04/02/17 - Richards Castle

Distance - 7.1 Miles
Geocaches - 3
Walk Inspiration - CW Magazine, June 05 Walk 15

Mortimer Forest is an ancient hunting ground on the Herefordshire/Shropshire border. Perfect weather contributed to a fantastic walk to Richards Castle, somewhere I've been planning on visiting for some time.

We park up at Black Pool Picnic Area and boot up in the company of the Ludlow Dog Walkers Society.

The tall trees interfere with Satellite Reception but we head off on the obvious trail, picking up height on the Mortimer Trail before dropping down to Mary Knoll Valley.

Tall trees = GPS Bounce

Its easy walking on broad forest tracks, grabbing the first cache of the day at Sunny Dingle Wood.

All the hard work is the ascent to High Vinnalls. 1230ft on a beautifully crisp winter's morning leads to some stunning views over the Clee Hills and most of Shropshire.

Views North from High Vinnalls

Mr and Mrs Mappiman getting in the way of the Views

Muddy walking until we enter a field system called Vallets on the map.  No trees to block the views and superb walking amongst the sheep.  This time in a few weeks and the new borns will be out.

Views to Clee Hills

Not sure what to expect at Richards Castle.  The map shows the ruins clearly marked but from the path, its not too obvious what remains.  An investigation through the churchyard shows there are bits left, all guarded by the world's most friendly goat.

Castle Ruins - Built in 1051

Richards Castle Goat admiring the views

An unfortunate bit of road walking brings us back to the Black Pool car park and a decision on where to go for post walk refreshment.

We stick with the ancient architecture theme and head for the Peacock, a C14th Coaching house around 10 miles away on the outskirts of Tenbury Wells.  Its a pub that I have driven past 100s of times and today marks the first actual visit.

Its all low beamed loveliness, with a wood burner in a fireplace under some decorative heraldic iron work showing a date of 1664.

Got to love old England.

C14th Coaching House

A fine Wye Valley HPA

31/1/17 - The CAMRA Good Beer Guide Pubs of Covent Garden

Covent Garden - often agreed as a destination meeting point when hooking up with friends.  Without anyone actually knowing the best pub to meet in.   Invariably, a suggestion will be made and we'll end up in some hideously packed hell-hole, drinking substandard fayre and wishing we were  somewhere else.  The Lamb and Flag is excluded from this appraisal.

So, on a very rainy night in Soho, I head out with the GBG Bible to try and track down the three entries that ring no bells with me.  Holborn is the easiest tube to get to.  By the time I have made it down Great Queen Street to Wellington Street, I am soaked to the bone.

Its not all giggles, this pub ticking.

The Coach and Horses, Wellington Street - Tribute

Random BeerintheEveningQuote - "I always try to find time to visit this little diamond; like many of my favourites it is small, friendly & seemingly out of place in its inner city location."

Did I tell you it was raining?  Battery on my phone is at a low 10% and I don't want to risk water damage so I kind of get into the right area and am lured in by marketing.

It would appear that I am not the only one ticking tonight.

The Signage is enough to get me out the Rain

Bar Scrummage

It was OK.  Once the harassed looking barmaid asked for ID, they melted into the night.

It left me chance to order a perfect pint of London Pride, peruse my surrounding and determine that I had peaked slightly early.

Pride in Covent Garden

In my defence, the Globe is next to the Marquess of Anglesey, which is next to my real destination. My navigational skills needed correcting, but not before I had taken my tea.

The Coach and Horses is a small independent Irish pub offering the best pint of Guinness in London.  I'm not falling for that again, I've been to the Toucan.  It's a community pub, so a well fed, very damp looking stranger gets eyed up on entry but only so they know the amount of gusto to put into their greeting.

These sorts of places always amaze me.  Out of the handful of people is man who has popped in after taking his dog for a walk.  I find it incredible that normal people who frequent classic boozers still live in this part of the city.

Only two real ales on - a Tribute or a Adnams - looked after and served with care by a man who has an identical outfit to Al Murray's Pub Landlord.

File under success.

Excuse the photo - needed to get out of the rain

Perfect Tribute

The Cross Keys, Endell Street, Wadworth 6X

Random BeerintheEveningQuote - "The barman was friendly. The interior felt less cluttered than on previous visits."

I can only guess at how cluttered it must have been.  If its brass, its hanging from the ceiling.  Pots, pans, musical instruments.  A long bar, with dimpled glasses hanging from hooks.  Every available wall surface covered in pictures and memorabilia.

I loved it.

The other thing the reviews have pointed out is the prices.  £3.60 for a perfect pint of 6X was easily the cheapest in the area by some distance.

