Blog – Page 2 – www.lookatthestateofthat.com

In-sewer-ants

I’m renewing my wheelchair insurance. This is the text – and the whole text – under the “policy exclusions” heading:

This policy does not cover any claim directly or indirectly caused by, contributed to, or arising from

a) war, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities (whether war be declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or terrorism.

b) ionising radiations from, or contamination by, radioactivity from any nuclear fuel or from any nuclear waste from the combustion of nuclear fuel.

c) the radioactive, toxic or other hazardous or contaminating properties of any nuclear installation, reactor or other nuclear assembly or its nuclear components.

d) any weapon of war employing atomic or nuclear fission, fusion or other like reaction, radioactive force or matter.

I’m beginning to worry that they know something I don’t. Perhaps I should switch to paying monthly rather than a year upfront.

More wheelchair half marathons for 2023

I’m working on the definitive list of wheelchair half marathons I’m going to take part in next year (2023) in aid of nia. This is more difficult than you might expect; it’s obvious that not all half marathons are suitable for wheelchair users, but some of the reasons might not have occurred to you.

Terrain. An obvious one, this. Hills are hard. My first half marathon was the Sheffield one. The first half is uphill at a 45 degree angle for about a month and a half, then the second half is back down again, which takes about four minutes but will result in casualties. Some – but not all – half marathon websites have a terrain map. They are useful, especially considering how much disabilities vary. I’m looking for routes that don’t have very long, steep uphill sections not because I can’t manage them (I can) but because they’re a bit slow and miserable.
Surface. This one is more complicated than it seems. The main distinction between surfaces for half marathons is “trail” vs “road”. For most wheelchair users, trails are probably out. Even with off-road wheels, there’s no telling whether the route is going to be muddy or bumpy sandy or otherwise very hard (or imposible) to take a wheelchair down. Besides, I can’t say I’d fancy doing a half marathon with my off-road wheels on. They’re heavy and there’s a lot of surface area on the ground. But even if the surface is “road”, it might not be very suitable for wheelchairs. There might be potholes, seriously dodgy cambers, kerbs and so on. So I need to focus on routes that are in city centres, where I can be sure that the roads will be suitable.
Size. With smaller half-marathons, the roads can begin to open fairly quickly after the start time. In the case of the Sheffield one, this was a problem since the first half was very slow for me (punishingly uphill all the way). I was constantly worried that they wanted to open up the roads and I wouldn’t be able to finish. I really didn’t need that anxiety on top of everything else. So I want to stick to the larger events, such as the Great North Run, where I can be sure of getting round the course before they start to open the roads.

There are other factors, of course, to do with getting to and from the event because travel is always more difficult in a wheelchair. And if I’m staying in a hotel overnight, getting from there to the race start can be tricky because of the closed roads. That’s true for everyone, of course, but sometimes the wheelchair accessible route will turn out to be a lot longer than expected.

So having taken all this into account, here are my targets for next year. This might be subject to change. Some events, such as the Great North Run, allocate places on a lottery basis, so I might not get a place. And I might add some more just for the hell of it. Any suggestions?

The Great North Run
The Great Birmingham Run
The Great Manchester Run
The Great Scottish Run
Leeds Half Marathon
Derby Half Marathon

Perhaps I’ll see you there!

You can donate to my JustGiving page: all donations go straight to nia and I don’t handle a penny of it. If you’re in doubt, though, you can donate to nia directly here. Here’s why you should.

This never happens

It should obvious to most why I raise money to help women and girls who are victims of domestic and sexual abuse. I know to some it is not; many men in particular are wilfully ignorant of the extent and effects of VAWG. They don’t want to believe the burden of violence women must bear in addition to their oppression and marginalisation around the globe. It’s easy to dismiss such men as incels or men’s rights activists or redpillers and we might mutter about the malign influences of toxic masculinity and the far right.

I’ve done it myself. I’ve congratulated myself, perhaps smugly, on my left-leaning, progressive views. But, more recently, I’ve come to understand that we need to look closer to home. Perhaps we should have listened to feminists all along when they told us there’s a powerful current of misogyny that does not respect political leanings.

