A Walk to Beachy Head

Despite Exeat Weekend being the saviour for many people at school, I hated being forced out of school, having to go elsewhere.

Anyhow, this weekend Mandy - my old roomie - has kindly taken me in. It was wonderful to catch up with the old and the new lives we are living since she is now in Uni. We watched many TV drama together and enjoy delicious student 'homecook' meal.

Saturday morning, we have decided to go to Beachy Head, prolly the best thing to see in Eastbourne. This small town is very quiet eventhough there are many students living here.
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With the aid of GPS, we found ourselves hiking up further away from the town. When we eventually turn back, we had the entire town in our view. It was a very cold and windy morning but a sunny and beautiful day. As we ploughed on, our hands got numbs, our faces screwed fighting the wind and we laughed at how funny we both look.

Standing at the edge of Beachy Head, I look towards the horizon far away and mesmorised the crystal blue water pulling ashore. Beachy Head is a chalk cliff that is slowly retreating due to power of the ocean eroding it. The magnificent moment of contemplation in such a beautiful place just take your heart away. There are many like us, rambling on the hill and enjoying the few sunny day England's winter can offer.

We had a little picnic behind an old wall, surrounding the lighthouse.

It is certainly wonderful to spend time with my roomie.  Mandy still cracks me up as always.

I am now on the way back to London, suffering a delayed train.

What a weekend

"why the hell are my right toes frozen???"

me puzzled , took my shoe off

"Haha holss in my socks.."

#Coventrytolondon #Microadventure

9.01 pm south tip of St Albans towards M25, I am right next to the “technical” London boundary.

Failed to visit my friend in Durham (sorry Galina!), I was in search of another adventure (as I always do) Next exciting event on my list is the 21^st century challenge at RGS in London. Hmm, what to do until then? I have explored most places in Coventry, least all the bushes and park are “discovered”.

Sticky rice and chocolate - food for the trip!

As soon as the crazy idea form, I knew this would be a little fun adventure for myself. Friends thought I was plain mad however they were supportive! Knowing me, there is no way they can stop me anyway.

Planning for this trip proves how useful geography is in real life. I ustilised Google map to sketch out my routes. Google map direction for walking was mostly to stick to the A45 (Kenpas Highway in Coventry) then makes a turn to the A5 until London Colney, meeting M25.  Fortunately, a day before I start, a tweet arrived suggesting I should walk by the side of the Grand Union Canal to avoid the busy A road. This was to be my escape from the danger of walking by the side of cars at 60 mph.

There were calculation to be made of stopping points and possible miles per day. The plan was to follow this route, walk 40 miles a day; Day 1 stopping at some point between Weedon Bec and Milton Keynes, and Day2 reaching St Albans.

I shall be walking during the night or early morning if this was permitted, urban camp and head on.

Finally see why I should appreciate OS map in England. Shout out to whoever made the “freeOS” online.  With the aid of Satellite print screen and the OS, I made my own map like a piece puzzle.

Monday 28 October 2013

6.00 am in the morning, I left the house diving into the gloomy darkness with my sweet sister giving me a hug and told me to be safe. I headed south towards London from the A45 which the house situated on. It was very early on a Monday morning. MET office said to expect wind with rain. It was drizzled with rain.

Obviously, walking from Coventry to London at a distance of nearly 90 miles was not going to be easy. Cars with their headlights still on, sprint pass me. I thought may be this was not a good idea after all and perhaps I should just gave up and head back… However, think of it this way: in two days I will have achieved the greatest accomplishment in my life and have something to tell.

The A roads are evidently not designed for people to walk on, let alone this crazy girl with a plan of madness. I realized that I would have to figure out alternative routes when the footpath diminished as I continue to walk.

It is silly but I felt safe walking beside the busy roads. I could follow the sign without getting furiously lost and security of being close to “people”. All vehicles at this time of the day were heading south. There was a massive queue on A45 south whereas I was walking by the side of the North. I felt slightly embarrassed to be the only person walking on the road geared to cars. The rain was intimidating me, created this massive flood on the road which meant I had to take my shoes off treaded on the cold water to keep my shoes dry…

Eventually, I made an exit out of Coventry but this also meant, public footpath has diminished because who would be walking alongside the road now? I stuck to the grasses bit on the side and kept going.

There is an excitement everytime I began to come close to a town or a village because traffic slow down, footpath appeared and I knew where I was.

