| Weather: Rain to start, then cloudy, with cold westerly |
| Distance covered today: 18.0km (11.2mi) |
| Last night's B&B: The Post Office (£28) |
| Cumulative distance: 1136.0km (705.9mi)/ % Complete: 59.4% |
| GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 57 (click!) |
The name of tonight’s village does not slander its young ladies. It is in fact old English for a “muddy ford”, which is a little less defamatory, I think you’ll agree. Not that I’ve actually seen any of the young wenches, despite arriving in very good time. I have been holed up in my bedroom, under the duvet, being warmed by my netbook, which, amongst its other very many uses, also serves as a passable hot water bottle! It is perishing cold in these parts! I can’t believe it’s the middle of June! There is a howling gale blowing outside, the temperature can’t be above 10deg C, and there is no chance that these hardy northerners will switch on the heating in summer, whatever the temperature! In fact I detected a Scottish accent on arrival, which probably means they are even more inured to the cold. I have decided it will be warmer in the pub, so just as soon as I think it polite, I’ll steal out and settle in next to what I fervently hope will be a roaring log fire with a pint of best bitter or a glass of red.
The other problem, predictably, is an absence of wifi. Perhaps I’ll have better luck at the pub, but I’m not optimistic. I have managed to acquire a weak mobile signal on my dongle, so I will be able to upload the basic blog, but the photos will probably have to follow when next I get a decent connection. We will see....
Which leads me on to a rant, and I feel I deserve one because I have been very good for weeks now, transported as I have been by the luminous beauty of my surroundings. My issue is mobile phones! If you are reading this, it will be because the signal was transported across the ether by O2, who supplied the mobile dongle. I saw the mobile mast up the valley, so this was no surprise. What was a surprise is that my mobile phone, with a SIM card supplied by the network “3”, has no connection! We have all become used to this nonsense, but my point is that it really is unacceptable! Yesterday, on the top of Great Dun Fell, next to a huge mobile mast, I had no connection. “3” claims to have the best network in the land (they all do), but often, I just can’t connect.
My point is that this is evidence of market failure. All these companies were compelled to compete by building individual networks, rather than sharing the infrastructure and competing on some other basis such as customer service or whatever. We all now have these marvellous devices which can do things that most people aren’t even aware of, other than reliably connect to each other, which is really what most people want from them in the first place, especially outside of the cities! In my experience, connections are far better in the developing world, which really is incredible! In my journey to date, I would estimate that I have had a mobile connection in no more than half the villages I have visited, which is simply unacceptable, and far worse than I expected.
Even on safety grounds, I would have thought that there would have been a good case for some sort of cooperation. Yesterday, on Cross Fell, there was excellent visibility, but today would have been quite the opposite, to the extent that I probably wouldn’t have climbed it today had I known there would be no signal on my network. I can’t think of any simpler or cheaper safety policy than to mandate universal mobile connectivity on the popular national trails, mountains and other recreational spaces of the UK. And if that makes sense, why not mandate it for all rural areas while they are at it. After all, it isn’t as if people are really aware of which network provides the best national coverage. They just buy the network that connects them at home and hope it works elsewhere. As a competitive tool, the only function of the current system is to keep out new entrants, which hardly leads to increased competition. Selling bandwidth has made the government a fortune, but extra network connectivity would have been what people wanted. In my view all this is a classic case of poor regulation leading to market failure, just like the banks (well, OK, not quite like the banks…..)
OK, rant over! As you may already have guessed, today’s walk was a fairly straightforward affair. I was amused to read the comment in my guide that on reaching the town of Alston (half-way between Garrigill and Slaggyford), “you should be aware that it is you that is coming down from outer space, not the locals”. Today’s walk along the South Tyne River and along a disused railway line was indeed a return to normality, after a few days of high excitement. It felt like coming back to the office after an overseas business trip, if ever walking through the Garden of Eden can be compared to a day in the office! But there was the same feel to it.
I remember coming back from trips to the east of Russia, where I saw strange things, met interesting people and had all sorts of unusual experiences. I would land at Heathrow and a driver would collect me. Inevitably, he couldn’t have been less interested in my tales from afar. He would be much more interested in the jams on the M25 and the score in the Champions’ League or the Test Match. I had to learn that the real world lives inside itself. Few people have the time or inclination to let their imagination wander, and travellers from the other side are more of a threat than an attraction. They are certainly only of passing interest.