Regardless, I hope it’s obvious why I support a charity that helps women and girls who are victims of domestic and sexual abuse. It might be less clear why I support nia in particular. I’ve received quite a lot of (social media) abuse for it, in fact. I’ve been called transphobic. I’ve had lies spread quite widely on social media claiming that I’m stealing the donations or otherwise defrauding the charity (this is impossible, the money goes directly from JustGiving to nia and I don’t handle a penny of it). I’ve had a group of people actively encouraging others not to donate. I’ve had people impersonating me for the same reason. I’ve had death threats. I have little doubt that the charity, and the women and girls it supports, have lost out on some donations because of it.

All of this abuse has come from fellow lefty progressives.

Here’s why:

At nia we prioritise women, women as a sex class.
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/prioritising-women/

That’s it. That’s all you need to know. But to expand a little:

Our work to protect single-sex services and spaces for women, particularly but not only women who have been subjected to men’s violence and abuse; and naming men as the agents or perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, is not defining women through victimisation, it is not weaponising the violence perpetrated by men upon us and using it against marginalised groups. It is standing against male domination and abuse of women.
Feminism is a movement of all women for the liberation of women from subjugation and male domination under patriarchy. Women are not free until all women are free. nia is for all women.
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/prioritising-women/

To be clear: nia promotes single-sex spaces for women who have been traumatised by violence done to them by men. The most basic thing we can provide for abused women is a space in which they can feel – and be – safe. This cannot be the case if there are males in those spaces. This is true regardless of whether those males intend harm.

Many men do, of course, intend harm, which is why women need shelters in the first place. We know that men will blithely go to great lengths to gain access to vulnerable women so making access easier is nothing short of insanity. Allowing males who say they are women access to female-only crisis shelters and services is one of the most blatant expressions of this insanity.

Here’s yet another example of a thing we’re told never happens.

A woman was allegedly raped by a sex offender at a women’s shelter in Ontario, Canada after the predator identified as transgender in order to gain access to the facility.
Shane Jacob Green, 25, was arrested on August 24 by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). At the time, the OPP issued a notice stating Green had been charged with two counts of sexual assault, four counts of failing to comply with a probation order, and one count of failing to comply with a release order.
But new details have emerged through the Toronto Sun revealing that Green’s crimes occurred while he was staying in a women’s emergency shelter in Parry Sound.

This is a man who had already spent 114 days in prison for assaulting a woman. After being released, Green was arrested in Welland, Ontario, for stalking and harassing two young girls.

What was he doing in a women’s shelter?

According to the Sun, Green, who is homeless, had approached the Parry Sound shelter on August 22 and declared he was a woman in order to get a place to stay. While in the home, Green had allegedly been making sexually inappropriate comments to staff and residents, his behavior culminating in a sexual assault that occurred just two days later. He was arrested on August 24, the day of the assault, and is currently at Parry Sound Jail awaiting trial.

He’d previously attempted to enter other shelters in the area, on one occasion claiming to have a child to do so. He was reportedly flagged by the shelter system because of his manipulative behaviour.

According to the Sun, Green was known for leveraging his knowledge of gender self-identification policies both with police and women’s resource centers. Green sometimes uses the name “Stephanie” when claiming to be transgender. Staff at the women’s shelter where the rape allegedly occurred may have been too afraid to turn Green away due to the risk of running afoul of Canada’s notoriously pro-trans human rights law.

All Green had to do to gain access to vulnerable women was to declare that he’s a woman. Even if he hadn’t been a rapist, his presence could have been deeply traumatising to survivors of male violence who are trying to recover in safety.

I hope this answers the question of why nia? and I hope you’ll be able to donate either via my crowdfunder (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/latsot-wheelchair-half-marathons) or directly to nia (https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising/)

People have been incredibly generous, despite economic difficulties. I managed to raise around £3000 this year, because of that generosity. I’ll do more wheelchair half marathons and raise more money next year and I thank nia for their excellent work.

Ending violence against women and girls

It’s the Great North Run on Sunday!

I’m glad I got a place in this one, the biggest and best half marathon in a city I still think of as home.