Arriving at Northampshire.

By lunchtime, I was walking through Daventry. I stopped here for a SHORT lunch break. Sticky rice wrapped in plastic bag. Kids were looking at me oddly. I must look like some hobo living day to day on the street…

It kept raining on and off for the entire day. My shoes were getting dry and wet constantly... However, I was rewarded with the most beautiful scene of this stunning rainbow, a complete semi circle with the the green fields shinning below. 

I reached Weedon around 4 in the afternoon. November short day light of Britain was catching up. I was tired and thought may be I should stop here and continued to walk early in the morning. Sister insisted I should find accommodation instead of sleeping outside. So I did look for one but at the price of £60 – no thanks! I made a turn to the A5 and began walking in the dark.

Have to admit, I was scared but I was also filled with the adrenaline rush of excitement as though I was heading towards nowhere. My aim tonight was to pass Towncester and ended up somewhere halfway to Milton Keynes.

 

Found a public footpath, by the side of the road, leading to freshly cut grass field. Oh I am so exhausted! My socks and shoes were wet. I need to stop. Hoping this is not trespassing… I learnt that because I decided to power in the rain with wet shoes, I now have extremely white blistery feet. In the dark gloomy night, as the yellow streetlight peaked through behind the trees, I managed to pull out my sleeping bags, bivvy and a survival bag. It is cold and to prevent hypothermia I needed to sleep in three layers. Wore everything I have, put heat pack in my socks and wore gloved to sleep.

I slipped inside my little cocoon for the night, ate what is left from my food portion of the day and zipped tight inside the bivvy. The cold seeped through the thin layer of a summer night bag, and now I was glad I brought those heat packs with me.

My feet are dead.

Tuesday, 29^th October

3.00 am I woke up to the most beautiful night sky. I have forgotten how beautiful the night sky is living in light-polluted cities. The half moon was bright and stars were sparking on the sky.

The night dews have covered wet the outer plastic bags. Despite feeling like I should continue cocooning inside this relatively more warm than the outside air haven, I got up and started packing. Considering the state of my feet at the moment, it will take me longer than expected to reach St Albans tonight. I must get on.

4.00 am Hit the road once again, looking to reach Milton Keynes by 8.00 am. I made a quick stop at Tesco to buy water. Since I was the only one in the store at this early in the morning, the manager asked me about what I was doing. She was laughing at what I was trying to do. I told her I was trying to raise some money to possible go to Africa and send some back home for the flood damage in Vietnam, tried my best to justify myself to not sound like some mad person. The woman kindly let me use their restroom to wash up before heading on. How wonderfully kind!

The golden sunlight loom over the green grass field. Daylight was to officially open up a new day.

Do not make a turn here...

When I got lost from finding the Grand Union Canal and started to look for directions, two truck drivers made a good laugh out of me. They thought I was crazy to do such a thing and that I should get a boy to do this. Now that just infuriated me! It is crazy what I am doing and that is okay. But, telling me I need to have a boy to do anything is just sexist. Women can do things just as well as men if not better! I walked away.

From the roundabout of the A5 to Milton Keynes was around 6 miles, I am going to have to walk beside the narrow road side. After awhile, I rest under a bridge to have some breakfast. Cars were shooting pass. Here I am below a bridge, unnoticed by civilization.

“Can you speak English?” Funnily enough, the police must have thought I was some illegal immigrant. That was the most hilarious question to which I quickly said Yes! They stopped by questioning: “What are you doing?” I explained everything. They thought my walk was quite cool and that I have made quite a progress walking all the way from Coventry yesterday.  However for my safety, they offered to take me to the next bit of the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes. Incidentally, this speeded up my trip.

I continued now to walk beside the beautiful and peaceful Grand Union Canal. Houses here are gorgeous. I remembered thinking – some very rich people must have this as their second home for relaxing. The ducks were paddling quick on the calm water. Trees shuffling sheltering boats below. People live on the canal, on their boat. It was nice to walk alongside the silence away from the busy roads.  Some old men greeted me as I walk pass them fishing. Happy people were enjoying their walk with their dogs.

I rested my tired feet on a bench beside the footpath. Here I am gnawling on my pack of sticky rice while other people are relaxing and enjoying the scenery around them… I am STARVING!

Having a look at my map, I thought if I wanted to reach London by tonight, I would have to continue walking nonstop to the night. I will have to take a turn, out of the Grand Union Canal, walking beside the road. I am not now officially in a race with myself.

