Got my walking shoes on again

The Entree

After being in the city for near on 4 months it was time to get walking and head to the hills. We bought a bunch of camping gear and strapped on the same pair of hiking shoes that served us so well in the Americas, and off we went.

The first trip was to Sussex in Southern England. Just a short trip to test out our gear and walking stamina. We boarded a train in London and headed south for an hour and a bit which took us to Eastbourne. Our first taste of English beaches. It was everything I expected it to be. Deserted and stony. But it was a beautiful sunny day and there were plenty of retirees strolling along the foreshore. It also had an uncountable number of wooden walls that are obviously necessary to prevent the precious stones from being swept away.
We managed to find some hills. But also realised how densely populated this corner of England is and how hard to is to get away from the masses. Some nice rolling hills below.
We headed to this area to see some of England's famous white cliffs. No, it's not Dover. Dover is about an hour or so East of here. They go for quite some length.
This area is known as the Seven Sisters Country Park, sort of a national park but not quite. It is actually privately owned farm land, but the owners just let people explore it at their leisure as long as you leave the sheep alone. The cliffs are actually quite stunning, especially on a nice sunny day. However, they are eroding at about 30-40cm a year, so some of the houses in this tiny hamlet are in trouble in a decade or two. The erosion explains why the water is discoloured for the first 20m. After that, it actually looks quite blue.Bella climbing the last of the seven sisters. The rolling hills actually made for quite an energetic walk.
Our campsite for the night. Just on a local farm for 3 quid per person. We had such a warm day, we even used the cold water shower. Never thought I would do that in England.

The Main Course

After testing our gear, it was time to tackle to the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. We planned on doing 3 days out of an 8 day walk that takes you from one side of the park to the other. This park contains the highest mountain in Wales, towering in at 832m.

It started out well, with all our public transport coming together so we were starting our walk at 8:30am. It was a beautiful sunny day, with a slight chill to the air as you'd expect in Wales, but all was looking good. Now, all we had to do was find the path. Again, it's all farmland, so all the markings you get is a gate with a marker on it. Then a slight track leading up the hill. So with map in hand, off we set.

However it wasn't long before the clouds came in and the wind picked up. But it was still ok. The views were great.
However, we soon realised the path was a little less refined then we were expecting. More of a case of following the mud trail. We soon realised why the old guys on the bus had big chunky boots and gators. Our trusty shoes would soon fall victim to the Welsh countryside, which I will forever remember as a giant wet sponge. What looks like dry firm ground, turns to a puddle around your foot as soon as you put any weight on it.
So soon we were swimming in our shoes, but nevertheless we persisted along. The mountain tops were OK, but the valleys and sides of the mountains, literally just had water running out of them. The views were quite spectatcular though, and this time we did manage to be on our own. We had a few guys ahead of us when we started but they turned off on a different trail. We then literally didn't see any one for a few hours. The hike was much more of a test then the previous week. Following contours on a map to work out which slightly trampled track to follow and hoping it wasn't just the sheep trail.The terrain varied from wet grasses and reeds to wet grasses and these purply plants. This was our first day, that was about 20km's and we were definitely feeling it at the end.

Our second day was to take us to some even more remote places, with higher peaks. However, we awoke to much more adverse conditions and had to re-think our plans. The clouds were low and the rain was coming in sideways. Some great Welsh weather to be sure, but not ideal for hiking remote mountains with the hope of getting some great views. So we decided to abandon our plans and change our route. We decided to stick to the valleys and found some waterfalls and caught a few buses and made our way to Brecon, the main town in the NP. We were happy with our decision when we saw a weather report which said it was about 8 degrees on the mountain tops, with wind, rain and cloud. And conditions not improving for the next day. And this is a Welsh Summer.

So we made it to some waterfalls through some more mud.And decided that Wales wouldn't ever really have any water problems.Eventually we made it to our campsite, again, another cool little farm on a creek on the outskirts of the town. A cool old barn with apple trees in the foreground. And most importantly, it was drier than we had been all day.From Brecon, we walked along the canal, that was built during the Industrial Revolution. It's about 80kms long and was built to transport lime and coal. After 2 days of swimming in our shoes, we abandoned them and put on our trusty pluggers and hiked it along the nice flat path. Sure it was muddy as well, but at least our feet could breath.
It was something different again. A nice stroll along with the canal boats and countryside, oh, and the rain as well.
Like all hiking in the UK, you are never that far from a pub and you get to reward yourself with a pint and a meal at the finish point. Here are some nice amber ales from a local brewery. So, Wales, the giant wet sponge. But it is still a great place to explore. There aren't too many places in the world where you can cross a country border without a passport and hear some of the people speak their own language.
Click below for some more photos.

Summer Walking

Next up, heading back to the continent.

Exploring London

London is obviously a large and varied city that you could spend a lifetime exploring. Following on from our time in Vancouver, we decided to get a set of wheels each and to begin the exploration. But first, breakfast. Mmmm, breakfast. Sweet French Toast and a tasty coffee.