I’m doing this, my third wheelchair half marathon this year, in aid of nia.

nia runs services for women and girls who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution.
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/

There are two main reasons I chose to raise money for nia in particular, when there are other charities helping women and girls who are victims of sexual and domestic violence.

First is nia’s guiding principle and track record:

nia is run for women and children by women, providing services developed in consultation with women who have been subjected to men’s violence and from a proudly feminist foundation. We have been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.

It’s vital that services for women and girls who have been subject to violence by men remain male-free. Male presence in those spaces can further traumatise those women and girls who are desperate, above all, to escape violence and fear. nia maintains an all-woman staff team for this purpose and the services it delivers are exclusively for women and children.

Second, nia is a local charity, although not local to me personally. This means that donations go more or less directly to the people who need it, in the places it is needed, without great administrative overhead. Here’s a summary of some of nia’s recent impacts:

In the year between April 2019 and March 2020, nia provided one-to-one support to 1,488 women, girls and children and a further 1063 women and/or family/friends/agencies through the ELRC helpline.
18 volunteers gave 560 hours of their time to help women and girls through the East London Rape Crisis Information and Support Line and Huggett Women’s Centre.
52 children under 16 who had been subjected to or witnessed domestic violence and abuse were supported by nia’s Play Therapy.

Much, much more can be found here.

nia has had enormous impact, efficiently turning donations into vital, targeted, community-focused services. They make a huge difference to the lives of women and girls who are subject to sexual and domestic violence and abuse.

Finally, quotes from some of the women who have worked with nia:

“I felt heard and not judged, which allowed me to better verbalise my issues and that prompted change in my life”
“I just want to thank you for your support over the past months, you have been more helpful to me than perhaps you realised and for that I am grateful. It is so helpful to talk to you because you understand, especially the small things that are difficult to explain; other people don’t understand. Thank you”.
“What you all do is lifesaving. I was so beaten down by the system and having nia help me to know what happened was wrong and unacceptable. The system does not support women at all and it is dangerous that they are saying they do. Women are being murdered at alarming rates. These men have no right to do this to us. We are valuable and worthy”
“I have to thank you again for all your help, you never gave up on me and that’s why I am where I am now”.
“She spoke very favourably about the support at the centre, the relaxed atmosphere and the kindness and welcome she received. It is fantastic to hear such positive feedback and it was wonderful to see how much more relaxed and at ease my client presented when I visited her. She was very much looking forward to having her nails done at the centre and she has met several friends whilst attending the coffee mornings.”
“What do other women do in these situations without help from people like you? I would not have coped, I wouldn’t be here”.
“Thank you so much for your help, you have helped me a lot. I am upset not to talk to you anymore. My mental health feels much better. I feel more positive and more relaxed. It is good to know you are there to talk to, I don’t feel alone. I know I would not have this help in my country. Thank you.”
“The support around court and housing was very useful for me, due to my mental health I can only deal with so much. I’ve got my life back and free from abuse.”
“Honestly the support line has been so helpful, if it weren’t for Rape Crisis I honestly would not have coped.”
“You guys helped me a hell of a lot. I wasn’t aware of some of my options and rights; routes to do things. I am getting my cooker now from social services as the other one was smashed by my ex-partner. You advised me of this, that I can ask my social worker. You are very supportive.”
“It was only when ELRC became involved that I became stable, within a month I was able to return to work.”
“Everybody is looking after me, thank you. You have been excellent! More than excellent! What could I have done without you? I was crying all the time. I would have committed suicide and I was thinking about it. I am so grateful. You gave me hope, you took away the fear out of me as I was paralysed with fear that he was going to kill me when the order expired. I now have no anxiety. Whenever I talk to you, you lift my spirit.”

Please support nia if you can, they make an enormous difference. I’m certain that in these times of economic difficulty violence against women and girls will only increase, making the need for charities like nia greater still.

You can contribute to my crowdfunder here. Every penny goes directly to nia.

Countdown to the Great North Run!

Look what was waiting for me when I got back from a 12 mile training push yesterday!

It’s my race number for the Great North Run!

This happens on 11th September and I suppose I’ll have to do it now, since my number has arrived. I joke, I’m really looking forward to this one. I wrote about that, something of my origin story and a little about nia, the excellent charity I’m raising money for, here.

