27/09/20 - Good Beer Guide Ticking in Gloucester

Ok, I get that now is not the best time to be attempting a Pub Crawl, but I had booked my Premier Inn before the 2nd Lock Down.  There is no danger of me missing Match of the Day 2.  Boris says I need to be in bed by 9:30.

My afternoon starts in Gloucester Quays - all very sympathetically restored and full of shops and brew kitchens.  Much better to what they did to Gloucester Centre - where you can walk through 800 year old cloisters to be faced with soulless 1970's new builds.  Still, I'm no Iain Nairn, so on with the pubs.

All rather splendid in Gloucester Quays

Brewhouse and Kitchen

The lucky ones managed to get outside seats in the sunshine.  I was met at the door by a masked greeter, scanned in for track and trace on the NHS app and was shown to a high table a good distance from others in a very airy room.

Ordering is through a web browser - and it seemed to show all the options for the plentiful kegs, cask and bottles on offer.  As its near the end of September, I went for a Marzen Octoberfest but as I couldn't get close to the pumps, I've no idea what brewery it was from.... maybe their own?

Service was swift.  Payment annoyingly required One Time Passcodes delivered via email.  This is HSBCs doing, rather than the venue.  They obviously don't trust drinks orders on line.

Brewhouse and Kitchen

Tank

Over the road and although architecturally similar, this had more of a cellar bar feel.

 

Time to get Tanked Up

A venue for them to serve their own Gloucester Brewery Ales - and the Golden was a lovely colour, although rather headless.

Getting it was a monster faff.   Registration via the NHS App and then the only way to get a drink was to download their own Tank App.  Which wasn't particularly user friendly.  I got it installed, placed my order and looked at the bored bar man - expecting some sort of action.  Eventually he asked if I was OK and I said "I've got a receipt!".  He checked his PoS and my beer duly arrived.

Plenty of space but people are just idiots.  Walking to the bar, holding a menu over your face does not represent being masked up.

There's not a lot of pleasure in pub crawls at the moment.   And who would want to deal with customers?

Airy enough and distanced people

An Interlude from the Good Beer Guide Ticking.  Had the Turks Head Inn been open, I probably would have passed on by.  It looked far too small.

And no outside seating

A criticism that cannot be levied at the magnificent Robert Raike's House.  Who would not want to investigate a Tudor Merchant House?  Just a shame that you can't really have a mooch around.  Even if there's only you and a barman - who is counting his steps (7 miles today, with 3 hours of his shift left).

It's a Sam Smiths pub.  No one chucked me out for being on my phone.  Not that there was anyone to talk to.

Beautiful.  

An hours break to look at Gloucester's architecture by completing a Geocaching Adventure Lab Cache and a couple more ticks to aim for.

The Pelican has not reopened since the first lock down.  The Fountain, in a stuff you Boris move,  closed at 18:00.  Tucked away down an alley and barred by a gate, I cannot even bring you a photo.

One for another day - The Pelican

This left Angies.

The Bible details that it is Gloucesters Smallest bar - not what you necessarily want to hear - but with my big coat on and one free table outside, I was able to avoid going in.

Possibly the friendliest bar owner in the world took my details on pen and paper... and in a nice touch, referred to me by first name for all other transactions.  And get this - transactions in cash only.

Almost felt normal.  Bloody cold, but normal.

My favourite of the night. 

Angies - Friendliest Bar Visit for a long while

27/09/20 - Leighterton Geocaching and the Royal Oak

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 26

First Cache 

In an optimistic moment before the announcement of the 2nd great pub lock down, I booked myself into Gloucester's Premier Inn with the aim of getting a few new Good Beer Guide ticks.  

Its still going ahead, even if I will be comfortably in bed for Match of the Day 2.

To make a day of it, I planned a bonus tick at Leighterton's Royal Oak.  It makes a handy start for a 5 mile round of 26 Geocaches and I will pay for my parking by having a post walk lunch.

The caching couldn't be any more straightforward.  Out of the village, along lanes, some 7ft crops to negotiate and a free entry into Westonbirt Arboretum.

Other than the pub, Leighterton's other building of Interest

Geocaching, Cotswold Style

The Battle of the Crops

McMillan Way, taking me through the Arboretum

It was also the day after the great Geocaching fight back against the lock-down happened.  We want to be free, to do what we've got to do, and we want to Geocache.

Only 6 people are allowed to Geocache

Thanks to dasie19 & Artorius70 for a nice walk and a well maintained series of caches.

