The Blue Poop Challenge

Really, the things I'll do for science! These buns have been made with a hefty dose of concentrated blue colouring.  "Why?" I hear you ask.

Since the early days of the Covid pandemic, I've been logging my health and vaccination status on the Covid Symptoms Study App. The good folk at Kings College London, in collaboration with Zoe Global Ltd, use this data – along with that from over 4½ million other contributors – to plot the rise and fall of infections, then report their findings to the government. 

The study has shown the value of collecting data from millions of people – something that would have been very hard to do before the advent of the Internet and mobile phone apps.  

Professor Tim Spector, who heads up the Kings College team, has once more teamed up with Zoe Global and turned his attention to the study of Gut Biome – the micro-organisms that live in our gut.  It is believed that the diversity of these has a profound impact on our health.  Basically, the more different bugs with have in our gut, the greater will be our resistance to a host of infections and diseases.  And that's where the Blue Poop Challenge comes in.

The 'Challenge' is to eat two blue buns for breakfast, then time how long it takes for blue-coloured poop to appear in the toilet pan. OK, I know it sounds disgusting but I'll do a lot in the name of science. The one thing I won't do, however, is to show you a photo of the poop (for which you are doubtless grateful), so you'll have to take my word for it that it did appear about 40 hours later.  I reported this to Zoe, answered a few dietary questions, and my results appeared.

 

 

 

Ideally, at this point I suppose I would send off a sample of poop for analysis – rather like the bowel screening programme – but Zoe are still developing an Android app to go with an enhanced study.  Instead, using my data, they matched me with someone for whom they had carried out a detailed analysis. 

The analysis shows that I'm munching on a wide variety of nourishing foods that 'good' bugs love to eat.  However, there are probably a few missing bug species that could improve my gut biome still further. 

Sauerkrout (fermented cabbage) and kombucho (fermented tea ) don't sound very appetising to me, but I think Kefir (fermented milk, somewhat like yogurt) has potential, if I can find it on the supermarket shelves.  As for yogurt, I prefer Greek fat-free varieties as they're Slimming World friendly, though it seems that they're not as beneficial for my gut as the full-fat ones.

Finally, here's a summery of what the Kings College team have discovered so far:

•     Gut transit times varied from less than 12 hours to many days, with a typical time of around 29 hours.
•     Gut transit time is not only affected by diet, lifestyle, and hydration, but also by the trillions of bugs living in the gut, known as the gut microbiome.
•     People with faster transit times have different gut microbes compared with those with longer transit times, with specific foods and strains of bacteria associated with speedier or slower transit times.
•     Shorter transit times were generally associated with better health, less abdominal fat, and healthier responses to food.
•     Longer transit times were more strongly associated with microbes that feed on protein and with fewer fibre-loving bugs that produce short-chain fatty acids, which are linked to better gut health.

If you fancy doing the Blue Poop Challenge yourself, and help the Kings team with this important work on dietary health, just follow this link... joinzoe.com/bluepoop.

Happy pooping!

Offa's Dyke: Monmouth to White Castle

I ended my first post on Offa's Dyke at the beginning of the Tiddenham section.  During 8 years of living in the Forest of Dean, most of them with no ambitions to traverse the whole Offa's Dyke path, I've walked all of the route between there and The Kymin, overlooking Monmouth. On the way, I've stood spellbound more than once at The Devil's Pulpit, drinking in what is arguably the best view on the whole path.  You can read about one of the visits here.

Consequently, we decided to continue our walk from Monmouth's famous Monnow Bridge.  That leaves a short section un-walked from The Kymin down into Monmouth, but it can wait until I figure out how to do it without having to walk all the way back up to retrieve the car.

 

 

The Monnow Bridge has the distinction of being the only surviving medieval fortified river bridge in the kingdom. Its splendid tower and archway must have been a challenge for lorry drivers before the bridge was bypassed with a new one in 2004.

Leaving the houses of Monmouth behind, the path runs beside a field of potatoes, then one of corn, before entering King's Wood. 

From the bridge it's a steep, but thankfully short, climb through the woods, followed by a gentle descent into the valley of the River Trothy. 

 

An ancient parish boundary marker, I presume.  In olden days, during the 5th week of Easter, parishioners would 'beat the bounds' to ensure that knowledge of these boundaries wasn't lost. If one needed a church for baptism, marriage or burial, it was important to known in which parish one resided.

Near the little river the fields can become too muddy to cross, but not on the day we visited.  The ground was as hard as concrete.

 

Here abouts once stood Grace-Dieu Abbey, though no sign of it survives above ground.  This, the last Cistercian abbey to be established in Wales, came into use in 1226 but survived for a mere 7 years, when the Welsh attacked it and raised it to the ground. Like Llanthony to the east – and presumably other abbeys and priories in Wales – these Norman centres of privilege were strongly resented by the local population.

The half-way point on this walk was Llanvihangel Ystern-Llewern. From here, we retraced our steps to Monmouth.  On the following Monday we parked at White Castle, walked to Llanvihangel Ystern-Llewern, then all the way back to White Castle again. To preserve the continuity of this blog, I'll continue to describe the walk heading west from Monmouth.

