#juneathon Day 30 – Bournville

My earliest Juneathon start, as I started walking up Foel Drygarn in the Preseli Hills at 0415 to see my Gold DofE groups that had bivouacked overnight on the high ground as part of their preparations to go to Scotland.

As pleasant as the walk was, I wanted to finish Juneathon with something slightly more impressive. So after a siesta to get over a sleepless night, I set out on the road bike with the aim of taking myself over the 200 mile mark for cycling during the month.

I took the back roads to Slebech Park, a very picturesque 5* hotel. I counted 3 Jaguars in the car park and a fleet of other very nice cars.

Then it was back to Haverfordwest via Arnold’s Hill, before taking the cycle track and minor road to Tiers Cross.

From there it was straight home to check out the Strava stats -I vowed I’d never get obsessed with segments!

So Juneathon 2018 comes to an end, and I think I can allow myself a couple of cold ones.

I’ve been asked if I’ll do Janathon – no is the probable answer as I’ll be north of the Arctic Circle for the first 6 days in Finland. I don’t fancy running or cycling in the conditions I’m likely to encounter there.

I have kept the best till last for today’s final Juneathon confectionery.

I absolutely love Bournville plain chocolate, which is named after the model village of the same name, and which has been produced by Cadbury since 1908. Check out this advert for Britain’s finest chocolate, IMHO, from 2013: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KBbWd2fwccs

Well done to everyone else who completed Juneathon!

Juneathon 2018 total
203.4 miles of cycling, 18.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 10 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge, Jelly Tots, Revels, Skittles, Marou 70%, Mini Eggs, Bournville

#juneathon Day 29 – Mini Eggs

An interesting walk out from Bwlch Gwynt after sunset to the summit of Foel Feddau (467m) and back with a couple of fellow DofE leaders, to supervise our groups of Gold Award participants who we had out doing overnight training. If you can navigate across hills at night, you can navigate in fog! While waiting for the groups to leave, we caught a pretty dazzling sunset.

Then it was time to go – look carefully and you can see the planet Venus.

You could also clearly see Jupiter and Mars, something that came as a shock to some of our participants, all bright A-Level students, as they “didn’t know you could see planets” – one girl, who is hoping to become a doctor also objected most strongly when I said that astrology was nonsense. You have to wonder about the National Curriculum sometimes.
The moonlight was so bright that we didn’t use torches once, either there or back.

Summit cairn on Foel Feddau, with Moon in background.

Today’s Juneathon confectionery was a pack of Mini Eggs I had left over from Easter.

Introduced by Cadbury in 1967, these hard milk chocolate eggs encased in thin crispy shells have become an Easter favourite in the UK. This advert surely couldn’t have helped the popularisation process? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbc7O4FBe6s

Juneathon 2018 total
176.3 miles of cycling, 18.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 9 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge, Jelly Tots, Revels, Skittles, Marou 70%, Mini Eggs,

#juneathon Day 28 – Marou 70%

Another day of assessing DofE expedition groups. Today was the turn of Bronze qualifying groups, who coped magnificently in ridiculously hot weather, with temperatures hitting the 30°C mark. If I’m honest, I didn’t walk very far today in pursuit of the groups, but even walking a short distance I found myself feeling exhausted, due to the heat and humidity. I did however manage a short walk around the very pretty village of Cresswell Quay, where my group had to cross the stepping stones over the Cresswell river, one of the tributaries of the Cleddau.

Tidal ranges in this part of the world are quite large, and the tide also moves very quickly – this is the part of the river where the stepping stones were only two hours later.

Today’s Juneathon confectionary was another left-field offering, but hopefully one you’ll get to hear about more and more.

Marou chocolate is made in Vietnam, I have several bars left over from my cycling trip to that beautiful country in January this year (see the January entries of this blog for photos of that epic trip). So what’s Vietnamese chocolate like? Well, a lot better than you might think – bear in mind the country was a French colony for many years so there are influences there. Indeed, the New York Times describes Marou chocolate as “the best chocolate you’ve never tasted” while the Daily Telegraph included the brand on its list of the best chocolate bars in the world.
My verdict? It’s a bit of an acquired taste; like a lot of dark chocolate produced abroad, it’s almost too dark, but it’s certainly worth a try.