Back to the Royal Oak - in all its Cotswold stoned loveliness.   There's a reason the car park was still empty on my 1:40pm return.

A covid casualty - albeit on a temporary basis.

26/09/20 - Arrow Country Park and the Black Tap Brewhouse, Redditch

Distance - 7 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Adventurous Pub Walks in Worcestershire

Geocaches - 4 and a Lab Cache

The Arrow Country Park - 900 Acres of nothingness for the locals of the least loved of Birmingham overspills to enjoy.

Positives:  Free parking, a huge lake, decent paths.  Urban fun stuff like skate parks and basketball courts under the fly-overs.  

Negatives: Nothing to see.  The map shows some likely things of interest in the North - the remains of Bordesley Abbey and some fish ponds in the old medieval font.  I found the pounds but Henry VIII must have done rather a good job on the Abbey.

7 Miles of Walking and 1 photo of a Lake

Still, it was 7 miles of fresh air and the chance to work up a thirst for the only 2020 Good Beer Guide Tick.

Redditch's Sole Good Beer Guide Entry

The Black Tap Brew House looks like a building that may have been a solicitors. 

Today marks the first Saturday of the 2nd lock down.  Patience required by all as we see how the new rules are implemented.

A couple of tables outside, which maybe I should have taken advantage off.  Instead I don face mask, sanitise hands and enter.  I am met by the masked proprietor who provides me with a series of boards.  Board 1 is the QR code to scan for track and trace.  The first time I have been able to use my facebook details to save on input.  Board 2 is the real ale board - detailing four previously unheard off ales.  On hearing that the Bank Top Brewery Pavillion Ale was fresh on, my mind was made.

Decent Pale Ale.

Take stock of my surroundings.   The bar looked well stocked but was velvet roped off.  A large TV screen was showing Wycombe Wanderers rather than Man United.  The little tables were each sectioned off by black and orange hazard tape.  Were they the requisite distance apart?  It seemed rather tight as the place start filling up.

The new world order has led to paranoia.

But I'm not giving up on pubs.

24/09/20 - The Lamb and Flag, Worcester

Everything is screwed... NS&I slash interest rates and premium bond prizes. The UK stock market tanked, showed signs of recovery and then following one ill judged Tuesday announcement started to tank again.

How can you make money in the "New, New Normal"?  And then it came to me as I get the final 2020 Good Beer Guide Tick in Worcester.

Invest in sign-writing companies.

Going to be busier than ever

Why I am Here

More Adventure Lab Geocaching... a perfect way to remind oneself as to how lovely our county capital is.

Worcester Cathedral - The Water Gate is Stage 1 on the Lab Cache

Glover's Spire - Stage 1 on the other Lab Cache

My History

In my youth, where the only thing to concern me was who was the best out of Blur or Oasis - I used to work opposite the Lamb and Flag. It was a proper old man's Irish bar and I only discovered its charms in my final year.  We had 45 minutes for lunch at 12pm - and expecting the lunch time rush - they would have many pints of Guinness 3/4's full. You weren't allowed to touch them - they needed to build properly.

The last time I would have been here would have been 1995.

Former IT Office of Kays Catalogue - where I failed to get excited by Windows 3.0

The Lamb and Flag Now

What a time to visit - the first day of the start of the second lock down. I could moan but I am saving logic reasoning and despair for my family.

Photos taken outside, before I arrange my jet black snood/face mask in a fashion that means I have to explain to those exiting the premises that I am not going to rob the place.

How has it changed in 25 years?

I do the new pub dance. Hand sanitising, manual log-in of details. Wait at the entrance to be greeted by another bandit.  Surprisingly full, I have to negotiate how long I need a table for. Well done, people of Worcester.

Sit down, evaluate.  It used to be two rooms divided by a central bar, where the Guinness rested. It's now more or less knocked into one room, with a bar running along the length. It's been modernised in a sort of cafe style by the Two Crafty Brewers. As I pass the bar, I try and take in the beers on offer - 1 Crafty Brewer and 2 x Wye Valley.

Wye Valley HPA wins

As a solo pub ticker, there's entertainment to be had watching how the rules are interpreted.  A gang of workers offer space for anyone who comes in to join their bubble.  Card payments are met with "keep the change".  An old boy ignores the soap, the meet and greet and waits at the bar for service.  He's not happy with the way things are, when the new world order is explained.  Even the workers' sympathy of "he can come here, but he cannot see his grandchildren" is met with "I come here to get away from my grand-children".

Its grim humour but its all we have.  

