The number 272 bus passes close to our house every hour in the daytime. It goes way beyond the city's boundaries to Hathersage, Bradwell, Hope and Castleton. Miss it and you will have a long wait.
After yet another doctor's appointment this morning, I was at the bus stop in plenty of time for the 11.58 bus and its arrival was punctual. This was the first part of my plan for a linear long walk.
I did it in one hour fifteen minutes and I would have been quicker if I had not stopped to chat with another lone figure - a tourist from Hong Kong who has been in Great Britain for the past three months and is heading back home in two days' time. He was delighted to hear that I have been to Hong Kong but wondered why I cannot speak Cantonese!
Then down into Porter Clough at the head of The Porter Valley. Fortunately, it was all downhill for me. After passing through the Forge Dam area, I saw a man approaching - another lone walker.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
He seemed puzzled.
Then I explained that I recognised him from a concert we had both attended in the mid-eighties. It was in the upstairs concert room of a pub on Infirmary Road. We were there to see the legendary Robin Williamson who performed at Woodstock with The Incredible String Band.
The other bloke was astonished that I remembered the two of us chatting with Robin Williamson at the interval and was perhaps even more astonished when I asked, "Is your name Pedro?"
"Yes, yes it is!" he said.
I wished him all the best as he carried on up the valley to Forge Dam and beyond. Little did he know that he had just encountered The Great Yorkshire Pudding, Memory Man, Blogger Extraordinaire and human agent for the "Land of Lost Gnomes"!
You have an excellent memory for such an old man. Glad you had a good, long walk. I'm not sure I could walk for four hours, I suppose, with practice.
ReplyDeleteI do hope there was nothing strange going on with the gnomes. I'm sure you know that although gnomes are meant to be guardian spirits, they can also be fiercely territorial and have been known to tear the toes off of grown men. Just saying.
"Such an old man"? You cheeky mare! Remember that you have retired too now Nana Pixie.
DeleteFour hours is a very good outing.
ReplyDeleteOne day, I may not be able to walk so I will do it now while I can.
DeleteWhat a great encounter with Pedro.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a linear walk where the bus or whatever takes you to a high starting point so that the return is, over all, downhill. The great curse of many picturesque walks around Sydney is that roads etc take you to a starting point in civilization but the trip into nature and back is nearly always down and then back UP.
At least you are thinking about in order to keep The Holy Temple of Marcellous in tiptop shape.
DeleteTemple is crumbling, YP. I had an upper molar extracted this week.
DeleteYes indeed, why can you not speak Cantonese?
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good walk/hike. Four hours with only a brief stop for a shandy and packet of crisps would have me knackered for sure, especially if the uphill bit is towards the end and not at the beginning.
Years ago, I have read somewhere how it is a deep-set evolutionary ability in humans that we can recognise each other's faces even after not having seen a certain face for decades, that we can still trace the child or young person we once knew in the features of an eldery man or woman. Of course not everybody has the same memory for faces (and names), but apparently this is something very specific to our species.
That fellow - Pedro - has a distinctive looking face and I associate him with a special night - actually meeting one of my heroes. Google Translate tells me that the German word for "knackered" is "ausgebufft" but I suspect that you might dispute that.
DeleteYes, I disupute that. Ausgebufft means something entirely different. It is used to describe someone (or someone's plan) who is clever in a (maybe slightly) nasty way, up to trickery, or simply really very well versed and experienced in something. No relation at all to being tired, exhausted, shattered or knackered.
Deletesounds like a good do..... i rarely think to catch a bus anywhere to start a walk..... probably cos there's usually two or three of us and a neurotic dog...... your amazing facial memory for that guy is super impressive..... my facial recognition skills are zero
ReplyDeleteMillions of memories are lost in the murk but for whatever reason I remember the circumstances of that long ago night.
DeleteGood that you checked on Roger and his pals. Will you go that way regularly to keep an eye on them, or have you found a band of helpers who pass that way?
ReplyDeleteUntil the empire expands, it will just be me Carol. Only I know where they are.
DeleteRobin está en Facebook. Sigue actuando y pinta cuadros malos.
ReplyDeleteThank you g3illera!
DeleteThat was a good walk, great for your blood sugars!
ReplyDeleteI see a day when people will travel the world to bring gnomes to the Land of Lost Gnomes.
Having said that, they're not lost if you know where they are!
But they were "lost" - unwanted, rejected. Please mail me a couple of Aussie gnomes and I will put them with the others.
DeleteAfter four hours I'd be knackered too. It's been too long since I went out walking just for the fun of it.
ReplyDeleteI hope I have inspired you to at least think about it Elsie. Just a half hour walk every other day will be good for your health.
DeleteIt sounds exhausting to me, but I expect it is good for you, given your medical conditions.
ReplyDeleteBetter than medication.
DeleteIt's great to have a bus route like that for linear walks. The ones here are very poor in comparison.
ReplyDeleteI would love to do more linear walks but mostly they are circular - all about getting back to the car.
DeleteI'd love to be there when walkers chance upon your group of gnomes and wonder how they hell they got there. I don't have gnomes in my garden but I do have a leprechaun we bought decades ago in Ireland. He looks a bit sad now and in need of a paint. Maybe I'll get round to it.
ReplyDeleteDon't be a lazy Addy Cynthia. The time to repaint your leprechaun is this week - then you can blog about him with photos too. Is he called Paddy?
DeleteNow you have me wondering if you'll be going to check on those gnomes every day, no matter how many hours it takes... :)
ReplyDeleteNot every day no - but certainly once in a while if I happen to be passing that way. I will also be looking out for other lost gnomes.
DeleteI love going on walks, and that walk you described sounds like a memorable one. Wow, you sure do have an excellent memory!
ReplyDeleteMy memory is rarely that good.
DeleteThat is a fairly remarkably accurate memory.
ReplyDeleteAnother beautiful walk. Have you ever calculated a rough estimate of how many miles you've walked in your life?
I have no idea why that particular memory stuck in my brain. It is unusual. As for mileage, I have no idea but I have been retired for ages now. I estimate that in retirement I have walked at least 8,000 miles.
DeleteA great day out, should leave us knackered at the close of the day.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think Americans could be knackered! I thought they could only be tuckered out or pooped!
DeleteI love the photo of Houndkirk Road. It promises adventure ahead ... or maybe just a pint and a bag of crisps???
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of the song "Pedro the Fisherman".
ReplyDeleteIt's strange how my memory can come up with the names of many of my classmates from grammar school but I will forget the name of a person I met moments ago. I can come up with details like you did from a moment in history but can't always remember where I left my phone.
ReplyDeleteYou had a nice long hike!
OK, I am also astonished that you remembered some random man named Pedro from a conversation 40 years ago! I can barely remember people I met last week, though I do have a good head for knowing most of the kids who cross my path in the library. (Maybe once I retire I'll have more room in my brain to store the faces of non-students!)
ReplyDeleteA four hour walk through beautiful country, talking to people and checking on your gnomes...what a wonderful way to spend a day.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great way to spend an afternoon! And with a prodigious memory like that, no wonder you like quiz games so much!
ReplyDeleteThat pint of bitter shandy looks mouth watering.
ReplyDelete