Rotherhithe Ramble

Another day, another urban walk.

This time a local one, around Rotherhithe and the Surrey Docks (or Surrey Quays as its now known)

Most of the route following the Thames Path, and has a lot of historical interest in the area, from the place where the Mayflower first set sail from to the first tunnel known to have been constructed successfully underneath a navigable river.

Although this side of the docks has been re-developed, it is mainly with housing and not the towering buildings of Canary Wharf and this helps to show how big the docks really were.

Rotherhithe Ramble

Greenland Dock

Tide Gauge House

Canary Wharf

Lavender Pumphouse

Rotherhithe Tunnel Shaft No.2

Brunel Museum

I.K.Brunel

Mayflower

Hope (Sufferance) Wharf

St. Mary's Church

Thames and City of London

Hampstead Heath

On Monday and the weather looking good, I decided to recce out a new photowalk.

Using the 'new' London Overground I managed to get from South London to Hampstead in just over an hour, if I had of made better connections I think I could of done it in less time.

The Map shows the route I walked over the Heath, I know it looks messy but that is because I was looking for places of interest, which there are plenty and probably mean that 2 walks could be done in this area.

I need to refine the route and work it down to a reasonable size.

Go Outdoors Blog Awards 2014

Go Outdoors have launched a new walking blog award, there is a shortlist of fifteen blogs and I have been luck to be one of the fifteen.

Its a great honour to be on a list of blogs that include Chris Townsend, Keith Foskett, David Lintern and Alan Sloman.

 All these write and promote that outdoors much better that me. The winner will be decided via a poll on the Go Outdoors website, I encourage everybody to pop across and vote. If you choose to vote for me, then a BIG thank you but if not then vote for one of the BIG little guys.

Cigar Box Guitars

Builds no. 1 & 2

The Heisenberg & Color Bearer

Storm Coming

Photowalk (Docklands)

Yesterday I did another Photowalk; this time it was a check out a route for a possibly walk around Docklands in London. As I didn't really know where the route would go I wanted a way of mapped it as I walked and this is where Social Hiking and Viewranger came to the rescue. I can't say I fully understand how it works but viewranger sends beacons from your smartphone which are picked up by social hiking and then add the beacons to a map. Social hiking can also add tweets and photographs to the map, I was more interested in getting the photographs on the map so, I could see the places of interest that I passed.

Below is the map that was created on social hiking.


The beacon's are sent at roughly 5 minute intervals, so in a couple of places it look like I have walked across water but this is probably because I have moved around the body of water quicker than the beacons were sent. The map was updating live all the time but with out the photographs being added as I was taking these on a proper camera and not a phone, (if the photographs were taken on the same phone as the beacons are sent form they would appear live too). When I got home and updated the photographs to Flickr the social hiking software was able to see them and then add them to the map.
 Hand drawn Google map of the route


View Docklands Walk in a larger map

Photo Walk

Lazy Saturday

Mini Cam(bridge)

View Cambridge Walk in a larger map

Merrell Chameleon 5 GTX

I was recently approached by Merrell, after they had read my review of the Chameleon wrap slam shoes and asked if I would like to review their new Chameleon 5 GTX. 

Merrell Chameleon 5 GTX

The Chameleon 5 GTX are a very different shoe to the wrap slams, the GTX come with a Gore-Tex membrane and something I've not heard of before; the aegis microbe shield, the swing tab describes the aegis microbe shield  as:- 

The Aegis microbe shield is a revolutionary bonded antimicrobial technology which protects against odour, staining and deterioration caused by bacteria, fungus and other microorganisms.

The shoes weigh about the same as the wrap slam; around 510g, not the lightest hiking shoe but not the heaviest either and lighter than a leather boot.

The shoe is made up of suede leather and mesh, with a rubber rand on the toe front to protect against knocks, a vibram sole which looks to have a deeper cut tread than the wrap slams and a bellow tongue, along with metal hook and lacing eyelets, which I prefer rather than the laces attaching to the the shoe material.

Upper and Sole

There is also an external heel stability arm which aims to help on uneven ground, there is also a thin anti-bruise foot plate which runs the length of the shoe and aims to help when carrying a pack.

External heel stability arm

This is the third pair of Merrell's I've had and as usual, they come up a half size smaller than my usual size of 11.5, so that a size 12 give me a correct fit.

So far I have put around 10-12 miles on these shoes; mainly in an urban environment and they have proved to be pretty comfortable although with any shoe that has a waterproof membrane, my feet did feel a little hot at the end of a walk.

I'll continue to wear the shoes over the next few months and will have a fuller report then.

These shoes were supplied free of charge by Merrell and are available to buy at Fitnessfootwear.

Almost two years

Well I got almost two years out of the Merrell slam wrap trainers before killing them

I've worn these trainers pretty much everyday in that time, this includes my six mile round trip to work five days a week and all my urban walks in that time.

The main part of the trainers are find, with hardly any wear, it's just the soles that have worn out.

Posted via mobile Blogger.

Day at the Paralympics

From Olympic Park

Day at the races

From Velo

From Velo

From Velo

From Velo

From Velo

From Velo

How to

Sharpen a soft image

Smile

Time to let the hair down

Well done to Team GB

How to

make a HDR photograph with one picture

Backpacking Trolls

The Boys

The Boys, originally uploaded by londonbackpacker.

Just found out that this picture has made the shortlist for the Londonist / Horniman Museum 'London Look' photography challenge.

Ten photographs will be printed and displayed in the museum, while the others on the shortlist will be on a screen.

The judges meet on Friday 10th, so fingers crossed.

Remember This

Extra-Extra-Extra

Well the film is finally being release at the end of the month.

Be aware that there is a lot of Cockney and swearing, so if Cockney or swearing offends you DON'T play the trailer.

Be rude not to

As it was passing the bottom of the road.

To be honest, it was a bit of an anticlimax as the runner went pass in a flash. There were a few other vehicles that went pass, mainly from the sponsors.

SoFoBoMo 2012

SoFoBoMo is a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books from start to finish in 31 days.

This year the project runs from 1st July to 31st August; this is a fuzzy month which allows the photogrpher to start at any time within these date but still have a month to complete the project.

I did this project in 2010 with Elephant's in London, I have done one again this year and it's along the same lines as my previous one.

This year's SoFoBoMo is called London Calling and can be see here