Bank holiday weekends are always a bonus, an extra day added to the weekend is a thing of joy, especially if the weather is good.
And last bank holiday weekend the weather was good. So Boudica decided that as a little treat we would go for a walk in a local spot that (much to my shame) I had never been to before. It’s a wooded area on the side of a hill and is part of a reserve where a certain amount of re-wilding has been taking place over the last few years. A few species of fauna have been reintroduced in a fenced off area and left to make their own way in life, much like the rest of us. But this time they are being protected from hunting and abuse from we humans. A good thing in my book.
Anyway, the area that Boudica was taking me to is adjacent to the reserve and is laced with paths, both official and ad hoc. She and her other warrior queens have visited this place several times before, usually accompanied by a dog or two, and I was now being inducted into the club but with me as the dog this time.
We parked up and headed out, complete with coffee in hand ready for the bench at the top of the hill where we were planning to sit and enjoy the view through the trees and across the marshes to the sea. And we did. We sat on the bench, we drank our coffees, we viewed the sea through the trees. We even took a few selfies. But the thing that really struck us was the noise, the sound of all the birds in the trees was louder than I expected, much louder. But what a great noise to be surrounded by.
I think my surprise came from the fact that usually when I get out and about it’s into the hills, and while there are any number of birds around to listen to, it’s definitely not in the same order of magnitude. We also live in a very rural environment, but even here it’s not the same as it is in the woods.
Well, after taking in the surroundings, listening to the birds, and finishing our coffees, we set off deeper into the heart of the woods following one of the more established paths. All the usual suspects were present, Ash, Beech, Oak, and quite a few others as well. All in all a very well established patch of old woodland that has clearly been around for a very long time.It was a lovely walk through the dappled sunlight that was breaking through the canopy as we headed off to the far end of the woods. The idea was to go pretty much as far as we could and then take one of the other paths back in a round robin fashion.
However, Boudica noticed that she had dropped something somewhere earlier, so we headed back the way we had come to search for the missing thing. We had a fairly good idea where it was and to be honest it didn’t take too long to find it. Once it was successfully retrieved we decided to take one of the many paths that spider web their way across the area with a view to getting back to where we had parked the car. And this is where we went a little off piste as it were.
Now, I’m a silver award navigator (according to the NNAS), actually I’m a mountain leader which means having to hold a gold award, but I qualified a very long long time ago in the dim and distant past, so about two years ago I did a refresher at silver level. Great!What this really means is that I can usually tell when I’m going off course, so when Boudica suggested that we head off in a certain direction I agreed thinking that it was the right way. After all the OS Maps app was telling me all was fine (I generally use it as a quick and easy way to keep an eye on things), and I believed it, why not?
However, it didn’t take long for me to realise that we seemed to be going in the wrong direction, in fact 180 degrees wrong. Despite pushing on in the direction of choice, the further we went the more I became convinced that things were not all that they seemed and that the app was lying to me.
And that’s the thing isn’t it? We all rely on technology in our daily lives to an ever increasing level, and the apps we use to tell us where we are and we’re going are especially important. I myself use the OS Maps app whenever I’m out and about because it’s convenient and easy, and it’s usually very good. But I never rely on it as my only method of navigation, I always take a map and compass on any walk that takes me more than a couple of miles away from civilisation.
But as I was starkly reminded during this walk, the techy options are not as reliable as we would like them to be. Batteries can drain, it gets dropped, it gets wet, or it can just simply fail in any number of ways.So back to our walk.After a little bit of discussion and rationalisation with regards to our current location and the dubious nature of the app, we decided to make our way back the way we had come, but via a slightly different path.
Not too discouraged by the diversion we were still able to enjoy the rest of the walk back to the car, even though Boudica was now very ready to get back to the comfort of the upholstered seats.Despite both of the unintended diversions it was a lovely walk through the trees in lovely company, and I enjoyed it immensely. I now plan to go on further walks with the Iceni one, it was nice to reconnect in such a wonderful spot and as a couple in a long, long term relationship it’s nice to do things together.
However, the real moral of the story is this; always check your bearings as you go, and never, ever, rely on on tech as your only form of navigation.
Until next time.