If you can afford to donate to nia in these troubled times, I encourage you to do so. You can donate directly to the charity, of course, or through my crowdfunder here. If you donate from the UK, don’t forget to add Gift Aid.

The Great North Run

I was born in North Yorkshire and I’ve lived in a lovely part of County Durham for more than twenty years, but insofar as I have a spirit, poor, shrivelled black thing though it must surely be, my spiritual home is Newcastle upon Tyne. I lived there for a long time, worked there for longer and it’s where I met my wife. It’s where I made some of the most important friendships of my life; it’s where I was first truly creative and first truly happy; it’s where I began to form many of the perspectives and the temperament I hold today. It’s where I first began to throw off the shackles of childhood and become whatever it is that I am now. And it’s where I was first paid to sit in a little room by myself and think.

So I’m especially pleased that I’m doing the Great North Run this year. I’ve done two half marathons this year already and they were (for a given definition of) fun and they were challenging in different ways. But everyone knows those other half marathons are wannabes compared to the GNR (sorry, Sheffield and Leeds, but you know it’s true). The GNR is the big one and it’s hard to get into. Well, when I say ‘hard’ I mean that it’s a lottery. I didn’t have to actually do anything other than apply, but there was a significant chance that I wouldn’t get a place.

But I did! And I’m really looking forward to it, even though my excitement will definitely diminish according to a power law as it approaches.

Since I suddenly have a lot of new followers on Twitter because I tweeted a thread about dogs (reminder, tweet more about dogs, people like that) I’m going to briefly tell my already brief story again, then say a bit about the cause I’m raising money for: nia.

In 2020, at age 48, I developed a neurological condition which cost me most of the mobility in my legs and has left me in constant pain. Nobody quite knows what the condition is, least of all my neurologist who keeps describing me, irritatingly, as a ‘medical mystery’. Personally, I prefer ‘medical marvel’ but he doesn’t seem to want to run with that.

This condition has me mostly confined to a wheelchair so naturally I, an unfit, middle-aged man, decided the obvious thing to do was as many wheelchair half marathons as possible.

Well, that’s not really how it happened. The cause came first. The stupid idea came afterwards, around teatime.

The cause is this one: ending domestic and sexual violence against women and girls. These forms of violence are linked. From the nia site (slightly edited, see the site for citations):

We know that the majority of women who have experienced abuse will have experienced multiple forms, they rarely exist in isolation, for example:
54% of rapes reported to the police took place within the context of domestic violence, that is they were committed by husbands/partners/boyfriends or former husbands/partners/boyfriends
As many as 85% women in prostitution report physical abuse in the family, with 45% reporting familial sexual abuse.
Nearly 40% of the cases dealt with by the Forced Marriage Unit concern people under the age of 18 and 85% are women/girls
Nearly three quarters of children on the ‘at risk’ register live in households where domestic violence occurs.
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/what-is-violence-against-women-and-girls/

The common denominator is clear. Like nia, I believe that “artificially created boundaries between different forms of violence against women isolate organisations, reduce political pressure and force women to search out fragmented support”. What’s needed is a coordinated campaign to end all violence against women and girls.

“Violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
United Nations’ General Assembly Declaration of the Elimination of Violence against Women (resolution 48/104 of December 1993)

This includes but is I’m sorry to say not limited to:

Domestic/partner violence
Female genital mutilation
Forced marriage
‘Honour’ based violence
Prostitution and trafficking
Sexual violence, including rape
Sexual exploitation
Sexual harassment
Stalking
Coercive control

There are many organisations aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and shameful it is that they are necessary. So why am I promoting nia in particular and why should you definitely donate to them?

The first reason is the integrated approach I’ve just described. It’s always the radical approach, with me: tackle the common denominator.

The second reason is that nia prioritises women and girls over men at every level.

nia is for all women. nia is a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity and has been delivering services to women, girls and children in East London who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/prioritising-women/

I cannot think of a more important qualification than that. Women must be able to describe their own oppression and be given the capability to build the resources they need to protect themselves from violence and to keep developing the political movement to end that violence altogether. The last thing they need is idiots like me telling them how to do it. nia is a feminist organisation, led and run entirely by women, and that’s precisely the way it should be.

