Wey-South Path - High Bridge (Alfold) to Newbridge (Billingshurst) 10.1 Miles

Sunday 18th September 2011

Have not done much walking over the past couple of months as I have been too busy with Koi Shows and family events. So it is now time to start where I left off and complete the Wey-South Path.

A leisurely start this morning as I did not know what the weather was going to be like, but after breakfast it looked as if it was going to be dry and pleasant. Martin drove me to Rosemary Lane in Alfold; it was then ¾ mile to High Bridge where I finished walking last time. It was now 10.30. This section of the walk in on the towpath and follows the canal, albeit dry to Loxwood.

After 1 ½ miles I crossed the county boundary and was now in Sussex, and shortly after crossed the Sussex Boarder Path – another long distance trail. As I rounded the bend I could hear diggers and saw lots of building materials and wondered what was going on. When I got nearer to the site, I was amazed that the Canal Trust were renovating Southland Lock (Lock VII), and after reading the notices, learnt that the plan is to finish the work by the end of the year and then fill the canal with water.

The digger was in fact a dredger that was clearing out the canal to the south. Stopped and chatted to a couple of the guys who were supervising the works, and then continued on towards Devil’s Hole Lock.

During the winter of 1997 / 98 the canal was dredged and lined from Devil’s Hole Lock to Loxwood Lock.

Continuing a short distance to Loxwood Lock and the new tunnel under the B2133

In May 2009 the tunnel under the B2133 was finally opened.

They are now also building a new visitor centre behind the Onslow Arms.

Continuing southwards along the towpath it is only a very short distance to Brewhurst Lock, which was restored in 1996 and Brewhurst Bridge, which was rebuilt in 1994.

Continuing through the woods along the towpath to Baldwin’s Knob Loch, which was rebuilt in 1991 / 93 and on to Barnsill Bridge, newly built in 1989.

All these Locks and Bridges are quit close together.

It was now 12 noon and 4.58 miles walked, there was a nice seat beside the canal with a lovely view of the bridge, so decided to stop here for lunch.

There were now a few spots of rain but nothing to worry about. About half a mile further on the navigable part of the canal comes to an end just before Drungewick Aqueduct which was rebuilt in 2002 along with bridge and lock.

During this part of the walk there were several places where there the giant Hog Weed grows, and all that was left now was the enormous seed head.

The towpath & permissive path ends here and the walk is now on a short stretch of road, followed by footpaths and bridleways which do not follow the canal.

Turned left onto the bridleway past Crabfields Farm and through the woods. As you walk through the gate and out of the woods, there is a large open field in front of you with spectacular views of the South Downs.

 It was so clear you could see Chanctonbury Ring. The path now goes through Malham Farm and turns to the left and goes between two lakes, which they believe may have at one time been reservoirs for the canal. Walk along the edge of another couple of fields.

There were some quite dark could bubbling up in the distance, but still warm and sunny.

Follow the path though the woods past some fields with lots of Alpaca in them, then out on to the B2133.

Walk along the road for about ¼ miles and then turn left onto the bridleway signposted Loves Farm, followed the path to the left before the farm, and right shortly afterwards through a gap in the hedge – not signposted very well, across the field behind the farmhouse, and into the woods. On exiting the woods there was a field full of 7ft high maize. At the bottom of the field was a gate leading over the bridge.

This was Loves Bridge and I was now back on the canal. Loves Bridge is supposed to be the prettiest bridge on the entire canal. It was now 13.45 and had walked 8 ¾ miles so stopped here for a while for a snack and to take some photos.

Loves Bridge was rebuilt between 1974 and 1976 and again refurbished in 1992.

Now back on the towpath, and passed Rowner Lock. This lock has also been refurbished and bought back memories, as the Diving Club Martin & I used to belong to was asked back in the early 80’s to do a survey dive in this lock.

The next field had cows in it , and as I had be chased by cows earlier today I was a bit on edge, as these cows also had horns!!! but these were too busy eating.

 I was busy looking at the Northlands lifting bridge when a Kingfisher flew along the water – great to see.

It was now quite grey and cloudy and the end was in sight as I could see the bridge arches of Newbridge.

I reached Newbridge on the A 272 at 14.25 and 10.1 miles logged. It was just starting to rain – enough to get waterproof jacket out. I phoned Martin to let him know I had finished today’s walk and ask the train times from Billingshurst to Horsham. The heavens opened. I had just reached Billingshurst High Street and about to turn towards the Station when Martin called to say, start walking towards Five Oaks and he would come and pick me up.

By the time he met me at the junction of the Bypass, it had now just about stopped raining and I had walked another 2 miles, but at least I did not have to sit at a station and wait for a one per hour train.