We just need to remember to make the staffs' lives easy.

18/09/20 - The Pig's Nose at East Prawle

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Jarrold Walks in South Devon and Dartmoor, Walk 17 

My list of potential walks for this holiday state that this one "must not be missed".  Seems like it should be a fitting finale for the last walk of the week.

The reason - confirmed from facebook friends on seeing our photos - is the Pig's Nose pub in East Prawle.  Get to the village early enough and you can park around the village green.

A perfect green lane provides access to the coast - at the unfortunately named Gammon Head. 

I can see the sea

It's another gnarly stretch of coastal walking on high cliffs, with rocky clambers but it soon gives way to more sedate walking once the coastwatch lookout point is passed.  

Tricky bit of rock clambering over

And the walking gets more sedate 

Woodcombe point is where we say goodbye to the sea for 2020.  A long gradual climb back to the village, where its 12:20, the facilities are open for business and there are a couple of geocaches to find.

You can see from the Anti-Covid dispenser unit just inside the doorway, what sort of a place the Pig's Nose is.

Pigs Nose Inn

Covid Meet and Greet

It's a quirky little pub, filled with alcoves, bare floors and nick nacks that would make for a great game of i-spy.   What it lacks in basic trough toilet facilities, it makes up for with the first pub that I have ventured in that has a shower room.

In normal times, it's famous for its live music and serving its ales straight from the cask.  One of these claims to fame is still available. The local boy near to, but not hanging on, the bar recommended the South Hams Eddystone.  Alas, I had already ordered my Otter Bitter.

One for another day.

17/09/20 - Bolt Head

Distance - 5.75 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - Jarrold - South Devon and Dartmoor, Walk 19

Back to Salcombe, for what will be walk of the week and possibly walk of the year.  All this, and we pass no pub.  Ice-creams are available at the Winking Prawn Cafe.

It's important to get to North Sands Car Park early - even on a middle of the week day in mid September.  By the time we return, there's lots of 4x4s circling for spaces,  like Great Whites but angrier.

North Sands gets a Castle

South Sands, merely a Sea Tractor

We're there at 10:30 and my two willing (ish) walking partners are hoping that the climb to Sharp Tor is the only one of the day.  They are more or less in luck.... once we hit the heights, we more or less stay high.

Not that this stretch of coast is anything other than stunning.  Photos won't do it justice but its wild, exposed and gnarly.  We loved it - so lets get the photos out the way.

Looking back to Salcombe

Starting the climb to Sharp Tor

Barrier and steps for when it gets hairy

But not totally without exposure

We leave the coast at Steeple Cove, using footpaths and lanes to get through Soar, Rew and Combe.  The final stretch a shady delight through woodland.  When the coast does reappear you could be mistaken for thinking you are in Barbados.

Salcombe - next state to declare independence?

Back at the car park at 1pm.  A queue a mile long outside the Winking Prawn.  An ice cream kiosk that takes major credit cards.   A last run on the beach.

End of a Perfect Walk

16/09/20 - The Pilchard Inn at Bigbury-on-Sea

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - AA 1001 Walks, Walk 51

We can see the Pilchard Inn from our apartment in Thurlestone.  As the crow flies, it can't be more than 3 miles. Yet once again, German Sat Nav takes us a 13 mile route that it thinks is the quickest, regardless as to whether it actually uses what could be described as roads. 

That relieved to get to Bigbury-on-Sea car park, we're almost grateful to be feeding £5.50 for 4 hours.

This is the shortest planned walk - as I want to have time to explore Burgh Island - get a virtual geocache and re-visit a timeless pub that I last crossed the threshold of 25 years ago.

It's the coast to Ayrmer Cove - initially thinking we have set off in the correct clockwise direction.  The descent to the beach has to be one of the most sheer I have completed.  And I am at nearly three figures in ticking off the Wainwrights.

First Drop - Challaborough Bay

2nd Climb - overlooking Ayrmer Bay

The inland route from Ayrmer cove is a footpath running alongside an unnamed stream - offering shade and leading to Ringmore - a village with a church and a pub, although we only manage to find the car park for the Journey's End.  

Ringmore Church

It's a series of 3 valleys to get back to Burgh Island.  The co-walkers get increasingly tetchy at the steep drops and climbs.  In the interests of moral, I don't even correct them that the "field of cows" we have to navigate do not have udders.  I'm an experienced walker but I have never seen a whole field of bulls.

Unscathed - we can see the prize before us.