And so it was for me today. But that doesn’t mean I don’t continually meet all sorts of kindnesses along the way. I had been to the Co-op in fascinating Alston to buy something and had then treated myself to a cup of tea in an excellent little tea-shop. I was coming out of the Outdoor Shop, when suddenly a woman rushed up to me with my walking poles, which I had forgotten in the Co-op! I hadn’t even realised they were missing! I bet that wouldn’t have happened in London.
So I will have to disguise my wild staring eyes and hysterical laughter for at least the next day. I will be taking a short-cut off the Pennine Way on roads and in reality, because I had badly underestimated tomorrow’s walk in the planning, and I have now found a solution that gets me to the Twice Brewed Inn in the village of Once Brewed in a reasonable distance.
But with names like that, who knows how the day might end!
The day began with a walk along the South Tyne River
My eternal spring continues!
This pub in Alston was established in 1611. Makes one think!
After all the curlews and lapwings, this little robin came to visit. He was very friendly and curious, but he wouldn't sit still so I could focus!
The offending mobile tower that doesn't carry my mobile signal!
12 comments:
I do empathise with your comments about returning from Russia, and the main topic of conversation from the driver being the traffic on the M25, etc.
I can remember returning to our home in the U.K. after five years in one of the far flung outposts of our mutual employer, and meeting a neighbour in the road. “Hello, Chris, I haven’t seen you for a while.” “Well, no, we’ve been in Korea for the last five years.” “Oh.” A very long pause, in which I imagined that thoughts were being marshalled, penetrating questions on the differences in culture were being assembled, a short discourse on the rise of the developing economise was being developed. No, Christopher, none of that. The eventual rejoinder was: “Did your bin get emptied on Wednesday?”
It really is disappointing to realise that one’s experiences of living in a parallel universe (or, indeed, in outer space, which is precisely how we actually felt at that particular time… I remember joking that I hoped that the heat resisting tiles didn’t fall of the bottom of the aeroplane as the engines were cut to idle and we descended into the airport, au space shuttle), often are of no interest to others who have not thus ventured. I guess that explanation of living in different cultures really does apply: fish don’t realise that they normally live in water until one takes them out of it.
Chris
Do you really think that a lack of a good mobile signal in some rural areas is evidence of market failure? I could hypothesise that it is evidence of the market working in its normal efficient way. The vast majority of mobile ‘phone users are townies, living in dense urban areas. They pay the various network providers’ charges, and so it is to them that the better signal strength and coverage are provided.
If you meant that ‘normal market forces do not provide a universal service’, that is a different supposition. I agree that normal market forces would not provide excellent coverage all across the country, particularly in hilly areas, where one would need a vast array of aerials, given that the signals basically are line of sight… which is why when one is standing almost under a mast, one is not getting much joy from the aerial array at the top which is point horizontally at the its customers. And one can imagine that proposals to erect a vast array of aerials would bring out the best in rural NIMBYism, whatever the potential advantage to peripatetic bloggers.
Market forces drive suppliers to where the market is; they don’t motivate universal provision. Look at the arguments about the Government’s NHS reforms. The concern is that any partial privatisation will result in those providers picking off the profitable bits of health care, and leave the unattractive bits to the ‘old’ Health Service.
Chris
At least you've been lucky with the weather so far, just hope that we get the wet weather down south and you have the dry! But I hope you found the log fire - though I rather doubt the current financial climate permits much of that in mid June. It must have been chilly for you to feel cold.
Chris, As usual, you and I are in agreement, though in a rather contorted way. I do agree that the market is working as expected. My point is just that it is not producing what people want. I completely agree with your NHS analogy and would add that it is to avoid the obvious problem that they are concerned not to let the market rip; with good reason...
My point though is that the market seldom provides decent infrastructure. If BT hadn't had a monopoly, there would be no fixed line system in rural areas either. My point is simply that it is perverse after that example to just let the market make the decisions and let rural areas suffer the consequences with mobile infrastructure. Elsewhere, with better regulation, they have decent mobile infrastructure. The world just isn't as simple as the Chicago economists would have us believe!
I think the market operated quite logically in the banking crisis as well, in your sense of the issue. But to me, the fact that the outcome would have been catastrophic had there been no intervention, would also have been evidence of market failure in my sense of the phrase.....
