The Adventures

[dagibbs]

Before heading to England, I managed to arrange to meet Chris at a little town called Hathersage in the Peak District to go climbing. We were meeting Sunday at 12:03pm since that is when his train would arrive, and with it being about 3 hour drive from Heathrow and my expected arrival time being about 06:15am, that looked easy to do.

The flight over went nicely and smoothly. I had managed to get upgraded to Air Canada's "Executive First" class, so that meant good service, lots of room, and a chair that would setup to almost horizontal. They also gave a little zipper-up pack with, among things in it, chapstick, little booties, and "Energizing Foot Spray". No, I haven't tried energizing my feet yet, but maybe it would help next time I hike in to a rock climbing crag. I actually managed to get something like 4 hours sleep (I think), and it felt like real sleep, not just light dozing. It may have helped that I was up early that morning and went out climbing.

My luggage happily made it, and I went looking for a bank machine then my rental car. Unfortunately the bank machines were down. Rental car, also a bit tricky -- the car had quite a number of un-recorded dings on it (and a bunch or recorded ones) and the GPS navigation system they gave me had to be returned as well. Luckily the 2nd one worked better. This delayed me a bit, but I still had lots of time.

The drive mostly went quite smoothly, though I stopped a couple times just to relax a bit and buy some coffee and some food and water for when we went climbing. All in all, I got to the train station and parked by about 11:30am, enough time but not a long wait. I wandered off to find a WC, then read while I waited. The train was right on time, and Chris and I had no problem spotting each other. He is a young sociable chap who, actually, climbs right around my level.

Meander: the roads, especially the smaller highways and biways, are crazy. Twisty, windy, with lots of blind corners. Speed limits are generally high to scarily high. (When I commented on this to some of the people I was teaching, it was observed that you don't have to do the limit if the conditions don't warrant it, and you can use judgement. So unamerican.) And the passing zones -- it seems that if a motorcycle could barely pass a slow-moving car in safety, then it would be marked as a passing zone. Wow.

After a bit of organizational stuff, we proceeded to a long (several miles) cliff called Stanage Edge, and in particular to a section of it called High Neb. The rock is something called "gritstone" and is something like a hard sandstone with coarser grain to it. Generally, pretty good friction and most of the climbing is, to some degree, slab climbing -- except for the occasional roof, which we didn't go near. Chris was doing all the leading, with me following and cleaning -- though he did offer me the choice of leading, but I didn't feel up for it. He managed to slip and take a bit of a fall on the first climb from a fair bit above his last placement -- but it held solidly, and he came out unhurt, though upside down. A couple other people commented on the surprise at hearing the "take" and then looking to spot someone upside down. We finished that route on top-rope, since the cliff top is easily accessible. (That piece of gear took a lot to remove, though.) We did a further 5 climbs, mostly a touch easier, without further incident. It was hot and sunny, but we both quite enjoyed the climbing, and I was glad of the opportunity to climb somewhere I hadn't on a type of rock I hadn't.

It was very different to hike in and out able to see the cliff/crag the whole way. I'm used to doing it through forest. It was still a hike "up" though, rather than down, as it was near Austin.

I dropped him back near the train station, and headed for Stoke on Trent. My GPS navigation system took me through Winnats Pass which was quite impressively pretty. At the entrance, I stopped to get a couple pictures and while leaning into the shade to try and get a better picture, manage to brush against something quite stingy -- I'm guessing stinging nettle. Quite an interesting sting, that took about 20-30 minutes to go away.

After that it was more winding, back-country, roads of varying width, down to at least one road that was an "unnamed road" according to the GPS about 2/3 of a normal lane width wide (yes, two-way traffic, and possible farm animals). Some very nice views, though.

Next excitement, though, was taking out my left front wheel. A lot of the roads are narrow, with piles of fieldstones lining the sides -- sometimes piled high as a fence, often about the height and distance from the road of a small snow-plow wake. One of them had, apparently, fallen into the road, and blew out my left front tire as well as majorly notching the rim. I drove a 100 feet or so further, until there was at least a little visibility from both directions, then pulled as far to the side of the road (shoulder, what shoulder?) as I could. Luckily, this trip, I'd borrowed a European useable (German in fact) mobile phone, and I was able to call for assistance. After doing so, I wandered around a bit, and managed a 2nd encounter with the (likely) stinging nettles. This one was still stingy several hours later, even after a shower. (It may be that I didn't just brush it, but pushed through it. It may be that the 2nd application augmented the first enough to last longer.) I had been told up to an hour to wait, and after 70 minutes, just as I was about to call again, the rescue truck pulled up. He changed my tire for me. (Yes, I could have done this -- except I didn't have enough space to do the work and feel safe. He, at least, had a big truck with flashy lights to protect the work zone.)

And, then, on my way again... though it was getting late. I finally got to my hotel around 9pm, though I was fighting the dozes for the last little bit. Not, technically, all that late -- but I'd had two long days, a lot of sun and exercise, and not actually all that much sleep. I think, though, the large amounts of sunlight and exercise during the day has really helped with jetlag, since it seems minimal, so far.

I continue to find that one of the trickiest parts of driving over here is not remembering to drive on the left side of the road, or the roundabouts (which can be quite interesting), but lane position. All my "instinctive" (that is learned, but automatic by now) lane positioning is based on being on the other side of the car -- I feel far too close to the center of the road. On top of that is the unusual narrowness, so I find judging lane position, and clearance for close passes (not same direction so much as opposing traffic on narrow areas) is very tricky, and I have a tendency to veer too far to the left (my edge of the road) unless I'm very consciously careful and stay in a position that my gut is screaming at me is too far to the right.

Comments

[con-girl.livejournal.com]

Stinging nettle gets worse with every brush, especially if close in time. That 20 min was likely your second or third brush. Antihistamines will work.

The notion of the highway speeds being scary to you is scary to me.