My fitness level have gone down so much since last year and my feet really were screaming at me to stop. I half wanted to give up and head home but I really have to finish this. At least reach M45 at London Colney…

I continued to tread along the Grand Union Canal until reaching Leighton Buzzard where I made a turn, back on the road of A505, hopefully reaching A5 in a few hours.

I was estatic to arrived at the A5 again and this time with a footpath beside it.  I imagined myself in a race with the cars by my side. Soon enough I reached Dunstable and darkness consume us quickly. I only have a few miles left until St. Albans. I began to feel the pain in my leg. It took a lot of self- motivation for me to not give up at this point.

You could not imagine the excitement I felt as I arrived in St. Albans. It would now take me around an hour to get to my finish point. I need to reach London Colney and the M25.

Tweet: 9.01pmReach tip point of StAlbans to M25, toodarkforpicture no more walking, feet dead, head home #tired #microadventure #coventrytolondon

I did nothing but dropped down to the floor. I am EXHAUSTED! Cars continued to hurdle along the highway and the motorway below lit up like flower works, celebrating my achievement.

 I have done it! I have done what I thought I could not.

Heading back to my sister in Coventry now. A hot shower, warm bed and food is waiting for me!

Arriving home, selfie at the door, what a trip!

Being on the road really made me appreciate transport, especially cars. It took me a little over 2 hours to get home on buses and train, probably under 2 hours by cars yet it would take 2 days of strenuous walking for that over 80 miles distance.

Review of an adventurous summer 2013 (1)

This is a corrected, rewritten post of my trip to Nha Trang and Whales island.

Without a doubt, my summer holiday has been exceptionally exciting and adventurous this year. A lot of this reassured me that my decision to study Geography.

Why?

Well, I have always been dreaming up on some kind of "perfect adventure" trip for a long time. I thought the school trip to Morocco was going to be it. When I failed that, I thought may be the partnership in Tamil Nadu might make up for my disappointment until I had to turn it down because I couldn't afford to pay for it. And so, as I hear stories and photographs of my friends having an amazing time there, I finally realised - Now I can sit here, in my room, doing nothing and wishing I was there or actually go out and make my own "perfect adventure" to happen for me.

I absolutely did just that! The first thing I thought of was diving. I wanted to go back after last summer spending the most incredible time under the sea and getting an Openwater certificate in Nha Trang. That night, I searched and rang up Rainbow Diver in Nha Trang immediatly to organise my first summer trip. It took me quite a few days trying to organise the trip with Minh (who went with me last year) and My Linh Hime - my best friend. Minh and I wanted to top up our knowledge with the Advanced Open Water course and My Linh is a total newbie to diving.

Why it was quite an effort organising the trip? A few things to consider:

Firstly, I wanted to see a new place and Phu Quoc island (South tip of Vietnam) at this time of the year is no good for diving.

Secondly, I would prefer not traveling with my family or in a large group. It is not because I don't like people or the fact that I do have some social anxiety issues, it is more to the fact that, selfishly enough, I hate waiting for people! We ended up having just enough – 3 people.

Thirdly, My Linh’s mum was quite concern about letting her daughter out on her own and also diving, is dangerous.

I stumbled across and saw the availability of Whales Island resort, a small beautiful island part of Van Phong bay, two hours away by car from Nha Trang and decided having looked at the pictures, I have had to go there. Note here that both the cost of staying on this island for 2 nights and paying for the course drained out 85% of my total budget. However, it was just enough to get mum's approval with the rest being paid from my Tet’s saving.

Two days later, Minh and I embarked on our trip to Nha Trang via the overnight train. I decided to get to Nha Trang one day early to squeeze in a dive and spent time here. To save my budget (as I spent all of the money to pay for the courses and Whales Island resort) I opted pay for the comfort train seats with aircon rather than the usual bed that we took last time. I'm quite a pig as mum would say, I had no problem sleeping and in fact I slept quite well and straight through to the next morning while Minh had a little problem adjusting to the smelly feet of some man behind him...

Morning came and we arrived at Nha Trang train station 6.00 am, wearing our backpacks and headed for the beach, 20 minutes walk away.

We spent the morning here, taking pictures and looking around. I was absorbing the surrounding. Nha Trang people enjoy a healthy lifestyle of early morning swim and gathering at the beautiful beach that stretches across the entire city for a jog or group exercise session. It was a nice change for me coming from a busy and polluted city like Ho Chi Minh.