Our work to protect single-sex services and spaces for women, particularly but not only women who have been subjected to men’s violence and abuse; and naming men as the agents or perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, is not defining women through victimisation, it is not weaponising the violence perpetrated by men upon us and using it against marginalised groups. It is standing against male domination and abuse of women.
Feminism is a movement of all women for the liberation of women from subjugation and male domination under patriarchy. Women are not free until all women are free. nia is for all women.
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/prioritising-women/

Please, please support nia if you can. You can donate at their site, of course, but what you really came here for was my crowdfunder page, right? Right?

This is actually my second crowdfunder page for this cause and is the one that will remain open indefinitely (for full disclosure, the old one is here). So far this year I’ve raised around £2000 for nia through wheelchair half marathons. I’d really like to double that, if I can, and I’ll be annoying you all with repeated demands for money until the GNR in September. Then I’ll take a week off and start again.

If you want to see more about my (wince) journey (sorry), check out the rest of this blog. You can also subscribe to it for updates on my process.

Another half marathon bites the dust

That makes it sound like I’ve done loads, doesn’t it? More precisely, I did my second wheelchair half marathon yesterday. It was the Leeds one, a very good, well-organised event. I’ll do it again next year.

I got around the course OK and enjoyed it for the most part, but it was hard work in a wheelchair. The usual combination of bad camber, rough surfaces and relentless uphill bits was the culprit. I’ve promised myself that I’ll stop talking about cambers, so I will. Except to say: fuck them. I know they are needed for drainage but since there will be no more rain in ten years anyway, it would be much more convenient for me if we started building completely flat roads. Could we just do that?

Camber aside, it was a nice course and beautiful weather. There were a lot of people lining the course, giving obviously sincere encouragement. The course wound through residential areas for a long time. This was nice because there were families camped out on the street making a day of it. They were handing out sweets and oranges and high fives and jogging alongside to chat. In my case, they didn’t have to jog very quickly.

One street had a feral gang of little girls with super-soakers offering to squirt anyone who was too hot. Brilliant stuff.

When people talk about how great the crowds are at events like these, I used to think they meant the big, cheering crowds at the beginning and end. But it’s the scattered families and individuals along the way who are just being nice who make it for me. As far as I know, I was the only wheelchair competitor (I saw one other wheelchair, but they were being pushed, which is so cheating) so I got a lot of attention. People really seemed to realise how difficult these bloody things are and meant it when they said I was doing well.

I wasn’t doing all that well, in reality.

I made it in somewhere between three and three-fifteen.This is not a great time; I met people walking back along the course with their completion medals when I was barely 3/4 of the way through. But in my defence I was nowhere near last; we went for a bite to eat afterwards and the tannoy was still announcing finishers while we were eating. The slow bastards 😉

And I have to say: that woman in her 70s with a walking stick who kept overtaking me on hills is now my lifelong nemesis. Next time, walking-stick-lady. Next time.

Except that she was super-nice. As was the blind runner and her guide who offered some friendly rivalry, the startlingly tall man in African tribal gear who sauntered along chatting to everyone and the very sweet two women who did the whole thing, as far as I can tell, without ever letting go of each other’s hand.

Yeah, I’m totally saying that the back is the best place to be.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me so far. This is not something I do idly, it is really very, very hard work. I do it because the cause is so important: women and girls have always been subject to male violence and never more so than in difficult economic and socially turbulent times. They need immediate help, they need help to get back on their feet and they need ongoing support.

I didn’t push too hard for sponsorship for this particular event because my previous big push for the Sheffield one was so recent. Nevertheless, you have all donated about £2000 for nia so far. Brilliant work, everyone.

And I’m still going. The next event is the Great North Run in September and I’ll be pushing you hard for donations, rest assured.

If you’d like to donate, please do, the link is here. And if you could share the link, that would be great too.

More breakage :(

I had a decent training push this morning; around 12 miles including (deliberately) a section with a spectacularly bad camber. It rained a bit, but I missed most of it.

