12-May-2003 -- After our visit to 51N 03W earlier today we headed straight for this CP, which is also on our way (well almost) to our holiday destination. It will add around 40 miles to the trip in total.

We arrived in the vicinity just exactly 100 minutes after leaving 51N 03W. After driving along looking for the "line of trees" I realise we have gone past the point, maybe we came from the opposite direction. Quickly turning the car around we found a narrow track leading into the field.

It was only just wide enough for the car and we had been having a downpour for the last 90 minutes, deciding I didn't want to risk getting stuck I parked up and walked.

The field has been planted since the last visit with what is becoming the blight on the English landscape - Rapeseed. It is planted for the oil it produces, which is then bought by the EC under the Common Agriculture Policy and either simply destroyed or dumped on the world market http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2003/JD_22_Jan_CAPreview.htm or http://www.agr.gc.ca/mad-dam/e/bulletine/v14e/v14n14e.htm everyone else gets cheap food, we get rich farmers and high food prices....

Anyway, the point of mentioning Rapeseed is that although you can see blue sky in the photo looking North (Pic 1) you wouldn't believe just how much water that foliage can hold.

I followed the track North until I came to exactly 51N, but the CP was about 100 feet away in the middle of the crop, following the track to the end of the field and along the edge revealed the tracks where the seed had been planted. Setting off down this narrow gap allowed all the water held by the Rapeseed to thoroughly soak me, by the time I had gone 50 feet I might as well have been wading through a river.

This narrow track took me to within 6 feet of the CP, a quick hop across and onto the spot. Having taken the North locating shot, the next image (Pic 2) is looking South. Not a lot else to see here, so I just took the GPS shots (Pic 3).

Arriving back at the car provided my wife and daughter with some real laughs once they realised just quite how wet I was. We searched out a lay-by on a small side road so that I could get changed into some dry clothes, though I'm not quite sure what the elderly lady driver of the car that went past made of the view!

Only two more points to go and I will personally have completed the whole of England, including the elusive 55N 03W