We finally found a nice little hotel for 300k per night on Tran Phu street – the biggest and longest street stretching across Nha Trang here. The receptionist was very friendly and helpful. She was quite surprised we wanted to go diving and she did help us book a diving trip just for the day as we have little to do until we get to Whales island. We tried a new place this time as this was a daily diving trip as the whole purpose coming to Nha Trang a day early was so I could squeeze in another dive before the Advanced course. The bus came to take us to the port and we got on our boat. I met Thuyet who was the head of his divers team and was also a tour guide whom, of course, was excellent at talking and entertaining people. He is good at his job and later became our good friend here in Nha Trang.

However he wasn't our dive guide. Our guide was a new guy called Kha. He is very friendly too (and as I generally find, boat diving let me meet many friendly awesome people. Kha checked on my diving knowledge. I checked my BCD and diving equipment (a few stuff to remember there!) and using the buddy system, also checking if Minh is alright.

When Kha took us down, neither Minh or me could sink because apparently we have forgotten how to do so. Anyway, we did managed to get down and let me tell you, being submerged in the water once again and seeing corals beauty was such a delight! Kha also taught me some Advanced Bouyancy which was supposed to be taught in our Advanced course. He also told me I am good with my breathing because I always have 100 left in my tank after an hour long of diving :D We climbed up after finishing and I jumped off again to swim while waiting for other customers to have their Try dive.

The amazement of this dive sites are that corals grew not over 10 metres from the water surface. That meant I could dived down, hold my breath without diving equipment and still be submerged in the magnificent scenery.

Thuyet as I later found out as we talk on the way back to land, studied Geography too and he told me a lot of things about geography of Vietnam, more specifically Nha Trang and generally his experiences of studying geography in a Vietnamese Univeristy and how he changed his job from being a teacher to become a tourguide. Talking with someone as passionate about places and travelling as I am just felt so at home.

He became our friend and guide for the rest of the time we spent in Nha Trang. That afternoon, we drove motorbikes up to Hon Chong (Husband rock) where I climbed up and down the rock to take pictures, then got stuck and had to climb a tree to get down the rock. He took us to eat and showed us cool places around Nha Trang city like the café that would present what the local called the 7 Effeil of Nha Trang.

We picked up My Linh who arrived late at the hotel and took her out for coffee. All four of us sat for quite a while at the coffee shop. Thuyet left to go home and sleep for his job tomorrow morning.

The three of us went to the nightmarket to eat and then sat at the beach past midnight talking about all sort of stuff.

Undoubtedly, tourism is the breadwinner of Nha Trang city. Most tourists, strangely enough, are Russians and then Chinese (not disregarding Taiwanese or HongKong citizens). There are all sorts of activities for tourists here like the nightclub on the beach, several new high quality five stars hotel are popping up too.

Day 2 ------------------------------------

We woke up (rather I woke up first then woke the others up) quite early on Saturday morning, 6.00 am, because I wanted to show My Linh - Nha Trang in the morning. After a long walk on the street seeking for some coffee and breakfast Bánh mì and Xôi (sticky rice) for me. We went back to pack and pay for the hotel, woke Minh up and thanked the nice receptionist for helping us. Then went to Rainbow Diver bar to try to negotiate for a lower price and shorter time spent for our diving courses in Whales Island.

9 am, we got on the bus. It took us 2 hours to get to Van Phong bay and 20 minutes boat transfer. 

As soon as we arrived at the little port here, I was so overwhelmed by the tranquility and beauty of the place that none of us said anything but stood their in amazement. We stepped on to the island under the boiling hot sun yet it was perfect to show us exactly how CLEAR the water here is. We unpack our bags in a little hut we would call room for the next few nights.

This island owned by a French man has been developed into Eco-tourism and getaway resort. Everything is made and set up to incorporate the natural environment into the guest stay here.

 My Linh met with Jeremy - a french guy who would be her instructor for the course. She started her OpenWater confined dive in the afternoon while Minh and I enjoyed a rather great swim in the island beach area. The water is so clear and clean, fishes and corals were all around, sparking in the sun ray. I swam 2 laps of the entire place whilst attempted some short “freedive”.

