Wednesday, 14 April 2010
A weekend in Chester
Not a walking or camping weekend, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Our accommodation for two nights was at The Albion Inn.
This is a quite amazing pub with just two letting rooms. Ours was very comfortable and we were looked after very well by Christine, the wife of the landlord, Mike. It's a traditional, if slightly quirky, pub with excellent beers, good down to earth food (nothing fancy here). I had haggis, mash and two veg, washed down with a pint of Youngs Gold. A place to be highly recommended, The Albion is situated adjacent to the Roman Wall which surrounds the city.
North Oxfordshire
A day's walk starting not far from home. The car was taken to just outside town and parked. This saves about three miles in all. Walked across fields to Swerford
and Hook Norton, skirting the eastern edge of the village (and going nowhere near the brewery or any pubs) and then heading east to Wigginton. Here, I'd planned to stop for a pint at the White Horse, a Hook Norton pub, but there was a notice up saying it was closed until further notice. That was a bit of a blow but I walked on to South Newington and called in at the Duck on the Pond, a pub I'd only driven by before. A look inside South Newington church was rewarding. There were some magnificent wall paintings.
Just out of South Newington was a workshop with some unroadworthy cars parked or dumped outside. This was one that caught my eye.
My way then took me south to Great Tew (through the Great Tew Estate). I know the village quite well but can never resist taking photographs here. It's a very photogenic village. I didn't have time for a pint at the Falkland Arms, unfortunately.
I then went on through Little Tew, being slightly taken aback by a field of grazing alpacas.
It was then back to the car. The weather was good all day and not at all a bad walk virtually on my doorstep.
and Hook Norton, skirting the eastern edge of the village (and going nowhere near the brewery or any pubs) and then heading east to Wigginton. Here, I'd planned to stop for a pint at the White Horse, a Hook Norton pub, but there was a notice up saying it was closed until further notice. That was a bit of a blow but I walked on to South Newington and called in at the Duck on the Pond, a pub I'd only driven by before. A look inside South Newington church was rewarding. There were some magnificent wall paintings.
Just out of South Newington was a workshop with some unroadworthy cars parked or dumped outside. This was one that caught my eye.
My way then took me south to Great Tew (through the Great Tew Estate). I know the village quite well but can never resist taking photographs here. It's a very photogenic village. I didn't have time for a pint at the Falkland Arms, unfortunately.
I then went on through Little Tew, being slightly taken aback by a field of grazing alpacas.
It was then back to the car. The weather was good all day and not at all a bad walk virtually on my doorstep.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Freeloader Pico solar charger
A new bit of kit was delivered today.
It will either work or end up in the bin. It is marketed by http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/shop/freeloader-pico.htm and looks quite neat and only weighs 49g. As instructed, I'm giving it an initial charge via a PC before charging a gadget. I'm hoping it will charge my Blackberry Pearl and a Sony mp3 player when I'm on multi-day hikes. It doesn't come with a suitable tip to fit the Sony but the instructions say that I can use the lead that came with the Sony. The Pico has a USB and a mini USB socket. If it works, it should be quite useful. However, it's only got a small solar panel so I don't expect miracles.
I searched for a review of the Pico and found a rather good one. I thought it was worth including it below. It came from http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review262294.html:
"Portable gizmos that claim to charge your cellphone or iPod on the move are two a penny these days. Solar powered portable charging gizmos are not such a common sight, it has to be said, especially if we are talking about ones that actually work. Which is why I was excited at the prospect of having a real world out in the field play with the Freeloader Pico, but at the same time bracing myself for disappointment.
It's not that I am not a fan of the solar power concept for mobility, just the opposite in fact. Over the years I've had every type of solar power charging product imaginable from cumbersome fanned panel devices through to the first ever commercially available backpack with integrated solar panels. The problem being that although they worked, after a fashion (and I use that word loosely as the man about town would not wish to be seen with either truth be told), they were just not practical for day to day use. The fan-like device feature a whole bunch of panels which unfolded to reveal half a dozen panels was not exactly what I'd call truly portable as it defies the object to carry around something bigger than the device it is meant to be providing power for. The backpack was, oddly enough, more practical as you could wear it but only if you didn't mind feeling like you were taking part in some kind of military marching exercise - and that was before you put any of your kit in it.
The portability argument still stands with regards to the Freeloader Pico, after all a spare cellphone battery is a lot smaller and easier to carry. Not that the Pico is huge, far from it, the thing measures up at just 105 x 45 x 11.5mm and weighs a meagre 49g. Trouble is, that's still bigger than many cellphones and MP3 players these days. So why am I even bothering reviewing it then? Simples: you can't just buy a spare battery for your iPhone or iPod can you? Yes, you can buy cases with power built in but they are bulky and hardly aesthetically pleasing. I don't want my svelte and sexy iPhone suddenly tripling in thickness and doubling in weight just to squeeze an extra few hours out of the beast on the odd occasion I need it. The Freeloader Pico, on the other hand, is small enough, light enough and goddamn it sexy enough to be practical for your average iPhone user.
