Monthly Archives: August 2025
Torture With Maps
Before we went in search of enclaves, we completed race 3 at Geel. This was a fairly standard sprint in a mix of residential streets and parkland. The first few controls were very simple, lulling us into a false sense of security. After a handful of controls in a park, we had a long leg […]
Fun With Maps
Being map nerds, we couldn’t pass up the chance to visit one of the world’s oddest geographic quirks – the enclaves within enclaves that make up the town of Baarle. Baarle is within the Netherlands. However, within its boundary there are 22 Belgian enclaves – tiny pieces of one country, completely surrounded by another country. […]
Sprinting in Belgium (Part 1)
Finally, the time came for some “serious” orienteering. The European Champs are being held in Belgium, and there is a series of 6 races for age groupers (ie us). We have 3 sprints, 2 city races, and 1 indoor race. These events are all in Belgian towns east of Antwerp. Luckily, Ted is driving us […]
Antwerpian
We’ve been in Antwerp for two days now. We get our daily step count just walking around the apartment. It’s above a kitchenware shop, which is owned by our hosts. There are identical white doors everywhere; Margi was very amused when I tried to find the laundry, and ended up on the landing outside the […]
Not Enough Room To Swing a Captain
It’s been two days of solid travel, finally enacting the logistics that we carefully planned months ago. Rather than fly, we decided to take an overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, then a train to Antwerp. It all sounded simple on paper, but the proof would be in the execution. Luckily the traffic was light […]
Back Across The Border to Berwick
It was time to leave Scotland, and return south. We farewelled the provider of yesterday’s lunch, and headed off to England. On the way we called in at Dunning again to properly photograph the Campbell gravestone Ian had found. South of Dunning, we passed through Dunning Glen, a very pretty valley with steep sides. We […]
What You Can See From Here
If you hop in the car and turn left out of Roughstones, you drive for 3 miles along a single lane farm road, passing fields full of naughty sheep, hay bales, and the occasional osprey hunting for small animals. You turn north at Blairgowrie, the nearest sizeable town (by which I mean it has a […]
Sixteen Thousand Steps
My usual daily step target is 4000. I’ve upped it temporarily to 6000, in anticipation of extra walking while we’re away. I’ve been hitting this pretty easily, clocking up 10-12000 most days, just with the occasional longer walk and incidental sightseeing. But today I hit a new high, surpassing 16,000 steps. How … An investigative […]
The Red Bridges
We farewelled Kibblesworth, Hadrian and the Romans, and headed north. We drove through Northumberland National Park, remembering some of the landmarks from our last drive here in 2018 – the gigantic wind turbines, the heathery hills, and the “last café in England”. We crossed the border at the gigantic St Andrews flag, but a fresh […]
Quick update
We have very slow patchy internet, hence no blogs. Will catch up tomorrow. Both well, enjoying good weather in Scotland. More soon!
dipidydoo 