condition of my feet, to the point that I voluntarily took a major detour today in order to visit Quainton, a village across from my destination.

Two highlights of this village caught my eye, a windmill and a church. The 1830s windmill is currently closed, but has recently been refitted with sails, and according to one source has been refurbished sufficiently to grind flour.

The church mostly dates to the 14th century, and is in a style similar to many churches I have seen in the Buckinghamshire area. This church had an important difference, however. It was open for visitors. I may not be much of a Bible person, but I do love churches. This is the first church of such age that I have been in (without hundreds of tourists), and I can't get over the quiet sense of love in the ancient weathered stones. Each pew held a number of leather backed cushions, each uniquely embroidered with cross-stitch designs.

Alone in the church I sang through Schubert's Ave Maria. As expected, excellent acoustics.

I didn't take an exterior photo of the Quainton church, but the Oving church below is much the same style.

Oving church, of a similar vintage and design as the Quainton church

Oving churchyard

With feet feeling a bit happier, I particularly enjoyed field crossing routes today (despite one or two wrong turns, and stand-offs with cattle). Picture me gleefully stomping through long grass and dandelions, and maybe you'll get why I wanted to do this mad trek.

View from the Black Boy Pub c1600

Longwick to Aylesbury

Today had a couple of interesting finds, both off the trail and under it.
Following the North Buckinghamshire Way took me over the site of the medieval village of Moreton. The aerial picture shows the pattern of lines that aren't really noticable from ground level (except when you're tripping over in them). I'm afraid that interesting though it may be it was hard to get a sense of the history involved, or of the people who once lived there.

Like many of the public byways, footpaths, and bridleways, this route crosses through private property, often paddocks with stock present. Many are well marked and some I have seen mowed a straight line to keep walkers en route, others are less easy to navigate. In this one I lost the right line for the exit and had to trace along the fence line to find the gate, so you'll understand why I didn't want to chase the sheep and lambs around any more just to look at some dips in the ground.

The other findings of the day were a lovely old church and a beautiful wall with fossils inlaid.
The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a gothic revival building finished in 1755. I wasn't able to get up close as it is only partially restored and the gate was closed. I did climb the wall to take the photo, but promise I didn't actually trespass.

The wall around Hartwell House, and the associated grounds on which the church was laid, have fossils inset and outlined in darker stone. A local geology website confirmed that these are ammonite fossils found in the Portland Limestone, a common building material in the area.

This wall is taller than me, some of the fossils are over a foot in diameter

Me and my Tent

So last night was my first night camping, as no other accommodation was to be found (within my price range). As it stands, the campsite cost £17 ($32 nzd), which I would consider extortionate if it wasn't for the heated floor in the shower room.
My tent is a Kathmandu Mono, weighing just 1.73kg. Long enough for me to lie in comfortably, it wouldn't be much good for anyone over 170cm. My pack was able to fit down by my feet, when things have been removed from it's sides, and generally speaking I had enough room for all my bits and pieces - while horizontal.
It is very quick to put up, even on your own, which was fortunate as it began to rain as soon as I had it erected, with me throwing my pack and ukulele (gently) inside as I finished.
The difficulty comes because even the higher end of the tent is not tall enough to sit up in, which makes organizing your belongings very... tricksy.
Points for the tent, it stayed dry inside, despite wind and rain that threatened to blow the whole thing away (wind gusts up to 50km/h). Unfortunately, the wind did seem to sneak under the fly and blow through the inner. I must have looked like a little gray and orange slug, tucked in my sleeping bag with the hood closed around my face, only my nose and one ear exposed.
Needless to say I didn't sleep all that well, despite my sleeping bag being perfectly warm. I'm just not used to sleeping on hard ground, and not sure I'll do enough camping to adapt. Oh well, needs must, and at least now it's proved worth the extra weight to bring the tent.
Lack of sleep has made today's relatively short 10km seem a lot more difficult, and my feet more sore, despite general improvement in the blister department.
It can only get better from here right?

PS. Very proud that I managed to fold and pack the tent in gusty winds this morning!

Henley-on-Thames to Radnage

Striking out today was a little more scary, as I am no longer following the comfortable contours of the Thames river. As it stands the many walking paths of the Chiltern Hills are well marked, and between them and my OS maps app I navigated relatively well. Just over 20km brought me to my campsite with just enough time to throw up my tent before the rain began - tomorrow looks to be a damp walk.
As a side note, although camping is slightly less appealing than my last accommodation, the shower room does have a heated floor! Much impressed.

Bluebell woods are so beautiful, even at the tail end of their season

Maidenhead to Henley

🎵 We're going away, we're going away, we're going to White Deer Park 🎵

Yes they're not in alignment, but still so pretty

Swan's nest - showing you can go big and go home

My Knapsack on my Back

Today was a perfect day for walking, overcast but warm and no rain. This is the first day of my "walk-proper", with pack on back and no returns, I struck out from Windsor to Maidenhead. I was worried I'd be slowed considerably by my sore feet from yesterday, but in the end I think I achieved a creditable 4-5 km/h, though I don't think I'd have been happy to keep going much further at that pace.
The big blisters on my heels both burst near the start, but are actually feeling a lot more comfortable now, I may consider walking in sandals for a bit tomorrow.
I'm staying at an AirBnb tonight, and have been fed delicious chapati and dahl, and garlic chicken - I am a lucky thing!