It comes in a glossy iPod white colour by default, but if you like you can accessorise the thing with purpose built and rather funky gel skin cases in black, blue, green, orange, pink and red,. There's also a clear option if you just want to protect your Pico from knocks and scratches to the solar panel as the gel is impact resistant.
But does it work? Good question, and happily I'm able to report that yes it does. And rather well in fact. In my real world testing during a particularly cold and snowy British winter, it took around an hour to soak up enough light to start charging my iPhone which is actually not too bad. Given a nice bit of sunshine you should be able to cut that time in half. To fully charge it will take around 10 hours of sunshine, or you can cheat and plug it into a USB socket for three hours before you leave home instead. Once fully charged, expect to get around 30 hours of cellphone standby time, 14 hours for the iPod and around an hour or so for a GPS device.
I managed to use my '10% battery flashing' iPhone 3GS browsing the web, playing music and playing with those all important apps for more than 2 hours straight from a solar powered gizmo and that pleased me no end.
Oh, it comes complete with four connection adaptors that allow you to solar charge Nokia phones, Sony Ericsson phones, BlackBerry and other mini-USB devices and also G-series Samsung phones. Not forgetting that you can connect an iPhone or other gadgets that charge via USB using the USB socket on the Pico and your own sync/power cable. If that's still not good enough, the manufacturers have a further 25 tips available for a veritable plethora of other gadgets. You can even buy an optional charger unit for rechargeable AA/AAA batteries if you really want to push the envelope when it comes to this solar powered widget. Of course, there are plenty of things you can't charge with this thing, notably your netbook or laptop. But, hey folks, that would be expecting an awful lot from something so small now wouldn't it?
My verdict on what is the smallest and most compact solar powered gadget charger from the Freeloader stable is that it deliver on the promises made and remains practical and affordable at £16.99 plus you are helping do your bit to save the planet. Nice. So nice, in fact, that I'll give it a DaniWeb review rating of 8/10."
It will either work or end up in the bin. It is marketed by http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/shop/freeloader-pico.htm and looks quite neat and only weighs 49g. As instructed, I'm giving it an initial charge via a PC before charging a gadget. I'm hoping it will charge my Blackberry Pearl and a Sony mp3 player when I'm on multi-day hikes. It doesn't come with a suitable tip to fit the Sony but the instructions say that I can use the lead that came with the Sony. The Pico has a USB and a mini USB socket. If it works, it should be quite useful. However, it's only got a small solar panel so I don't expect miracles.
I searched for a review of the Pico and found a rather good one. I thought it was worth including it below. It came from http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review262294.html:
"Portable gizmos that claim to charge your cellphone or iPod on the move are two a penny these days. Solar powered portable charging gizmos are not such a common sight, it has to be said, especially if we are talking about ones that actually work. Which is why I was excited at the prospect of having a real world out in the field play with the Freeloader Pico, but at the same time bracing myself for disappointment.
It's not that I am not a fan of the solar power concept for mobility, just the opposite in fact. Over the years I've had every type of solar power charging product imaginable from cumbersome fanned panel devices through to the first ever commercially available backpack with integrated solar panels. The problem being that although they worked, after a fashion (and I use that word loosely as the man about town would not wish to be seen with either truth be told), they were just not practical for day to day use. The fan-like device feature a whole bunch of panels which unfolded to reveal half a dozen panels was not exactly what I'd call truly portable as it defies the object to carry around something bigger than the device it is meant to be providing power for. The backpack was, oddly enough, more practical as you could wear it but only if you didn't mind feeling like you were taking part in some kind of military marching exercise - and that was before you put any of your kit in it.
The portability argument still stands with regards to the Freeloader Pico, after all a spare cellphone battery is a lot smaller and easier to carry. Not that the Pico is huge, far from it, the thing measures up at just 105 x 45 x 11.5mm and weighs a meagre 49g. Trouble is, that's still bigger than many cellphones and MP3 players these days. So why am I even bothering reviewing it then? Simples: you can't just buy a spare battery for your iPhone or iPod can you? Yes, you can buy cases with power built in but they are bulky and hardly aesthetically pleasing. I don't want my svelte and sexy iPhone suddenly tripling in thickness and doubling in weight just to squeeze an extra few hours out of the beast on the odd occasion I need it. The Freeloader Pico, on the other hand, is small enough, light enough and goddamn it sexy enough to be practical for your average iPhone user.