Hello KTB,
Another fascinating post as you march ever closer to the border.Particularly interested by the rant, and the perceptive comment that few folk have the time or inclination to let their imagination wander. I'm inclined to agree, though I think that the inclination is what is lacking...if it were there, the time could always be made, as you are indeed discovering. But is the issue whether you are now experiencing a touch of dreamland, or whether in fact your current experiences are of the real world, and a return to dreamland awaits at journey's end??????
Yours musingly,
GH
Dear GH, Yes, you make a good point about where dreamland might lie, though in my retired state, I think that all the vistas are new, even the ones in the city. But I am troubled by the thought, expressed never better in that wonderful balad "Ode to Billy-Jo" that "freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose", which for me is the most philosphical line in a song ever penned! I suspect that there is never a road back from experience. The question is, as you suggest, how does one bridge the gap between extraordinary perception and normality? I think the answer lies in imagination...
Kevin, at last a comment from us! We enjoy your blog so much, and look forward to hearing your daily adventures, which I print off and read to Yasmin usually in the evening, after dinner, or in bed! As we are offline then, that’s why we’ve not been responding more often.
You bring a sense of adventure, excitement and enthusiasm to everything you encounter, with a freshness and charm. The blog covers such a range of fascinating people you have encountered, acutely and sensitively observed. You give us interesting facts about obscure places and things; evocative descriptions of the landscape and natural environment. There are compelling stories drawn from the rich experiences of your past life.
Even the rants have become subdued (on a sidenote, I thought most contracts included use of other networks –we certainly get irritated by constant changes from Vodafone to other network providers. And we do hope the toes are recovered, the wifi desert subsides, and that you don’t finally lose your walking poles in late night revelries in some distant hostelry!
John, After such a kind comment (blush!), I hardly feel like arguing with you, but no, that is not how it is with mobiles. You only have a choice of network if you are "roaming", i.e. outside the country where you signed on. If you are in that country, your phone locks out all competing networks! That's my gripe! (At least that is how it is in England!)
I had often wondered if Kevin was involved in Shell's Russian adventures -- the more so as Russian Nationalism (or was it Russian Corruption - which, I hear, warrants a capital C) clashed with Shell's commercial interests and it became a global news story.. What happened in the end -- or is that classified? And by the way, there seems to be a taboo on mentioning the company name in the blog - both you and Chris R refer to the company as "our mutual employer" or "a multinational company" - but rarely does the name Shell get mentioned... Is this a Voldemort thing - 'he who must not be named' issue? i presume you have read Harry Potter and the lost oil field ...or is it just company ethics?
How interesting to visit Eastern Russia which must be the largest continental wilderness anywhere outside the Antarctic!! I am sure that you did see strange sights there! I imagine freeeezzzing cold but dry with lots of sunshine in the summer?? I was really tickled by Chris's story of his return to Britain after 5 years in Korea, and the only question his neighbor had was if his bin had been emptied!! -- so much for globalization..
I take your side on the mobile coverage issue. It's now a part of society's infrastructure, like transport, TV and banking. The market here and there needs correction, needs direction, for the general welfare.
That said, in the unknown future, technological change may displace the arrangements of our generation with something more efficient, beamed from the sky perhaps. Britain's canal network is, I discover, of comparable length to the motorway network. An impressive construct, but now largely passé.
A practical observation: I have signed up for mobile broadband for international use with abroadband.com. Installing the dongle I find I must first 'register' at each use with one of the several discovered ISPs. Presumably abroadband has a contractual arrangement with many of them: '55 countries, 79 operators'. The company is based in Austria, so when you download at €59 per MB it is, as you say roaming, but anywhere.
Richard, In my case it certainly is a Voldermort Thing! I suspect Chris will have to answer for himself. At the start of all this, I had no idea who might be listening and I wanted to protect the participants from the sort of triangulation that would reveal their identities! Mentioning Shell and taking that with a few of my experiences would quickly identify me. Somehow, here in the wilds of the border, it doesn't seem to matter so much any more!
I'm afraid you may have to brace yourself for more of my Russian experiences!
Roger, As always a very interesting and useful comment! I do agree on your infrastructure commentary. On abroadband, that is most interesting! I will be pleased to hear of your experiences. This is a different service, but I previously bought an unlocked dongle which I successfully used overseas. I found that when I returned to the UK, none of the providers would recognise it! But I readily acknowledge it was a hardware, rather than a software solution.
abroadband sounds more interesting!!!
Post a Comment