Just before Maidenhead the homes on both sides of the river became very affluent

This historic looking castle turned out to be a fancy hotel (with golf course!)

Thames Path

Today I hoped to knock off that second piece of Thanks path from Richmond to Windsor, with just a day bag, so I could train back to London and be ready to strike out from Windsor tomorrow. I made a vital miscalculation in the length of the section, expecting it to be maybe 30km but a quick check in OS maps confirmed it would likely be over 40km.
Stubborn as ever I thought I could maybe do it, and certainly 20km ticked by fairly easily, on this beautiful riverside walk. However my feet began to complain about the new shoes at around the 30km mark and when I sat down at the 35 km mark I knew I wouldn't go any further. OS maps suggested I had 6.7km left, googlemaps said 5.3 if I shortcut via the streets. Neither was going to happen. I took a bus.
Tomorrow I will start my walk-proper with multiple blisters on both feet, and sunburn. But hey, at least there's a good view.

Beautiful house-boats, river-boat, and boat houses are found all along the Thames

How to begin a 1500km Journey

How do you begin a 1500km journey? With a single step.
Or in my case, tube to London Bridge and then 20km to Richmond. Lacking the mood for another gallery or museum, yesterday I goaded myself into getting a part of my route ticked off. Though I didn't start til early afternoon I managed to get in 5 hours of walking, and cover ~20km of the Thames Path to Richmond, before having a light pub meal (and a pint of Guinness!) and then tubing back to Shoreditch.

Much of this section is along the edge of the Thames, past Bankside buskers, through busy commercial lots with people already knocking off for a pint (at 3:30!), or past residential properties. However it does also pass by some lovely parks, especially the section alongside the Wetlands, where the gravel path passes under trees and rowers sculled past on the water.

This foray highlighted an unfortunate problem. My boots press on my recently injured achilles, and retrospectively have been hurting it before, without me realising what a major issue I was ignoring. I had hardly got out the door when I turned back and reverted to my casual lace ups (with very hard soles). So today's main task was buying hiking shoes that don't come so high up the ankle. Hopefully these will go the distance.

Natural History Museum - animals and us

Early Jurassic ammonite

I thought I knew how big dinosaurs were - I've seen diagrams, photos like this, and animations. However none of that compares to standing beneath one yourself, and feeling that truly great presence.

Yes you are still allowed a favourite dinosaur as an adult - and mine is the parasaurolophus (despite the fact I've been pronouncing it wrong all my life) 

Dinosaurs suffered injury and disease just like any other animal. The bone on the left is an iguanodon hip bone and shows a fracture that healed with misalignment. I can only presume this is a non-loadbearing structure, as while I can fully expect a cat to heal from a fractured pelvis, an animal of this size is a different matter altogether. Not only that, but a wild animal must constantly be active in order to feed itself, and to avoid predators. This must have been a very lucky iguanodon.
The foot is from another (very large) iguanodon and the edges of the toe joints demonstrate osteoarthritic changes. What's impressive about this is how unusual it is for wild animals to survive into such old age, normally they die from predation or disease before such age related changes occur. That would be one hella large dose of metacam!

Archaeopteryx - need I say more

Case full of hummingbirds

Skull of a Barbary Lion - check out those nasal trabeculae

Chart of known hominin species. The timescale rather boggles the mind - 3 million years in the "human" branch alone. It's no wonder evolution has been a notoriously difficult concept to grasp, as we just can't fathom the lengths of time and minute changes involved.

Neanderthal skull showing classic ridged brow

Above are models of Homo neanderthalis and early Homo sapiens. These 2 species co-existed in the same regions for possibly 30,000 years, before the extinction of neanderthals 35,000 years ago. Recent DNA evidence supports inter-breeding between the 2 species, which may have helped Homo sapiens adapt more rapidly to the colder climate that the neanderthals had been living in for thousands of years already. Much of the shared DNA is "non-coding" but some appears to be involved in our immune system, and given how little we know about non-coding DNA I wouldn't discredit it's relevance to our development either.

Natural History Museum - building and stone

Opened in 1881, this building was designed as "cathedral to nature", completed in a gothic-inspired style it definitely gives that feeling of awe. Animals-gargoyles line the roof edges in extraordinary detail.

Filling your view on entry is the magnificent suspended skeleton of a blue whale, called "Hope". Up the stairs straight ahead is a statue of Charles Darwin in marble, much the same as memorial statues found in Westminster, and other notaries are found about the upper levels. With its soaring animal-carved columns, painted plant panelled ceiling, and stained glass windows, I could happily call this my place of worship.

Big man Charlie D. himself

Transection of stalactite, demonstrating layers of formation

Emerald in various states - while it does grow large crystals they frequently have imperfections, so getting clear cut stones from them is more difficult

I like opals

Nearly 300 cut diamonds of various natural colours, click for full image and zoom. Below are the same diamonds lit by UV light, demonstrating the change in colour flourescence