Then I decided I want to trek to the top of the island to catch sunset. 4.30pm We embarked on a long 2 hours walk of the entire island as My Linh continue her lesson. Personally I love the trek! It was fantastic as we climbed up the hill, breathing in fresh air, we were rewarded with the most incredible sight of that Van Phong bay has to offer - the sunset.

We continued on with our walk, ended up at the back of the island where they named it Mango bay. On this side of the island, we saw rubbish ended up here and more surprisingly scattered of lobster old shells on the beach. Apparently, lobsters come to this part a lot to shed off their old coats for a brand new shell.

It took us a while to get back to the WI bar. As it was getting darker and darker, we thought we would be lost in this forest. Funny, I never thought this would be my first time having to use the torch that I always bring with me to find our way back.

I have also learnt the real value of water staying on this island. Fresh drinking water has to be transported from land thus the cost of a bottle is double of that on land. Although, I started to really doubt the “environmental friendly” – the motto of this island – plastic bottles? It then also struck me that it is funny how we all want to modernize and live in a more tech-heavy skyscrapers away from nature world yet people seek to paying more "return to nature" i.e. to stay in the most basic hut shelters, isolate from technology… Shouldn't we just stay the same the whole time?

Anyway, in the end, despite trying our best to save the cost of water which by the way is 25k vnd a bottle... we had to succumb to it or die in thirst! We ate dinner and spent the first night in the silence, beautiful darkness of this getaway haven. The island is beautiful afterdark as it is the only place light you can see all around. We slept on the beach for a while and enjoyed the starry sky!

I saw fishes, literally jumping off the water like they were the performers of the sea, entertaining us under the moonlight

Day 3 ------------------

The next day, I took My Linh up to the top spot to wait for the sunrise. We walked up there around 5.00 am and sat waiting till 6 am. I doubt she wanted to wake up that early to do crazy things like this with me.

The wait was a little long but it is something I did not want to miss. Van Phong bay as I was told, is the first spot in Vietnam that welcome the sunrays. Standing there, on the highest tip of the island, I engulfed myself in the beautiful sun, popping up slowly amongst the white sand dunes opposite us. The greenery of the forests covering up the island is simply astonishing.

I met my instructor – Eugene after breakfast. Minh and I will be doing our Advanced Openwater today and My Linh will continue with her first sea dive. We got on the boat, meet other divers and all set sail to the sea - to reach smaller islands still part of Van Phong bay. On the boat there is a Vietnamese man who has been diving for 12 years consecutively and is a employed diver for the company. Throughout our diving here, he helped us a lot through our learning and showed me loads of cool unexpected marine creatures under the sea disguising themselves as rocks and corals.

Even as we returned our from our first boat dive in Van Phong bay, I was still so psych about all the stuff I have seen and learnt, I had to get back in the water!

Over the next day and a half, I mastered my diving buoyancy and all other skills including direction and compass such. We also did our first Night dive and Wreck dive so that was fantastic - all part of the Advance course!

The next boat diving day, I met Hue - a lady who works at Rainbow Bar. She joined the boat for the day taking some customers along who are also only doing a day dive.

I swear I spent more than half of my day under the water today because whilst waiting to get back to the island, I also took a fun dive with the Vietnamese guide. He showed me so many unexpected and incredible marine creatures that I just could not believe it. How often do you see a flying fish or a stone fish?

Before I left this beautiful island in the afternoon to head back to Nha Trang, I managed to explore all possible routes around the island. It is lovely! I figured I just needed to make my own adventures to make life interesting :) (like I did during the Biology trip) We said our thanks and had our pictures taken as we have now successfully completely our learning.

The bus took us back to Nha Trang, we came back to the same hotel we came on the first night. 3 ppl in a room for 350k - not too bad eh! Thuyet – our Nha Trang friend, took us out for dinner and we enjoyed a relaxing night by the beach with sugarcane juice just like the young generation of Nha Trang citizens.

My Linh and I went for another diving trip the next day. I was excited for it because Thuyet promised to guide us around and he knew a lot about identifying sea creatures. We did only one dive because My Linh felt tired after two quite intensive days on Whales island. We sang and we swam and I “free” dived for a bit to amuse myself, as the corals are at quite shallow depth thanks to the warm currents.

We came back to land and met up with Minh who had spent the morning with his camera taking photographs. It was pouring rain and the little alley way was flooded in water. We had returned our room in the morning but the hotel kindly let us shower and wait for rain to calm down.

Tonight, we headed back home to Ho Chi Minh city...