All was going well until the landlady came out with the brasso and started polishing.

Another Dodgy Outdoor Night Photo

Well done to the GBG - highly recommended and this will be my future rendezvous point, whether my friends like it or not.

The White Swan, New Row, Orkney Dark Island

Random BeerintheEvening Quote - "The last time I was here the pub was an O'Neils and pretty bog standard it was too"

I have just enough battery on the phone to navigate myself to the White Swan.  I'll be finding an alternative way to scan in the Cask Marque certificate, proudly displayed just inside the door.

Its directly opposite the Round House.  One of the more ghastly previous rendezvous points.  Despite it being grade II listed, it looks corporate - especially on the inside.  It instantly looks like a Nicholsons pub and you can see how it used to be something much, much worse.

Time is getting on... moments after ordering an unexpected Dark Island from Orkey, the bell is rang with a vigour that is only ever found in Central London pubs.   Its 10:51 and they obviously cannot wait to get home.

To be fair, apart from a damp man taking a photo of a certificate in which to scan it later when his phone has power, its a slow night with just three other punters.  They are sat huddled together - with the patriarch telling his adult child about will provisions.  The future recipients protestations were not convincing enough to suggest he wasn't disappointed.

Might have been harsh - looks better than initially observed

Just me, the will makers and Trump.  Recipe for a good night.

So GBG - All three were new locations to me - despite coming to the area for 25 years.

And two out of three ain't bad.

28/01/17 - Lea Valley Walk Stage 2 - From Cheshunt to the Camra GBG Pubs of Hertford

Distance - 13.4 Miles
Geocaches - 18
Start - Cheshunt
Finish - Hertford
Pubs - 3
Previous Stage


I spent 13 years working in Hatfield and looking for better places to spend my nights away.  Both Hertford and Ware were investigated before I settled on St Albans for my regular lodgings.  In those days, I simply knew it had good pubs but didn't realise it was CAMRA's home.  Youth, wasted on the young.

It was with some mild excitement that I plotted the 2nd leg of the Lea Valley Walk and realised that it would be taking me through these two Hertfordshire towns.  A chance for a first visit in over 10 years.

Easy walking from Cheshunt - like plodding along the banks of a canal.  Unlike Stage 1, there is really nothing much of interest until you get 11 miles in and arrive at Ware.

Its a good job I have the numerous, well maintained geocaches to keep the interest levels.  If there hadn't have been so many muggles, I would have got so many more.  A stretch of three consecutive caches was interrupted by a fisherman who firstly demanded I had a feel of his rod, and then proceeded to follow me upstream as "he looked for perch".

I'll leave you with some photos of the walk into Ware.

Deadly Accurate Signage - I discovered a Heron

One of the more handsome Riverside pubs - The Fish and Eels

Somewhere near Hoddeson

Somewhere Near St Margaret's 

Civilisation

The Waterside Inn, Ware

3.5 hours after leaving Cheshunt at 9am, I arrive into Ware.  There is one CAMRA GBG pub in the town but it is a fair way from the river, so I make the most of the two waterside pubs at the town bridge.  The Saracen's Head announces its presence with Scrabble Style signage. The Waterside Inn is Cask Marque accredited.  Only one winner for the Mappiman Dollar.

Waterside Inn - Cask Marque

A friendly greeting from an Antipodean behind the bar (instinctively bred for bar work), she takes my order from a choice of six real ales.  She even looked disappointed when I failed to either produce, or desire a stamp on a loyalty card.  I tried to explain that having not been to Ware in a decade, I am unlikely to show the required loyalty needed to claim a freebie.

Ringwood Ridgeback delivered in a Presentation Cup

A functional place for a pit stop and the pint was perfect, even down to the chalice served in.

On with the walk.

From Ware, things improve.  There are things to look at and for the first time, the Lea can be described as a River, rather than a Canal.  I get to dodge dope smoking youths, admire the street art underneath the A10 and find the source the of the New River, which could be an inspiration of another waterway based London Adventure.

Lea, looking like a River

The Start of the New River - running all the way to Islington

Under the A10 and a mortality reminder from some blue toes.  With eyes.

A fine delivery into Hertford, which from the River is far prettier than I remember.  A couple of hours before my scheduled train back, so a chance to tick off two of the four GBG establishments in the town.

The first, the handsome looking Old Barge is right on the water.

The Old Barge, Hertford

The Old Barge

There's a snug on the left hand side of the front door, with a little service space to the central bar.  More room on the right hand side, where a long bar with high stools leads to an extension based dining area.

