Marching (and cooking) into April

Beth writes: Firstly I want to use this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you who walked, cycled, shuffled, wheel-barrowed and galloped (among many other fabulous activities) collectively during March. We self-propelled a whopping 2775.46 miles (to be utterly precise!) and had just shy of 260 entries to the form… an effort not to be sniffed at.

Now on to our wonderful virtual March travels: a quick recap – South Queensferry to Kortegene, on to Venice, over to Lake Garda, Lake Constance and we left our story just outside the rather picturesque Goitzsche. We were merrily able to flit to Goitzsche and then head on our way to Müritz – which has space for two wee rowing boats (how perfect for Ferry Lass and Maid to catch their breath and I’m sure our rowers would be delighted to catch their breath too).

Kortgene, Zeeland. Photo courtesy of marinas.com

Not for long though, as we had pressing travels to see some Viking culture, and to be inspired by such (historically) keen rowers. Nykøbing Falster would be the start of our island hopping and possibly some Danish cuisine – happy rowing and refuelling with a little velbekomme thrown in! Next it seems we brought the weather back with us (with our Baltic vibes this week) as we turned to head West again to Fehmarn to feel the sand between our toes on a quick beach holiday whilst we dream of our very own South Queensferry beach… Our wistful dreams didn’t last long as we simply had to go and see the Wadden Sea  – an UNESCO World Heritage site and all. From the joy of birdwatching from the beautiful Borkum isle (on the Wadden Sea) we dashed over to Amsterdam.

The North Friesien islands on the Wadden Sea. Photo by Ralf Roletschek via Wikipedia

Amsterdam offered many waterways for us to explore and enjoy but we couldn’t stay long as we had to keep up with a ferry between Rotterdam and Hull – we do love a little bit of wake-chasing! From Hull we hopped, skipped and jumped directly to our beloved Port Edgar but even in our virtual travels we found not a bacon roll in sight… So we decided to visit Dundas Castle and the Dalmeny Estate, followed by a return trip to share a socially-distanced wave with our North Queensferry buddies and the 5.66 miles left over allowed us to head home for a little nap, few sips of rhubarb wine, to plant those chitted potatoes and stretch up ready for the next instalment of our virtual adventures…

On the Dalmeny Estate, Barnbougle Castle in the distance.

We are now aiming to venture a gargantuan distance this April by going to visit our beloved Baby Lass in Nalolo, Zambia… that’s near to 7,150 miles – together we CAN do this! Please add any miles travelled during April to the following link: Click here to collect those miles – please check the little (updated) note below before you do.

Peter Locke, Neil McKinley, Dr Pota Kalima of the Nalolo Clinic in Zambia, and Stuart Ridge with Baby Lass. Photo by Mike McDowall

Just a slightly different bit of housekeeping (alongside the usual reminders): if you cover miles in a group please add together the miles travelled before you add this to the form, eg if I went for a 12 mile walk with someone who was keen to join in the challenge I would add 24 miles to the form (as we’d both self-propelled 12 miles). Please remember to just input any distance travelled in miles, without the units and without any other details, e.g. If I side-stepped 2 miles around my local green space I would only pop ‘2’ into the appropriate answer box… Possibly after I’d taught myself the grapevine ready for next time… If you want to make your own running total of miles and input this once a week, or even if you want to do a new entry for every mile you travel, you’re most welcome – whatever suits you best.

On a further note we are celebrating all things local, seasonal and forageable this week in our recipe to challenge. This is to say, if you have a recipe (or more than one recipe!) which contains some ingredients you could grow, forage for or buy from a local supplier we would love you to share it with us! Please use the link below, with your recipe in any form you wish or if digital isn’t your style I can also offer postal copies. I hope you’re as excited to celebrate all things local and foodie with us this week.

Click here to add your locally inspired recipes.