It comes in a glossy iPod white colour by default, but if you like you can accessorise the thing with purpose built and rather funky gel skin cases in black, blue, green, orange, pink and red,. There's also a clear option if you just want to protect your Pico from knocks and scratches to the solar panel as the gel is impact resistant.
But does it work? Good question, and happily I'm able to report that yes it does. And rather well in fact. In my real world testing during a particularly cold and snowy British winter, it took around an hour to soak up enough light to start charging my iPhone which is actually not too bad. Given a nice bit of sunshine you should be able to cut that time in half. To fully charge it will take around 10 hours of sunshine, or you can cheat and plug it into a USB socket for three hours before you leave home instead. Once fully charged, expect to get around 30 hours of cellphone standby time, 14 hours for the iPod and around an hour or so for a GPS device.
I managed to use my '10% battery flashing' iPhone 3GS browsing the web, playing music and playing with those all important apps for more than 2 hours straight from a solar powered gizmo and that pleased me no end.
Oh, it comes complete with four connection adaptors that allow you to solar charge Nokia phones, Sony Ericsson phones, BlackBerry and other mini-USB devices and also G-series Samsung phones. Not forgetting that you can connect an iPhone or other gadgets that charge via USB using the USB socket on the Pico and your own sync/power cable. If that's still not good enough, the manufacturers have a further 25 tips available for a veritable plethora of other gadgets. You can even buy an optional charger unit for rechargeable AA/AAA batteries if you really want to push the envelope when it comes to this solar powered widget. Of course, there are plenty of things you can't charge with this thing, notably your netbook or laptop. But, hey folks, that would be expecting an awful lot from something so small now wouldn't it?
My verdict on what is the smallest and most compact solar powered gadget charger from the Freeloader stable is that it deliver on the promises made and remains practical and affordable at £16.99 plus you are helping do your bit to save the planet. Nice. So nice, in fact, that I'll give it a DaniWeb review rating of 8/10."
Monday, 22 March 2010
Backpackers Oxfordshire weekend
Not too far to travel to Barford St. Michael, the Friday night camp for this trip - only about nine miles from home. It was raining by the time I arrived to set up. No problem though and, after a meal (cooked twelve months ago and dehydrated, rehydrated now and very good), we headed to the pub just down the road. Saturday was wet, as forecast, for much of the day and very muddy as we headed east of Banbury to Great Bourton. Sunday's weather was a complete contrast. It was possible the warmest day of the year so far and the sun shone all day. Thje return route was west of Banbury.
I had to take this photo. This Jack Russell shared her master's tent. As he packed up in the morning, she lay on his sleeping bag; when this was put away, she moved on to the next thing. When all the gear was put in the backpack, she sat on that until even that disappeared.
I had to take this photo. This Jack Russell shared her master's tent. As he packed up in the morning, she lay on his sleeping bag; when this was put away, she moved on to the next thing. When all the gear was put in the backpack, she sat on that until even that disappeared.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Backpackers Beds/Northants weekend
Drove to Grendon, just outside Northampton. The tarp was set up in no time at all and a meal on the go. Then over to the pub for the evening. A pretty cold night, just a touch below freezing. Saturday we walked to Yelden in Bedfordshire, about seventeen miles. There was a fair amount of snow around the further east we went. There were twelve of us. Stopped at the Green Dragon in Higham Ferrers - Greene King IPA at £1.95 a pint! We pitched in the snow behind The Chequers at Yelden where it was quite cold. They couldn't provide food for us as they were catering for a village function so we went down the road a mile to The Swan at Newton Bromswold where, by arrangement, the landlord had laid on a special for us - steak or gammon with chips & peas. I had an excellent medium rare rump steak and only £6.00. The temperature had dropped to a few degrees below freezing during the evening. However, when I woke at around 7.30, my nose told me it was not quite so cold and, when my eyes focused, I saw that the sides of the tarp had caved in with the weight of snow on them and it was snowing hard. We had an excellent full English at The Chequers with plenty of good coffee. Snow had settled but it left off after a while and we made our way back to Grendon via Wymington and Podington, where we stopped off for refreshments at the garden centre tearoom at Podington. Walking was quite hard work, either through snow or, where that had gone, through much mud. Once again, the tarp proved itself as a suitable winter shelter. Some of those with tents had problems with condensation and wet sleeping bags.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Monday, 1 February 2010
TGO Challenge
Well, our route has been submitted for vetting. I don't think there should be any problem with it. As first time Challengers (well, two of us, anyway), the route seems pretty straightforward to me, apart from two stretches where there doesn't appear to be any path on the ground so good navigation skills will be needed. We start at Dornie and finish at Luna Bay. Once the route is approved, I'll post some more details.
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