To complete this trail I just have to walk the final section from Newbridge to Amberly, which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks – subject to weather.

Holland Koi Show 2011

OK so it's time I started writing again, have been very busy this summer.

Tuesday 16th August
Drove straight from work to Stanstead Airport for the 19.25 flight to Weeze near Dusseldorf, had time for some food before I boarded the plane.
I was met at the airport by Leo one of Show drivers for the week. It was about 30 minutes drive to the hotel, and now about 10 pm.

Checked in, unpacked cases and went to bed for a good nights sleep, but the room was very warm and the air-con not working properly, and had to shut the windows because of the traffic noise.

Wednesday 17th August 2011
After a leisurely breakfast, got a lift to the Show ground. I had gone out to Holland a day earlier than everyone else as I had been asked to do the Z.N.A. Practical Training Seminar on Wednesday afternoon.

Spent the morning leisurely walking around the Show site which was all taking shape, and also the Castle gardens, it was great to have some quiet chill out time, and also chat & catch up with people I had not seen since last years show.

 

 

After lunch, some of us decided to walk down to Arcen village to visit the ice cream parlour, for some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. Sitting by the river watching all the boats go by in the sun :) :) really nice.
Once back at the showground, the 2 sets of Koi had arrived, and found out we had Showa and Kohaku - 6 of each, all size 2. A little later the paperwork arrived with the photos of the Koi and their ID letters.

I was pre-judging these Koi with another U.K. B.K.K.S & Z.N.A. Judge, Bernie Woollands who has also had a very long association with Holland Koi Show.

We had to judge these Koi on the following criteria:-
Body
Quality of Hi (red)
Quality of Shiroji (White)
Quality of Sumi (black) - Showa only
Pattern
Total fish overall

All our results done, it was time for a well deserved cup of tea, before the people came for the seminar.

There were two set of people attending the training seminar this year - group 1, the Show workers and any of the overseas visitors who wanted to participate & Group 2 the Dutch trainee judges.

After we had pre judged both sets of Koi the Japanese Judges arrived at the Show Ground. They were asked which set of Koi they wanted for the Seminar, and to my surprise they chose the Showa.

Time to start, the attendees were told the format of what they had to do and given their sheets with the photos and spaces for the answers. They now had 20 minutes to identify the Koi with the photos and they had to judged them according to the criteria listed above. Once the time was up we then talked them through the answers, and explaining our reasons why. They then moved on to the Showa, and the people who had done the Showa first then came to do the Kohaku.

This was all then repeated again for the Trainee Judges, but they had more time afterwards to ask more detailed questions.

Now time for some dinner, before returning to the hotel for the evening.

Most of the International Judges had now arrived.

Thursday 18th August 2011
Today is hard work for all the Dutch trainee judges, as it is benching day, when all the Koi are arriving at the show, 72 Vats &. Over 500 Koi to be measured, classified and photographed.

But today is the day that all the International Judges get to meet each other & socialise as many have never met before. Holland Koi Show organise events for us International Judges to "Team Build".

This year is was a bakery workshop, which was great fun, making all sorts of bread rolls ( only one judge misbehaved and made mischievous shapes).

 

 

We then made a local style fruit pie - very yummy - and biscuits ( or cookies as the American judges called them).

Lunch was at the bakery, traditional Dutch with meats and cheese and the bread rolls we had made this morning - very yummy :).

After lunch we then made a cream gateaux, what were we going to do with all this? We all decided to give it to the ladies in the catering tent back at the show ground, that way it would all be eaten by the show workers.

Now it was time to go over the road to the bowling ally.

Interesting place, it was a 4 lane bowling ally underneath a pub / restaurant. We had 2 lanes and spilt into two teams. A lots of fun & laughs was had by all, but this is what it was all about, International Judges who had never met each other before getting to know each other before the serious judging at the Show starts tomorrow.

Collected all our goodies from the bakery and then it was back to the Show ground for evening dinner.

Whilst sitting and chatting , it became very humid and suddenly got dark - no not and early sun set, but dark storm clouds. Then the wind increased the lightening and thunder began. Some brave person went up the tower to cut the banners down so the wind did not affect the tower. Then the rain started.

This was the mother of storms, I have never seen lightening & heard thunder like it, and what torrential rain. After about an hour it eased off and we all got in the mini buses and went back to the hotel, where the chatting continued and various issued regarding a specific Koi were discussed.

The following morning I heard on the news that the storm had claimed lives at a music festival in Hasselt in Belgium only about an hours drive away.


Friday 19th August 2011
Reasonable start time this morning, leave for the Show at 9am in Judges uniform.