Juneathon 2018 total
176.3 miles of cycling, 18.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 8 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge, Jelly Tots, Revels, Skittles, Marou 70%

#juneathon Day 27 – Skittles

Another day of supervising and assessing DofE expeditions. Well done to the groups who have taken part in expeditions this week in this heat – it has been very gruelling, but the young people that took part have not been found wanting. Have a look at www.facebook.com/dofepembrokeshire to see what the Award Scheme in this county is all about.

I took the road bike out again this evening and did rather well.

Exercise is difficult in hot weather but I find cycling in such conditions ok, so it’s an ideal activity for this time of year, especially with such long daylight hours.

Another very decent average speed, especially given the hills.

I hit 38mph at one point which begs the question of what would happen if I were to fall off? This research would suggest that cycle helmets would be of little help in such a situation – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2018/may/31/why-forcing-cyclists-to-wear-helmets-will-not-save-lives-video-explainer – I wear a helmet and insist that my children do too – but mainly so than no one has a go at us for not wearing one, rather than because I think they’re really helping.

Today’s Juneathon confectionery was Skittles.

I had always thought that they were American but actually they were first made in the UK in 1974. They are produced now by Wrigley who have developed a reputation for surreal advertising of the brand, e.g. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2h9Y1t7ARds

Juneathon 2018 total
176.3 miles of cycling, 18.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 7 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge, Jelly Tots, Revels, Skittles

#juneathon Day 26 – Revels

Another day in the best office as I was out assessing DofE groups again.

Then it was back on the road bike for a swift evening spin out to Johnston and back.  Very swift it was too, I overtook two tractors, which is always satisfying.

Pleasingly the gears appear to be working properly again, which might explain the pretty decent average.

Today’s Juneathon confectionery was a pack of Revels, a Mars brand going in the UK since 1967.

To my great delight, there wasn’t a single coffee flavoured one in the pack. One of the protagonists in this advert was not so fortunate: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FqA5BWzuGoI

Juneathon 2018 total
168.5 miles of cycling, 17.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 6 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge, Jelly Tots, Revels

#juneathon Day 25 – Jelly Tots

After another day assessing DofE Silver groups, I went out on the hybrid for an off road jaunt. I found once again that a bridleway that starts like this….

…can soon turn into this:

Actually the ground is so hard and dry at the moment that it’s been easier in the last couple of weeks than I’ve ever known to cycle along some of our local bridleways and off road tracks. Even the notoriously swampy ones are now passable by bike.

So I had a very enjoyable ride over a series of fields and along various tracks and small lanes.

I dispute the calorie count – it was much tougher than that – cycling uphill and off road is the equivalent of taking one step back for every two steps forward.

So I earned today’s Juneathon Confectionery, namely some of these.

We have Dr Brian Boffey to thank for Jelly Tots as he invented the sweets, which were launched by Rowntree in 1965. They contain 25% fruit juices and no artificial colours or flavours. They caught on very quickly, and are apparently extremely popular in South Africa, though probably no thanks to this advert https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2dJar88Vc

Juneathon 2018 total
160.5 miles of cycling, 17.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 5 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge, Jelly Tots

#juneathon Day 24 – Cadbury Fudge

Another day of assessing DofE expedition groups and today I managed to get out of the car more and do a fair bit of walking. I ended up having to walk back on myself to return this adorable dog, Poppy, to her farm after she followed my Bronze Award group.

We encountered another dog in nearby Porthgain, though it was more like a horse in size.

The rights of way in this part of Pembrokeshire are pretty good for the most part. So much of the time you can we walking on something as clear and as obvious as this.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule and this overgrown footpath made me wish I hadn’t worn shorts.

