Veloviewer Tile Bagging?

Thoughts and prayers

~130k to get 7.

But mostly I've been emailing RWGPS and Squadrats to fix their stupid map update so I can actually plot routes that hit squares.

I also just went for a walk to get a whopping 16 tiles, mostly around a golf course. Just walked right in. Smiled at a few people, nobody said a thing

You look like a golfist. Take a bike in and they set the dogs on you.

I didn't have any golf sticks with me though. But yeah I reckon you can happily walk over a golf club without an issue

Which one? (You're near me so I'm interested)

Roehampton Club - looks quite impenetrable
Richmond Park - easy
Royal Wimbledon - relatively easy
Wimbledon Park - probably easy
Sudbrook Park - doesn't look straight forward
Dukes Meadows - think it's relatively easy
Royal Mid-Surrey (Old deer Park) - dunno
Malden - no idea
Coombe Hill - no idea
Coombe Wood - no idea

I moved a couple of months ago. I'm in West Sussex now 😬 sorry

Dead to me.

4k run this morning to get the errant tile South of Barn Elms that I'd missed the other day.

My Squareinho is limited to the North by the tiles in the pic (don't need to worry about any further North than this as I'm ultimately limited by the tiles in the middle of the Wetlands Centre that are pretty much ungettable, even for Mr France.)

The one North of the Hurlingham Club I can get via the public park to the North of it.

The ones in Wandsworth Park and along past Quarter Pier are easy. I've cycled that hundreds of times but obviously never recorded a GPS trace of it.

So the tricky ones that remain are the three in a row either side of the "Wandsworth Reach" tile as the Hurlingham Club is pretty private and non-blaggable. Luckily they should be available with a bit of mudlarking at low tide. You can get down to the river on the North side from the bottom of Broomhouse Lane and a pair of wellies will get me along to get the two Eastern most tiles.

The Western tile of the three should be gettable from the South bank (again, needs a low low tide). Not sure about access; there's definitely easy access to the shore up towards Putney Bridge by the Boathouse Pub, but the Yacht Club next to the railway bridge probably blocks access, and no idea if I can just walk in there and ask to get down to the shore. Other option is from the East, either from a ladder on the fence in Wandsworth Park if one exists, or via the houseboat access to the East. Will check for ladders next time I cycle past.)

There's also the tile next to the dump on Smugglers Way in Wandsworth. The one to the right of the dump is trivial as the Thames Path is there and cycleable. For the one on the left there's an access road to the left of the dump that used to be a storage company with a load of containers, streetview has it as a National Express depot now, might be possible to just charge to the end on the bike and apologise, otherwise it may be another walk up in wellies from Bell Lane Creek.

From there the next river tile that's tricky is the one just SW of Battersea Bridge as the only non water bit requires getting onto Cheyne Pier which I think is restricted, but I can go down there and chat with a local. Otherwise it may need more welly action to get it from the South bank at low tide again.

To keep it interesting I'm mixing up going for the easy tiles with going for the trickier ones. A 1h round trip to get 5 tricky small tiles is just as good as an hour long hoon to add 100+ to my yardinho.

(The tile names are still shit, but I'm enjoying Squadrats)

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Hurlingham Club is pretty private and non-blaggable.

"WHEN AM I ABLE TO COME AND VIEW THE VENUE?
Our wonderful team are here to show you around Monday - Friday between 9am and 5pm. We also offer Saturday visits once a month. Please contact the sales team on 020 7610 7526 to arrange a meeting."

"In recent years, Sebastian Shakesperae also writes that Hurlingham members have been put-off by the invasion of the ‘oiks’ such as the cast of Made in Chelsea, as well as the ‘industrial-size crusts’ of the club’s sandwiches."
https://www.tatler.com/article/boss-of-hurlingham-club-apologises-following-long-running-row-over-fees

Good idea. We had a company party there years ago, but I was out of the country.

Prefer getting muddy in wellies and having a bit of an adventure than talking to a slimy private club salesperson though.

[EDIT] Surprised it's "only" £1.4k a year membership for the Hurlingham Club.

The Roehampton Club is many multiples of that, currently £3485/year for full playing access, plus a one off £8245 new member entrance fee, plus you have to buy a bunch of shares at £365 a pop (age 40+ members must buy 4). It does have a golf course though.

Bargain details: https://www.roehamptonclub.co.uk/propeller/uploads/2023/10/2024-New-Member-fees.pdf

Would all of this be easier with a boat? Are you allowed to row or kayak along the Thames there?

Same but it would be funny doing the whole pretend wedding thing and being shown around.

Shit maybe I could actually have a wedding there. That would be hilarous.
"Why this venue Mr and Mrs hippy, do you know a member?"
"Nah mate, just wanted to bag some tiles"

I think there would be Oik=true column next to my name in their database before I'd even opened my mouth though.

Presume there's other restrictions though - you need to be invited by another member or something.

What are you using for mapping? Strava?

Yep, boats and kayaks are allowed there. I've seen people paddleboard along there too.

I'm missing about 20 rivers tiles between Kew Bridge and Tower Bridge, all but about 6 of them are easily gettable via public roads/paths. And by the time you get up towards Waterloo/Blackfriars/Southwark bridges the river is a lot busier with river traffic so these tricky 3 or 4 are about it for now.

What are you using for mapping? Strava?

I just zoom in on the Squadrats site and then plot in something like bikehike.co.uk. It's clunky but it gets me there. Using Firefox Squadrats doesn't display aerial mapping, but it works fine in Chrome. Too much mapping open is also randomly killing my Firefox sessions, so doing things in a separate browser helps limit the blast radius of a crash.

For the last couple of rides I've just written out Audax style routesheets:-

SO (St Mary's Grove)
SO@mrab (Common Rd)
L@T, SO@X (Mill Hill)
2E@mrab (Station Rd)
4L (Cleveland Rd)
2L (Cambridge Rd)
...

And that does me fine alongside a printout of the map. It also helps to stare at a piece of paper if I've gone down some private road or come up against a security guard.

You can row, there - there are loads of boathouses by Putney Bridge. I've rowed from one years ago.
I also know someone who swam across it for a dare by Putney Bridge.

I'm posting a Wanted for a kayak... hold up...

:)

I can swim so that's a cheaper option. But it's the Thames.

duct tapes GPS to head

duct tapes GPS to head

Garmin Forerunner watches work well for open-water swimming. Except when they very occasionally Garmin.

Other option is sticking a cycling GPS in a tow float (which are usually recommended for open-water swimming both for visibility and life-saving benefits).

FWIW I've swum in lots of random places but, right now, I wouldn't go in the tidal Thames. I've swum in the non-tidal sections (past Teddington Lock) a few times with no problems.

I swim in the Thames, usually round Chiswick Eyot. It's great, would recommend but you need some local tide knowledge.

Putney Bridge is the limit though, anything downstream of that requires PLA permission and they always say no.

Looks like squadrats is playing with RWGPS nicely again.

Staple through the tyre on the way out.
Prat crash on gravel on the way back.
Maybe the S-Works with 404s and Turbo Cottons isn't the best gravel bike but run wot ya brung innit.

I'm posting a Wanted for a kayak... hold up...

I'm actually selling a kayak - but you'd need to be quite snake-hipped...

snake-hipped...

I'm sure there's a joke in there about hips and a snake but I'm trying to be less funny these days.

I'm trying to be less funny these days.

You're doing very well.