Colossal Cave

In the summer of 1982 I found myself at Bath University for a week's Summer School with the Open University.  I was studying Statistics and Mathematical Modelling, which even 32 years later still sounds to me like pretty heady stuff.  Life at Summer School did, however, have its compensations.  Half pints of Old Peculiar in the student bar were my favourite, usually followed by more drinking and merry-making in someone's bedroom.  Mind you, one had to be careful.  It was not unknown for folk to abandon their wedding rings (and their morals) in order to have a good time.

By a strange coincidence, my Aunt Sarah was tutoring at the Bath Summer School that year, on the same courses and it seems that we only missed meeting by a week or two.  Funny old world, is it not?

Something else I used to enjoy, when the day's work was done, was to go to the computer room, sit myself in front of a teletype and run programs on the university's computer - probably a DEC PDP11, according to Auntie. And thus I discovered a text-only adventure game (no fancy graphics in those days) called Colossal Cave.  The idea was to explore a maze of underground rooms and passages, and collect treasure.  As you might expect, this cave had magical properties and if you typed a magic word ('plugh', I think it was) you were instantly transported to a room called Y2.  Anyone who bungled their way round the cave as I used to, would consume a lot of teletype paper and frequently arrive at Y2!

After that long introduction I return to the account my walk from Dilke Bridge, in the Forest of Dean, to my home.  My picnic lunch consumed, I descended on a rough track through woodlands to a junction of paths that has become very familiar.  Indeed, whatever my chosen route in the Parkend area, I seem to end up here. Perhaps it too has magical properties.  And guess what?  At this complex junction someone had erected a large wooden post with the characters 'Y2' upon it.  Which, of course, explains everything!

Wild Rose

Earlier this year I promised myself that I would take a good camera on my walks to record the changing seasons in the forest.  The trees are as green and as beautiful as before, and since my last hike on June 12th, clumps of wild rose have blossomed.  Here are some that I spotted near Acorn Patch.  Also, the brambles have begun to flower, promising a good crop of blackberries before too long.  In my younger days I used to stuff myself on blackberries as I walked along, and usually arrived home with a tummy ache.  Now that I am older and wiser, I look forward to homemade blackberry and apple pie, with a large dollop of Cornish Clotted Cream.  Scores of calories per mouthful, but by then I'm hoping that it won't matter too much.

The hardest stretch of the walk was the long climb from Whitecroft to Maple Hill.  Predictably, this was when the clouds parted entirely and the sun blazed down.  My pace slowed, my skirt started sticking to my legs and beads of sweat trickled down my face. Thankfully, though, a cool breeze greeted me at the top of the hill and my steps quickened again for the final stretch home.

Time to consult the Noom app. on my smartphone, which had been faithfully recording my progress. Crumbs... with deviations to explore Acorn Patch, Central Bridge and Moseley Green, I'd walked 8.5 miles at an average speed (not including the lunch stop) of 2.6 mph, and burned off 953 calories.  And thus I grow a little slimmer every day.