Peak District Walks Accessible by Bus & Train
A friend recently asked me about walking routes in the Peak District that can be reached by public transport. I recommended the following. There's some great walks easily accessible by train in the Peaks. Here's a couple of options: Train to Edale from Sheffield or Manchester then: - Walk north-west up Kinder Scout then follow the ridge west for as far as you fancy. There's also a section of Pennine Way, from Edale up Jacobs Ladder. - Or, walk and south and up to Hollins Cross,climb Mam Tor, then drop into Castleton or follow the ridge east to ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/peaks-walks-public-transport
Hathersage Swimming Pool / Lido 2009 Opening Times
Hathersage outdoor swimming pool / lido in the Peak District is a great place for a splash around, even when the weather's not perfect since it's heated to a balmy 29C. Because the people of Hathersage understandably don't want to give up their pool to the village's many visitors all the time, there are some season-ticket holder only sessions, which makes the opening hours a bit unpredictable. I couldn't find the opening times for 2009 elsewhere on the web, so here's a photo of the sign outside the pool. The pale blue areas indicate Public ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/hathersage-swimming-pool-lido-opening-times
Touring Livermore Wineries by Bike - Day Trip from San Francisco
Wine tasting is a pretty popular activity on the US Pacific Coast, with Napa Valley's visitor numbers second only to Disney Land amongst Californian attractions. However, there's lots of great wineries without the tourist hoardes and with a lot more character, Livermore Valley near San Francisco being just one. We'd decided to tour the wineries by bike since tasting copious wine and driving has got to be a bad idea, whereas at least cycling poses less of a threat to innocent bystanders. And cycling through the vineyards is infinitely more fun than sitting in a hot car ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/cycle-tour-livermore-wineries-bike
Exploring San Francisco - Biking the Marin Headlands
The second day of a weekend's exploration of San Francisco had me escape the city by bike and head north over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands. Bike and Roll bike rentals on Columbus Ave / Lombard St provided a basic but functional hybrid and I followed the Bay from Fishermans Wharf along Marine Drive to the Golden Gate Bridge. Touristy photos duly taken, I crossed the bridge and took the underpass west beneath Highway 101 to Golden Gate Recreation Area and Battery Spencer. Great views back over the Bay to the City made the steep climb worth ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/explore-sf-biking-marin-headlands
Cycling the Coast-to-Coast C2C Route from Whitehaven to Sunderland
The C2C cycle route runs from the English west coast in Cumbria to the east coast at Tyne & Wear (see detailed map below). Having cycled the 8-day 'Wheelwright' mountain bike coast to coast route a couple of times before, the C2C seemed like a great way to cover similar ground in just 3 days. There's a few variations to the C2C route and we chose the Whitehaven to Sunderland option as a rough approximation to the traditional St Bees Head to Robin Hoods Bay walk. With about 15% optional off-road, the C2C is really a hybrid route, but we ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/cycle-c2c-whitehaven-to-sunderland-map
Running the London Marathon
I managed to haul myself around the London Marathon at the weekend in a respectable (for me) 3 hr 20 min. Although hard work, particularly in the last 10 miles, the atmosphere was fantastic with crowds lining the route all the way. It was a great challenge that's left me in two minds whether or not to do it again next year! My training had been a bit on the short-but-fast side with the single longest run at ~18 miles and the second longest being the Brighton half marathon a couple of months previously. Doing 9-10 milers at a ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/running-london-marathon
The Story of Cross-Country Ski Trekking in Norway
Feeling adventurous, four friends and I went cross-country ski trekking in the Norwegian Arctic Circle last month. The route, found in a book of summer hikes but followed instead when covered with several metres of snow, took us on a 6.5-day loop in the mountains from a remote station on the Narvik to Stockholm railway. With limited cross-country skiing experience (2 of us had never used them before setting off at the start of the trek), the learning curve was steep, and a lot of research had to happen in the pre-trip planning to maximise both our fun and ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/norway-narvik-cross-country-ski-trek
MishMash Sheffield - 'Kitchen Café Bar' - Restaurant Review
MishMash on Sheffield's Ecclesall Rd is aptly named for its ecclectic menu and quirky but cool decor. I ate there last Friday night and enjoyed it enough to write a mini review of them here. First of all, it's a not an S&M Cafe-esque 'posh bangers and mash' place as we'd initially thought on hearing the name. MishMash, the name, applies much more to the general feel of the place with chunky wooden furniture, bold ceiling-high prints of the Peaks on the walls, and a bright but informal style. Although placing an emphasis on locally sourced ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/mishmash-sheffield-kitchen-caf-bar
Choosing between Canon SX 110 IS, G10, and 450D Digital Cameras
Here's the pointers I gave to a friend who was comparing high-end compact / entry-level DSLR offerings from Canon. His requirements were decent image quality and high level of manual control; photo taking scenarios would be split between in-the-pub and more arty landscapes / architecture while travelling. "Prosumer (high end 'compact') vs DSLR is an ongoing debate. There's plenty of photography forums where you can read arguments either way, but in my opinion it depends on what features you'll actually use and how much cash you've got to splash. Stuff like resolution, preset modes, video playback are all ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/choosing-between-canon-sx-110-is-g10
Transferring a custom domain name from Blogger to AppEngine
This is actually much quicker than I dared hope. Using a third-party registered custom domain (ie. not bought through Google), both Blogger and AppEngine require that you set a CNAME DNS record with your domain name registrar to point from your domain name to ghs.google.com. Since both services require the same external DNS config, there is no delay while DNS records are propragated between ISPs like there normally would be with a change of hosts. The one gotcha to look out for is that attempting to link your domain name with your AppEngine application before removing the association ...
Full entry: http://www.martynj.com/transfer-custom-domain-blogger-appengine