The little church is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels (a very common dedication) or, according to my Offa's Dyke Path Guide, St Michael of the Fiery Meteor.  Despite searching the Internet, I could find no explanation of the fiery meteor, nor of its connexion with St Michael.  Is there, perhaps, a clue in a translation of Llanvihangel Ystern-Llewern?  Google Translate was of no help, though with my limited knowledge of Welsh I can pick out Llan (church) and angel (angel).  I await with eager anticipation some enlightenment from my Welsh-speaking readers.

Angie at Llanvihangel, Monday 7th June                   ... and there again on Monday 14th June

Really! The things one sees on the Offa's Dyke!

The Offa's Dyke path goes through the middle of this cider apple plantation. I've sampled Welsh cider at The Boat Inn in Redbrook and can vouch for its excellence.

Descending into Llantilio-Crosseny I was rewarded with this lovely view of Sugar Loaf Mountain (left) and Skirrid (right), both of which I've climbed on earlier escapades into Wales.

On the bridge over the River Trothy at Llantilio Crosseny

With only a couple of miles to go to White Castle, and energy to spare, we decided to divert into Llantilio Crosseny to explore the church and a moat that I spotted on the OS map.

 

St Teilo's Church is surprisingly large for the small community it serves, and was a lovely place to sit, rest and cool down on a blisteringly hot day. 

Like many Welsh Saints, Teilo had a Cornish connexion (where he was known as Eliud) and also spent a few years in Brittany. He's best remembered, though, in Wales.  He died in Llantilio, whereupon his body is said to have miraculously became three identical ones.  In truth his bones were probably claimed by three churches, each wishing to attract pilgrims to their sites.  Holy bones could make you a lot of money in the Middle Ages.

 

The moat turned out to be the site of Hen Gwrt, a 14th century moated residence. All that remains is the moat and the island on which the building once stood. 

 

And so, on to White Castle, where our day had begun...

 

To my mind, all 'real' castles should have moats and drawbridges, so White Castle scores high in my affections. 

Walking Offa's Dyke

I have set myself a new challenge. Even for this 72 year old it's achievable, though how long it might take is anybody's guess.  I'm going to walk the length of Offa's Dyke. 

Offa's Dyke was the creation of the 8th Century King Offa, who had it built to mark the border between his kingdom of Mercia and the marauding Welsh. 1200 years later, enough of it survives to define a 177 mile footpath that stretches from the River Severn in the south to Prestatyn in the north.

Since I live a mere 6½ miles from the southern section of the Dyke, the first bit will be easy.  Indeed, at the conclusion of the walk I'm about to describe, I'll have already walked most of it.  

Further from home things will get more tricky. Two cars would be useful, for then one could be left at the end of each day's walk and the other driven to the beginning, but unless Great Uncle Bulgaria leaves me a lot of money in his will, we're stuck with one car. Consequently, I envisage a series of out-and-back walks, probably as far north as Kington. After that?... well let's see. 

Here I am at the beginning of the Path. The sun shone, but yellow jacket and (unseen) waterproof leggings show that I was expecting heavy rain.  

Here's a little detail that adds to the amusement of Offa's Dyke.  According to this sign on Sedbury Cliffs, the path is 165 miles long. The official National Trails website says it's 177 miles, whilst a sign in Chepstow claims it to be 182 miles! 

 

 

By standing on the marker stone I was able to snap this view of the River Severn and the original Severn Bridge.  And look... blue sky!  I wonder whether it will last?

 

Looking for all the world like an old railway embankment, this was my first view of Kinig Offa's 1200 year-old Dyke.
 

 

Soon the path swings west to follow the River Wye. As you can see, the land on the Welsh side is being redeveloped.  It once looked like this...

The structure at the top of this old photo was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's tubular suspension bridge, a prototype for his famous Royal Albert Bridge across the Tamar at Saltash. The Chepstow bridge was extensively rebuilt in 1962, but its name lives on in these oddly-named Tubular Cottages on the Offa's Dyke path.

 

 

Soon I will be out in open countryside, but for now the path threads its uninspiring way through the streets and footpaths of Tutshill. I did, however, get this nice view of Chepstow Castle.

Behind the scaffolding stands Tutshill Lookout Tower. Depending on which website one consults, it's either of Anglo-Saxon origin or built in the 16th century. Either way, it's getting some much-needed TLC.

In a far superior state of repair is this splendid residence – Penmoel. I think this woman could be happy living there, though I don't envy its owners the job of maintaining it... or even cleaning it for that matter.  In 2016 I could have snapped it up for a mere £1½ million. The Offa's Dyke path runs behind the wall in the foreground.

The long-expected downpour finally materialised just beyond Penmoel. It was here, at the beginning of the Tidenham Section of the Dyke, that I left the path and took a precipitously steep path to join the Wye Valley Greenway. 

And so, for the second time in as many weeks, I walked through Tidenham Tunnel on my way back to Sedbury.  It really is quite dark in there, but I wasn't complaining. It doesn't rain in tunnels!