Tuesday 4th to Thursday 7th June – Hognaston

Where's Bertie? He spending three nights at a Camping & Caravanning Club Temporary Holiday Site (a field with a tap and a waste disposal point) in Hognaston, next to Carsington Water in Derbyshire, at a cost of £11 per night.

Weather: Tuesday: rain and an increasingly gusty wind; Wednesday: A couple of showers and some sunny intervals, breezy with a high of just 12 degrees; Thursday: Sunny intervals and a high of 16 degrees.

Mick was taken by surprise when I suggested on Monday night that we should go away for a few days the following day. I thought we might be held at home awaiting some deliveries, but they’d both arrived on Monday, giving us the opportunity for a short escape. This in turn would give me somewhere advantageous for a long run on Wednesday, as it turns out that even though it’s June, mud-season at home still hasn’t abated and is at levels expected in February and early March.

We might have gone to the campsite on Cannock Chase where we stayed for a couple of nights last year, except that it was barely worth £15 (a combination of lack of facilities and lack of privacy/security) and was now asking £20. When I saw that there was a Temporary Holiday Site currently in action in this field at such a reasonable price, our destination was decided. The only downside of Carsington Water over Cannock Chase is the lack of route options, but that didn’t trouble me for my objectives this week.

So, after doing a bit of work on Tuesday morning, I threw myself into packing Bertie (who no doubt felt like he’d only been unpacked moments earlier) and by early afternoon we were ready for the off.

Not long after 3pm we were parked up on site, and would even have had a view of the water had we parked facing in that direction. We don’t tend to think about the best view when we choose how to park; maybe we should.

With rain coming down and Bertie being rocked by the wind, the rest of the afternoon was spent indoors, although by evening the sky had cleared and things were looking good for fine weather on the morrow.

Taken on Wednesday when the weather was better. 

Wednesday

The route around Carsington Water is around 13km long, or 14km if you take the Dam Trail. Starting at just gone 8am, I did one 13km loop (barely met anyone), followed by two 14km ones (met loads of people on #2; it’d calmed down again by #3), doing the out-and-back up the hill to Bertie after each one to top up my drink and snack supply (and, after the second lap, to slam-dunk a package of sushi and a mug of tea).

Bearing in mind that after last year’s surgery, I only started tentatively running again at Christmas, and didn’t continuously run 5km until mid-February, I haven’t done anywhere near as much mileage as I had by the end of May in recent years (2022: 1500km; 2023: 1100km; 2024: 450km). That may make yesterday’s activity look ill-advised, but there was reason behind my madness, and as it went, I felt good for the first 2.5 laps. By the final few miles a few bits of my body were protesting, most notably the little toe on my left foot. It’s not had the chance to toughen up this year, so blistered early, after around 35k.

Not wanting to risk losing my little toe nail (again!) just now is what stopped me from going out for another half an hour, although once I’d tended the blister, eaten a cheese toastie and downed a pot of tea, Mick did come out with me to cover 1.1km, just to make the distance up to a full marathon. A lumpy one too. I’ve run around Carsington Water a few times before, yet still I was surprised at how undulating the route is.

Mick was a little jealous of my activities, particularly as he was due for an 8-hour outing this week, but he hurt his Achiles last weekend.

Thursday

On arrival we’d paid for a two-night stay, but as I headed out for another short circuit this morning (not of the reservoir, but of the Dam plus the Dam Trail), Mick went and paid for another night.

I was soon back from my run (oh, my body loved me for that!) and in good time for our next activity: a walk to the local pub for lunch.

I felt cheated! Surely by definition a sandwich involves two slices of bread?! The woman on the next table ordered a different sandwich and had two absolute door wedges containing her filling.

A better route was chosen to get back, avoiding a stretch of the busy-ish B-road.

We made time for a crossword before returning to the laptops for more TGO Challenge tasks. Hopefully the 2024 Event will be wrapped up by the end of June, allowing a complete rest in July, before preparations for 2025 start in August. (Post-blog note: ha! Naive of me to think so!)

Friday

Home. No leisure for frittering the morning away, as I have a lunch date.