. It's nice to see everyone making their own decisions about their own situations. But I wanted to do something, and the next best thing to a Virtual Winter Event is a Virtual Virtual Winter Event. As happened last April I got a bit confused with what official/personal guidelines I was following so the result was a bit haphazard. This caused me to cycle a fair bit of the route indoors, and bivvy indoors as well. Obviously this means I can't count it as a "BaM" but that's fine, and I don't feel it's fair to put this in the VWE thread either.
Having got all the kit ready, but deferred all my GRs received from Angela, I dashed off three new ones. They turned out to be the tree at the bottom of our garden, the bird feeders near the house, and the front steps of the building.
I decided to exit via the side passage door on the basis that Mrs Perrin wouldn't detect my departure and cause ructions. At least it meant some gentle terrain to start with to break myself in gently...
Down the passage to tick off the first GR, then a very sharp turn straight into a serious technical uphill section, and unfortunately it didn't take long before the Brompton's inferior incline mounting capabilities manifested themselves...
I managed to get a bit of a run-up along the hall before tackling a flight of stairs (HaB), whilst avoiding Mrs Perrin in the process, and took the opportunity of visiting a discreet toilet block for a comfort break. My shelter-peg-cum-trowel meant that it was easy to leave no trace, but after some consideration I decided against burning the loo paper as is sometimes recommended...
Time was moving on and I needed to find a spot fairly rapidly. As luck would have it I came across a room that appeared, after a thorough check in all the corners, to be unoccupied. Nobody around but I figured I could ask retrospective permission in the morning. There was even an old mattress resting on some sort of wooden structure so hopefully that would guarantee a comfy kip. At least the temperatures were well above freezing and I was a bit concerned that the winter bag would turn out to be overkill...
And so indeed, 'comfy' it turned out to be. Had a nice lie-in and it was light before I headed off downhill from my spot. At least the Brompton's huge-travel dropper post came into its own going down as opposed to its poor climbing abilities...
I cooked up some porridge on the meths stove in the utility room, then set off to try and find the GRs in the back garden.
By the time I'd navigated along various tracks and other RoW and arrived at GR2 I was getting a bit peckish so it was time for a lunch stop. The 18g "Stu HyperStove(TM)" was soon fired up. I'd managed to pop in at a Spar (rare for the area) before setting off the day before so at least I possessed the Standard Bivvy Meal of pot noodle, Tunnock's and indeterminate lurid-green-coloured drink. Not going to win any Substantial Meal contests there I'm afraid, but I'm a traditionalist in some ways.
Never a good idea to get dehydrated so I stopped off at a couple of little ponds to refill...
GR3 is a well-known wildlife spotting location. There's usually a flock of goldfinches hanging around and a couple of times a sparrowhawk has been seen. Today was quite quiet with only a Christmas robin and some sort of pygmy owl feeding on some sunflower seeds...
And that was pretty much it. One or two familiar locations seen in a different light, and the odd new feature which I'll definitely come back to at some point in the future. I didn't actually buy the pot noodle. They're a step too far on the packaging front for me. It was left behind by my lad after Christmas.
Oh, and if restrictions continue to be tightened even further there's obviously still scope for a Virtual Virtual Virtual Winter Event. It would be conducted entirely in one's head and probably wouldn't need special equipment or clothing.
Looks like those hardy souls on the actual Virtual WE are having a great time too so that's good to see!