Burgh Island Ahead

The Pilchard Inn lays claim to be Devon's oldest pub.  With 1366 emblazoned on the pub sign, I wonder why it stops at just Devon, when it must be another shout for the nation?  

If the tide is in, then there is a tractor that can ferry the thirsty.  With the tide out, we have the most wonderful approach to a pub imaginable.  In hindsight, I should have removed my scarpa's and felt the sand between my toes.

Taxi to the Pilchard

Pub from 1366

Dartmoor Jail Ale is fast becoming a favourite.  In an unusual move, I shun the chance of a second to climb to the top of Burgh Island and record the virtual cache at the ruined chapel.

It was Mappiman Junior's round too...

15/09/20 - Start Point

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration - 100 Walks in Devon and Cornwall, Walk 5

No pubs on route today.  This walk is as facility free as it gets.  Along with pubs, the other things we could have used but are sadly absent include tea shops, newsagents and a bin to put a Guide Dog in training deposits in.

Still, it does have views.

Another frankly terrifying journey to get to the walk start point.  In previous days we have given way to SUVs, 4x4s and some monster farm vehicles.  Today, we get less than a 1/2 mile from our apartment when we have to wait for the farmer to move his cows.  At least he wasn't taking them to market in Kingsbridge.  Once that hazard is passed, its down lanes where it advises you not to attempt them if you car is wider than 6'6".  

Previously unaware, I now know exactly how wide an Audi Q3 is.

The final, grass down the middle track, leads to Start Point.  Despite its "end of the world" feel - there is still a little old lady collecting £3.50 for parking.  With 3 port-a-loos outside her little wooden shack, we think she lives there for the summer season.  

The views are worth the entrance fee.  And its probably worth the "there and back" detour to visit the lighthouse - which now advertises itself as holiday accommodation.  Remember to bring your own beer.

Start Point Views

Downhill to the Lighthouse - uphill to pick up the Coast Path

All the glory for this walk is in the early coastal stages.   Wild precipitous high paths to the first and only Geocache at Great Sleadon Rock.  The tide is out and there is a little beach - which we scramble down onto to allow Abi the guide dog in training to have a splash around.  This is completed with scant regard as to how we might get back up - but one of a Golden Retriever's hidden talents is rock climbing.

   

The walking team, posing in front of a cache GZ

A more accessible beach is available at Lannacombe.  Served by an honesty car park and a single track, it seems to be one of the places used by people that are "in the know".  It's as good as any of the other beaches we've found in our short stay but you can more or less have it to yourself.  As long as you are honest.

Beach fun and games until Abi starts to eat the seaweed.

Lannacombe - all yours, if you know where it is

Lannacombe is where we leave the coast behind.  As with all circular coastal walks - you pay for the spectacular bits with a long and in this case, mainly uphill, trudge to get back to the start.

A stop in Kingsbridge for refreshment.  I lose the argument about whether to wait for the Good Beer Guide Hermitage Inn to open at 2pm.  One look at the mouldy drawn curtains is enough to convince Mrs M that we WILL be finding a cafe for Devonian Cream Tea.

13/09/20 - Hope Cove and Bolt Tail

Distance - 5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, Aug 2005, Walk 1

1pm table booked at the Village Inn, Thurestone and a 2pm kick of the new Premier League, where the Baggies face a Leicester tester.

Time constrained, it means avoiding the simply ridiculous local roads (classified B if grass doesn't grow along the centre) and starting the walk from our apartment.

Where we instantly pick up the Coastal path to be delivered into Hope Cove.  Number of gorgeous coast photos will be limited to avoid boring blogfans.  Here's looking back to Thurlestone Rock.

Who lives in a house like that?  Well, this week, I do!

Hope Cove reveals itself from the cliff tops.  A self contained little town with a perfect arc of golden sands.  Ramshackle dwellings creeping up the rock faces.  Here you can buy the Sunday Times before working out how to carry it's bulk, when all you have is a bum bag.  

One establishment's bold claim means that we will be coming back to watch the sunset.

Dropping down into Hope Cove

Craft Beer - at the UK's best Craft Beer Bar.  DIPAs and NEIPAs ahoy!

From here, we climb back to Bolt Tail and start some limited geocaching.  A measly three for such a walk is an unfair haul.

Perfect Caching Terriotory

One last sea-view and reasonable inland walking through Bolberry and Galmpton.  To think, we rushed this walk to get back and see the Baggies get mauled.  It's going to be a long old season.

Forget about the football - until Hartlepool on Tuesday