Judges briefing in the centre ring at 10 am. Jan made the introductions and explained the judging format for this morning.
This years Judges were:-
Muneaki Bajo - Japan
Tomio Motoda - Japan
Sadauyki - Suzuki - Japan
Bernie Woolands - U.K.
Christine Woolger - U.K.
Lloyd Bartley - U.K.
Bill Johnson - U.K
Larry Hubbard - South Africa
Brian Welch - South Africa
Willy Geldenhuys - South Africa
Steve Childers - U.S.A.
Bryan Bateman - U.S.A.
Dirk de Witte - Belgium
Rudi van den Broecke. - Belgium
Gerard McDonald - Australia
Kazuyo McDonald - Australia

As usual this morning we were judging the following 3 awards:-
Grand Champion, Supreme Champion ( G.C. Runner up) And non Go Sanke Grand Champion.

This was all to be done my secret ballot.

After quite some time looking in all the vats for the Grand Champion, there were maybe 2, or at most 3 possibilities, but on closer inspection of these 3 Koi there was only really 1 choice a Sanke inVat 20

Photo by Rene

The Supreme Champion was a little more difficult and there was some differences between the Judges, especially the Japanese, but there we go.
This was finally awarded to a Sanke

Photo by Rene

Non GoSanke Grand Champion, again there were a couple of contenders, and it was eventually awarded to very Nice Kigoi in Vat 6

It may have only been 3 prizes to award, but surprisingly it was now lunchtime.

After lunch it was back to the hotel for a quick change into casual clothes. It was then a short drive to our next activity location, it fact it was next to the well known brewery.

We were welcomed into a lovey garden attached to a restaurant, where they were setting up for us to have an Archery competition.

Judges were split pinto 4 teams, and given instruction on how to shoot arrows,  including safety rules etc.

We were then given 2 practice shots each. Not as easy as you might think - they don't go to the place on the target that you point them at.

The organiser devised a couple of competitions and once again it was a good afternoon with lots of chat and laughs and getting to know our fellow judges.

Back at the Showground it was the evening BBQ. this is held for all the Show workers, Judges and visitors on the Koi Trek from the UK.  It was a very warm and pleasant evening, and the food was superb.

Early night tonight as tomorrow is going to be a very long day.

Saturday 20th August 2011
Early start today, mini bus leaves the hotel at 8.30 am, and straight to the Centre Ring for Judges briefing at 9 am. the ground was still so wet & soggy that it was wellies or waterproof  shoes. We were all told by Jan who the team leaders were and which teams we were in, there were 5 teams.  We were then given the paperwork for the size of fish we were judging.  Unfortunately the team I was in had Size 1.  This is a difficult size to judge as most of the fish have to be lifted in a net to see them properly, as there is a filtration unit in each vat so the water is always moving even if you temporally turn the air off.  Once we had finished the size 1, we were then given size 5 - much better - proper Koi to judge.

All of the first round was finished by lunch time - it was very warm and quite humid.

After lunch all the teams come together to do round 2 - Best in Size, Best in Variety, and the Baby, Adult & Mature Champions.  This part of the Judging takes some time as instead of being in teams of 3 or 4 it is all Judges together, and lots of opinions to take into consideration.

All finished by 5pm, and a good days judging, with some very interesting Koi, and discussion.

Now time to relax for an hour or so back at the hotel and get ready for tonight's dinner dance - always a late night.

Sunday 21st August 2011
A later start this morning, and arrived at the the Show at about 10 am.  Storm clouds gathering, and the rain started, torrential, for about half an hour, nothing to do except drink tea in the Hospitality tent.

Once the rain stopped the sun came out and the crowds were coming into the show ground.  Spent the morning taking photos of the more unusual varieties of the Koi in the show for use in next years training seminar, and generally wandering around the stands and exhibitions - the Bonsai Show, Shrimp Show & Siamese Fighting Fish.  There is so much to see at this Show, not just Koi.
It was getting very warm and humid, and when I checked the local conditions on the Internet is was 28deg and 88% humidity, quite uncomfortable, and getting worse.

After lunch an announcement was put out that the prize giving had been bought forward to 2.30 pm, as there was a weather warning of another storm heading our way.  So it was a quick change into Judges uniform, and walk over to the amphitheater.

It was now so uncomfortable sitting on the stage, and you could see the clouds building up all around.  Fortunately the rain held off till the ceremony was over.  Could not wait to take jacket off.

At 5 pm it was time to say my goodbuys and head off to the airport, this was a long journey as we had to do a "round robin" to 2 airports.

I will not comment on the journey home - only to say treatment at the airport was awful, and I will never fly Ryan Air again.

Once back in U.K. it was a 2 hour drive from Stanstead to home, and finally arrived at my house at 11.30 pm.

Once again a great few days at the Holland Koi Show, meeting old friends and new, and look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

Location:Arcen - Holland