I make myself comfortable on a stool and experience the kind of service which is good for starting fights.  I start my wait alone.  Three bar staff are all refusing to make eye contact with me, busying themselves with making rounds of orange juice and lemonades, messing with the till or serving food.

I am joined by a lady, holding a menu.  I joke about my cloak of invisibility.  Another five minutes and we are still not acknowledged.

You can guess what's going to happen.  A local comes in, is engaged with "I'll be with you in a minute" and then promptly offered service.

Counteracting my in built politeness. I point out that I was next and got met with "Well, we cannot keep on top of everything".  I would have accepted this, but menu lady went off at the deep end and fired off a broadside about how she either should have asked who was next or at least acknowledge us as we had both been there for quite a while.

On the plus side, it provided plenty of time to work out what I would have.  It was nearly a Woodforde Wherry (last seen in Norfolk) but I did a bit of #TryJanuary and went for an Otter Dark.

And I thought I had met all the Otters.

My first pint of Mild?   I tried to hide the Doom Bar Glass.

The Old Cross Tavern, Hertford

The GBG provides a chance to sample all sorts of environments.  From the too busy to cope Old Barge, to the three punters strecthing out a pint with the papers, Old Cross Tavern.

Already looking like my sort of place

I take the place of the gentlemen escaping to keep up the numbers.  Its a single room pub, with a single gent sat in each nook around the room, so none of us can really see each other.  Not a sound, apart from the tick tocking of an ancient timepiece.

#Tryjanuary is knocked on the head, as I shun the four unknown real ales for a Perfectly Served Timothy Taylor.

The silence is only broken when a couple come in - look around and leave in a fit of giggles.

A couple of one liners "was it something I said?, they don't know what they're missing, etc." and we we all heads down and back to our papers.

Bliss, and another GBG success.

A little bit of Yorkshire in Hertfordshire

22/01/17 - Seven Springs and Cockleford's Green Dragon

Distance - 5.5 Miles
Geocaches - 11
Walk Inspiration - Last Year's Calendar

The Mappiman Family Calendar has many entries - Gigs for Child #2, work appointments for Mrs Mappiman and trips to the smoke for me. As you might expect, it's a walking themed calendar and on 2016 close down,  I looked through the monthly offered routes to determine suitability.

A localish walk to Tomtit's Bottom simply could not be ignored.

Walking directions suggest starting at Seven Springs, where there is both a layby to park in and a pub to seek refreshment.  Google Maps show its a Hungry Horse.  Further investigation suggest that the Green Dragon Inn may be far more suitable for pub connoisseurs who have no use for a plastic tree to play on in the beer garden.

And the opening hours look good.

There's a fair amount of lane walking on this route, but it does keep us out of the mud.  We head west, past the Girl Guide Centre and the impressive Cowley Manor house.  The guides are on some sort of activity that involves collecting wood on a trolley.   You can spot the future captain of industry by the way one particularly vocal Guide is cajoling the others into the hard graft.

Best view of Cowley Manor House

We continue on lanes to Cobberley before picking up the Gloucestershire Way.  Only discussion point is where black cows fit into Mrs Mappiman's bovine danger ranking.  On passing through their field, we can file them under docile.

Lane Walking to Cobberley

Seven Springs is roughly the half way point.  We see what we could have won in all its glory before picking up a bridleway I must have previously walked, as its marked the Cotswold Way on the OS Map.

Seven Springs Inn - for Hungry Horses

The bridleway brings us to Upper Coberley, where the pre-requisite for living here is a surly disposition.  We attempt to get an hello out of an elderly horse rider but should have realised the futility of this when we spotted he was beating his charge with crop and concentrating on shouting "Giddy Up".  Fair play to the horse - it refused to buckle under septuagenarian delivered corporal punishment and continued at its own leisurely pace.

The village does lead us to a high level path with great views, which no doubt would have been more impressive once the weak winter sun had burned off mist.

Mrs Mappiman not helping with the Cache finding.

Tomtits Bottom is nothing more than a wooded copse, unworthy of its name.  It does lead to Cockleford Farm and ultimately, the return to the Green Dragon.

Idyllic Cockleford Farm

The Green Dragon is a fine example of a Cotswold pub and its remoteness has not affected it popularity.  The car park is full at 12:10pm and once we have debooted and entered, the only place available to sit is at the bar.

Possibly unlike the Hungry Horse, there are no light eating options available.  Its a £13.95 Sunday Lunch or nothing.  Its not that we are tight, just that kids (and both of them are home) may be disappointed with beans on toast for tea.

A superb Hooky and Steak and Ale Crisps will have to suffice.

Imminent Crisps