Gus
Magna Kayak
An unintentional epic. Bought some inflatable kayaks recently, and planned to use them this Saturday just gone for a leisurely trip along the Thames. Leaving a bit after 1pm, Bourne End to to Runnymede. Expected maybe a 3 hour jaunt. All good until we got to the bit where they closed the river to fix a bridge over the M4. Headed inland to work around the issue then couldn’t find where to get back on so we find ourselves walking cross country with these kayaks on our shoulders. Ended up joining the Jubilee River instead with a view to then join back up with the Thames further downstream. Then with a whole series of weirs and locks taking us off the river again, we ended up walking through Eton to rejoin the river via one of the college boat houses. Now time was getting on a bit but didn’t get back to the car (which we’d preparked up at the destination) until dark o’clock – and the car park was locked up. Uberred back to the other car at the start (where the house keys were in) and got home about 11pm something. Sheesh.
[The 5 hours that Strava states below is 5 hours paddling. this doesn’t count the c.4hours overland].
Standbyland
I drew something last week.
And credit to Owen Delaney who I follow on Twitter. His amazing personalised race maps made me do it.
Brecon Beacons, January 2020
Bombed down the Wales Friday night just gone, stayed in Merthyr. Wow, now that is a very special place. Really friendly people though, bloke in a bar (we took the weekend off Dry Jan) called VNU insisted he bought us a drink. Then he got ejected for fighting. And everyone hates the English, all good bants, mainly about the rugby but what with the area being the heartlands of their old mining industry, even Thatcher got a mention.
Drove up the road to the Storey Arms at the foot of the hills and made out ascent. About a 2.5hr round trip taking in Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan (we were later corrected that it’s pronounced Penivan). Excellent to get amongst it once again.
Then over to Aberdare for a Bowie tribute band that evening where we were well looked after by the locals there too.
Love love love that part of the world. Love Wales. Love the Welsh. Boyo.
In Recognition of Transnistria
End of November we headed back down towards the Black Sea for a long weekend in Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine. Landed, drove straight out of Chisinau (pronounced Kiss-shin-yav), along the R2 via a drink pitstop, through the town of Bender (!) and into…Transnistria border control. “Border control?” I hear you say, “but it’s not a country!” Except it is. From there we went into Tiraspol centre, stayed one night, excellent, mahusive oysters. Picked up the train down to Odessa (not easy when cards aren’t accepted and you don’t have the cash to pay). Did the border control on the train into Ukraine, ate cake, did a lot of moseying around town including the Potemkin Stairs and found a good bar showing this Fatboy Slim video from my home town. Stayed a night there before taxiing back to Tiraspol the next day, picked up the hire car to drive back to Chisinau which to be honest was nothing to write home/ a blog post about.
Getting back to Transnistria though (over the Dnister River)… Not officially ‘recognised’ by the UN but is in a club of about 5 other breakaway states who recognise each other. What makes a country? Sovereignty seems to be defined as:
- A defined territory
- Permanent population
- Passport
- Currency
- Its own government
- The ability to enter into relations with other nations
It’s this final one which seems to be the most important or the blocker to births of new nations but from my experience travelling through it; passport control, customs, different number plates, different currency (Moldovan not accepted) plus also a different language, a different alphabet but moreover: The ‘feel’ changed.
Transnistria is without a doubt its own country.
Moshi Moshi