First exploration was a ride along the Regents Canal. Some call it little Venice. I call it a canal. It's about 9 miles long and a great day out for a ride.
These are a typical example of the boats that are on the canal. Some people live in these permanently, others can be hired and some are just abandoned.Of course, there are markets along the route that have piles and piles of food. Savoury

Sweet
More shots of the canalThese canals are only a couple of feet deep. Most are pretty dirty, although people still fish in them. A Loch below.
As with all parts of the London. You can just look at the fascinating buildings that describe the city.
New and old. A school and a factory.

First Trip to the Continent

So we couldn't let the Summer slip by without a trip to continental Europe, so a friend from home being in Switzerland was all the excuse we needed. So off to Zurich we went.

We arrived in Zurich to a steaming hot Summer's day. It was about 30 degrees at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and the sun wasn't going to set until 10. However, we knew the weather was going to turn over the weekend so we rushed to our B&B, dumped our bags and headed out to explore. We were staying a little out of Zurich (because it was a little cheaper) but wandered back along the Limmat towards the middle of Zurich. The Limmat is the river that flows out of Lake Zurich. I think everyone in Zurich was well aware of the great weather and they were out swimming in the Limmat, BBQ'ing a few bratwurst or just enjoying the weather.
Outer Zurich along the Limmat
This is me swimming / hanging on trying not to get swept into Austria. Below is in Zurich looking out into Lake Zurich. They love a good tower in Zurich, and will probably put a clock on it.The sun finally setting around 10 ish.
A cool city to wander around and a real taste of Europe. Cool streets and alleys. High density of buildings but each manages to have it's own character. Plenty of money in this town being the home of Swiss Bank Accounts. It can't be Europe without turrets, cannons and cannonballs. Unfortunately this one doesn't have much of a history and they actually built it as a museum.After a couple of days exploring Zurich, we headed out to Viv's home town of Aarau. A cool medievil town complete with city wall. After a quick walk around there was not much more to do than eat, drink and talk.
This is the old part of town and these buildings date back to the 1600's. Very cool part of town with massive detail on the gable ends, as below.Alex, our tour guide. Wandering around, getting lost and getting found again.Of course food was high on the agenda too. Bratwurst, bread and mustard is so simple and so good. We also sat around and ate a massive cheese fondue. And of course, the cheese was good as well.
On our final day, we escaped the city and went up the nearby hills to get a great view of Zurich and the distant alps.Lake Zurich and the Alps
And to complete our Swiss expedition, we did manage to find a cow, that must think it is in heaven.Once again, more photos to look at in the album below.

Switzerland

Real World Update

So I guess I should let you know what is going on in our day-to-day lives over here rather than just showing the good times. We have been here nearly 3 months now and 2009 is quickly coming to a close.

The job market over here is completely different to anything we have seen before. There are a lot of jobs being advertised, but you are also living in a city of 8 million people, so each job gets a lot of applications. I am talking hundreds of applications for each job, no matter if it is a professional job or a minimum wage bar job. As a result of this, 90% of the jobs are handled by recruiters. This is a bad thing. I put recruiters right up there with real estate agents and car salesmen, never trust a word they say. It's always I was just about to call you about this, I have the perfect job for you, or the more common, you don't hear a word from them. Thanks to the internet, all jobs are now applied for over the internet. So you do up a cover letter and send it off with your CV, and as a result of the ease of applying, and being able to cut & paste and apply for a heap of jobs, recruiters get bombarded. As a result, they say due to the volume of applications we can not provide feedback. So the silence treatment is quite common. Combine this with English inefficiencies and the biggest financial recession since the Great Depression and getting a decent job proves quite time consuming.

Never the less, my amazing wife managed to obtain an interview and wowed the socks of them, and is now a Senior Policy Planner with South Bucks Council. It's just outside greater London, which means a bit of a commute (an hour each way). But the first two weeks have shown that the job is worth the effort. It was also worth noting that this job was not through a recruiter and she has not heard from a recruiter since she has stopped hassling them.

My story is not so successful. I tried a direct marketing job (which actually means door to door selling) but only lasted a week (to save my me from hating myself). Being 100% commissioned based didn't really excite me either when working 12 hour days. I found much more familiarity in a manual labour job which I have worked the last month. Once again it is always more complicated then it needs be. I actually work for a labour hire company and we get contracted out to events companies (mostly seating and marquees). It's not the best job but it is a job and I am thankful for that. I don't have regular hours and only find out about shifts a day or two before I work. It's all last minute and highly irregular. Although, when it is busy, it's busy. Last week I worked 53 hours in 5 days, plus commuting 4 hours a day, but now I am sitting back and don't know when I will be working next. The work is only going to last for the Summer, so it is only temporary as well. Needless to say, I am still on the seemingly endless treadmill of applying for jobs in an increasing array of job sectors.

To top this all off, both our current jobs pay on a monthly basis. So I have worked about 20 days in July and don't get paid for them until August 10. Bella started on July 20 and won't be paid until August 15. So our first 3 months in London have been on a pretty tight budget. Trying to survive on Bella's income from her cafe job and my 3 days work for my company I did in June. Needless, to say we have eaten into our savings, but that's what they were there for. At the light at the end of the tunnel is nigh. Only a week or two to go and then we finally get some significant pounds.

So yes, as expected, it has been a difficult getting established in London. But we are nearly on our feet and will soon be standing tall. We are starting to feel comfortable in London.