However, at the far extent of the push (it would be, wouldn’t it?), I noticed that my chair back was sagging at one side. When I looked, one of the push handles had snapped, somehow. The seat back is made from various velcro straps strung across two vertical struts and the push handles form part of those struts.

Bugger. The Leeds event is on Sunday so the chance of getting a replacement in time was virtually zero. And it would leave no time for further training while the chair was out of action, in any case.

Fortunately, I fixed it. I was able to remove the broken part, lower both handles and restring the velcro straps. So now my backrest is lower than it was. It’s not 100% ideal but it will do for training and will get me through the Leeds event.

After that, I’m going to look for a new backrest. Perhaps a low, rigid (but folding) one, this time.

I always seem to break my chair just before something important. Wheelchairs require more maintenance (and expense) than you think.

As always, take a look at my fundraising page. I’m doing wheelchair half marathons (three this year, plus sundry 10k events) to raise money for nia, a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.

New crowdfunder page

I started a new crowfdunder page!

Which is here!

It has a picture of my racing chair on it!

I started the new page because the old one was tied specifically to the Sheffield half marathon and will close soon. This one will be open indefinitely and will be the place to donate to from now on, if you’re so inclined.

Please do! I’m pleased to say I raised nearly £1500 for nia with the Sheffield event and want to keep adding to that total for as long as I can. I’ll be campaigning more aggressively and annoyingly over the summer, especially as the Great North Run approaches, rest assured.

And please do look at nia’s site, even if you can’t contribute. It describes their brilliant work, which much needed, especially at the moment. I wish that it were not: here’s nia’s page about domestic and sexual violence statistics, which is heartbreaking.

Thanks so much to everyone who donated to the old site. Donate more, if you can! And spread the word.

Secret new training path

The most difficult part of training around here is the quality of the pavements. It’s a rural area and they are cracked and overgrown. Often, they have sick on them. Worst of all, they tend to have a wicked camber. If you’re a manual wheelchair user, camber is your enemy. In fact, wheelchair users have many natural enemies, including 50% of dogs, people who park on the pavement or block dropped kerbs and people who try to help us across roads without warning.

But bad cambers are especially awful, particularly if you’re trying to cover some distance at speed. Hills, I don’t mind so much in either direction. But when the pavement is sloped, I have to put in much more effort with one arm. It’s hard to get into a rhythm, it saps a lot of energy and it doesn’t represent race conditions very well, so it isn’t good training. Accessible half marathons are usually on city centre roads, which don’t have the problem of camber and (generally) don’t have too many potholes or yawning chasms opening up at random. Or sick. All of which the pavements around here have in abundance.

I can’t train on the roads, of course, especially around here. Many of them are narrow and twisting with healthy hedges and unhealthy visibility. Since it’s apparently unrealistic to to expect people to not constantly walk into me when I’m in the supermarket, I wouldn’t last five minutes on the roads.

Fortunately, I found a new training path a couple of months ago. It’s a bridle/cycle path running along an old railway line. The surface is part tarmac, part highly compacted tiny gravel, both well drained and pretty much perfect. The camber is mostly great. There are a few hills including one quite long relentless one and a couple of steep but mercifully short ones. It’s a nice route: quiet, lots of trees, people riding horses and walking dogs, not too many bikes.

Best of all, it’s highly flexible. There’s an entrance to the path from our village so I can reach it without driving. But there are also several places along the path I can park and this means I can vary the length and intensity of the route in lots of different ways. In one direction, the path leads into the local town, which is handy, and it does so via a supermarket. This means I can go to the supermarket and back in the chair without crossing two lethal roads as I used to. The other direction connects to a local nature reserve for when I want a less intense workout.

In other words, it’s suspiciously perfect. Presumably I’ll find out today that there are plans to build a housing estate on it, or something. It’s a shame I didn’t find the path a couple of years ago, I only knew about the part through the nature reserve, which is only accessible when it’s dry or I have my off-road wheels on. The upside is that hardly anyone else seems to know about it, either. The local dog walking services know about it and the carparks, but hardly anyone else does.

I slept fairly well last night (for once!) so if the rain keeps off I’ll probably take the path into town and back. It’s about a 12 mile round trip but I’ll be taking it relatively easy. If the sun comes out, I’ll take some pictures.