Im glad I wasn’t running or cycling today. It was oppressively hot and the pollen count was sky high. It was however good to get out and exercise, if only to take in the views – I’ve been to many places around the world but there are few coastlines that can match Pembrokeshire’s.

Today’s Juneathon confectionery is full of Cadbury goodness and very small and neat.

This advert was one of the longest running on UK television, appearing from the 1970s through to the 1990s: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X9W4rhhEq_U What you might not know is that the lyric was written by one time lead singer of Manfred Mann, Mike D’Abo, singer of The Mighty Quinn, and writer of Handbags and Gladrags. You’ll remember that useless piece of trivia now, but you won’t remember where you put your phone or keys.

Juneathon 2018 total
147.5 miles of cycling, 17.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 4 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fudge

#juneathon Day 23 – Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate

Another day of supervising and assessing Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions, and I managed a little walk down to Aberbach beach, on the path down, there is a series of animal sculptures like this one.

I didn’t feel that I particularly exerted myself so I went for a cross country run once I got home.

It was quite a slow one as you might expect due to the terrain.

Today’s Juneathon confectionery is Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate.

The firm was founded as recently as 1991 by Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley – so not Green or Black at all. A mystery then, rather like this advert: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VV06pVdviRU

Juneathon 2018 total
147.5 miles of cycling, 17.2 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 3 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer, Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate

#juneathon Day 22 – Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer

Another day of walking in the beautiful Pembrokeshire countryside to assess DofE expedition groups. With views like this, you can scarcely call it work:

I still wanted to go out on the bike though, so I went for an 11 mile spin this evening.

Another very high average speed which I was pleased with, the muscles in my legs seem to be stronger than they were a couple of months ago, and I am finally starting to get some real enjoyment out of the road bike – a sentiment helped by not having had a puncture in almost a month!

Today’s Juneathon confectionery is a Scottish institution.

They’re made at the factory in Uddingston, a suburb of Glasgow where my mum went to grammar school. If you want to visit the factory, there is a 2 year waiting list. Make no mistake, these things are popular – one Scottish university has a Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Appreciation Society, while 6,000,000 are made and sold every week, which is more than one for every inhabitant of Scotland. So why they need to advertise is a mystery? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1r8-LJupnV0

Juneathon 2018 total
147.5 miles of cycling, 14.9 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 2 days of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer

#juneathon Day 21 – Jacob’s Club

A more gentle form of exercise today, hiking in the St Brides area of Pembrokeshire while assessing 3 Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition groups. A glorious day it was for it too. A couple of interesting finds:

1. Owl pellets

2. This reference to the great UFO flap of 1977.

The sign is near the entrance to Ripperston Farm, whose owners at the time reported seeing UFOs and giant silver suited aliens. Their sightings led to author Peter Paget writing a book called The Welsh Triangle in which he claimed that the UFOs had a secret undersea base just off the coast of Pembrokeshire. However in 1996, Glyn Edwards, a local businessman admitted that it had all been a practical joke and hoax on his part and that he had dressed as an alien for a laugh.

Today’s Juneathon confectionery was given to me as a perk after I had given blood.

W & R Jacob first produced the Club biscuit in Dublin just before WW1. I remember lots of flavours when I was a kid, but now there just seems to be 4 of them; namely orange, fruit, mint and honeycomb. Thank goodness the coffee flavour, as seen in this advert, was discontinued: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ_n1SWso6w

Juneathon 2018 total
136.5 miles of cycling, 14.9 miles of running, 2.1 miles of circuits/intervals, 2 games of football, 1 ballet session, 1 day of DofE Expedition assessing.
Cadbury Buttons, Maoams, Fry’s Peppermint Cream, Galaxy Salted Caramel, Cadbury Easter Egg, Cadbury Wispa, Maltesers, Smarties, Haribo, Double Decker, Terry’s Chocolate Orange bar, Hershey bar, Lion Bar, Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit, Minstrels, KitKat, Twix, Rolo, Beryl’s 99% Dark Chocolate, Jacob’s Club