Greenbelt

A wet festival

How was Greenbelt?

Wet. Very wet.

Saturday night's storm was so ferocious that I didn't venture into the centre course area after Rachel Sermanni's evening-closing set in the Performance Café. For the subsequent two days you could easily identify those who had braved that part of site: their ankles were caked in liquid mud.

The grandstand side fared a little better, but still there were torrents of water where the racecourse's drainage was beaten by the weather.

My festival highlight was talking with people for whom the Festival Guide app made all the difference: one blind, and one partially sighted. It's been two years since I ensured the app was fully accessible, and I've had no feedback since, so it was a delight to be able to sit down and talk with native VoiceOver users.

Artistically, the three Solas acts that I'd recommended were great, with Harry Baker taking the crown as the best received.

I just hope that the weather isn't lousy next year.

Greenbelt

No Everest

It's the Thursday before the bank holiday weekend, and for the first time in many years we're not at The Everest Tandoori and Balti House.

The take-away we ordered at home took a bit of the sting away, but it can't make up for the experience of being packed in with so many good friends, anticipating another weekend of festival.

We know they'll be there tonight and on the way out a waiter will hand every woman a single pink carnation. Some things don't change; sometimes it's good to make a change yourself.

Greenbelt , Solas

The wee sister sends her friends

If you're heading to Greenbelt this weekend, here are a few acts you'll not want to miss, based on their performances at the two most recent Solas Festivals.

• Rachel Sermanni — Performance Café, Sunday 2200
  Beautiful voice from the Highlands, lyrics that pull you in with a hint of darkness. Debut album Under Mountains to be released in September.

• Stanley Odd — Mainstage, Saturday 1725
  Hip-hop for the 21st century with Scottish accent and bags of conscience. Reminds me of pre-KLF Drummond/Cauty. Second album Reject to be released in September.

• Harry Baker — Performance Café, Saturday 1900
  Poet/storyteller/rap mathematician. Took Solas by storm, performing on almost every stage. Seems to be due to repeat this feat at Greenbelt. Unmissable.

There are many other Solas names to look out for: Calamteur, John Bell and Roddy Woomble to name a few, but my first three are the folk will be talking about the most.

As for acts Solas can borrow from Greenbelt, why have they not booked The Proclaimers yet?

Greenbelt , Tech

Number one

Today the Greenbelt 2012 Festival Guide was the top-grossing Entertainment app in the iTunes UK App Store. It broke into the top 50 most popular apps on the store.

Every day the software I write at work is used by millions of people, but right now I'm more proud of this little app being used by a few hundred.

Greenbelt , Tech

Fifth family member

And lo, there was a fifth member of the family.

The 2012 Festival Guide is the fifth guide app I've written for Greenbelt. It's slowly built over the years, but stayed true to the original design. Perhaps next year's the time to re-imagine it all over again. (I've had some ideas already.)

New this year:

• Share events with friends via Twitter
• Sync favourite events with your Calendar (and optional alarms)
• Event lists show elapsed time (a red line on each event)
• Higher quality images; full retina display support
• Various display tweaks, particularly on iPad side

What's been particularly interesting to me this week is the language used by people on Twitter asking for its whereabouts. They've talked of a "need" for the app, and referred to it possessively as "my app".

It's a relief to see it published; I now switch into anxious mode to see how well it's received.

Website

Faltering restart

We've been offline. Badly.
We long to be back.

Much has happened since this spring when our laptop started to play up. There's a lot of news to catch up on. But instead of waiting until we can publish everything sequentially, we're starting afresh; there'll be time to fill the gaps later.

We'll let you know when there's something to read from the past.
For now, we're here in the present and staring at the future.

Coastwalk , South West Coast Path

Wembury → Wonwell

Distance: 10.9 miles
Ascent: 346 metres
Duration: 4 hours 25 minutes

The river
« Plymouth | Bigbury-on-Sea »

Today's walk started in a very similar vein to yesterday's, with a river to cross after the first couple of miles.

And again, as she did yesterday, Mum joined us as far as the jetty. Here the method to call the ferry wasn't a shout, but the revealing of a white disc on the side of the quay. Before too long we were joined by another couple heading the same way, and a little later the boat appeared.

The middle section of the walk wasn't particularly exciting at all. So we'll skip over the description of the Lord Revelstoke's Drive which swept the path along to his old manor, or the slightly more strenuous path east of Stoke House. Perhaps the middle section wasn't exciting because we knew what was coming: another river, only this time one without a ferry service.

The River Erme has to be forded. There's a two-hour window at low tide, but talking with locals on the beach at Mothecombe suggested that not many people do this.

The water was warm, but flowing fast. It was a couple of hundred metres across and came up to our knees at the deepest point. The occasional piece of seaweed brushed against our legs. This was exhilarating walking, unlike any other.

We reached the far side and decided to stop. Our intended destination of Bigbury-on-Sea was another five miles away, but it seemed right to end the walk with this climax of crossing the river. Besides, stopping now meant we got to wade back to the western side where Mum was waiting with the car. It also gave us the opportunity to take a few photographs now that we knew what to expect.

I'm well aware of the dangers of water, especially wide, fast-flowing rivers. But I can't wait to do something like this again.

Coastwalk , South West Coast Path

Bigbury-on-Sea → Salcombe

Distance: 13.7 miles
Ascent: 735 metres
Duration: 5 hours 7 minutes

Taxi service
« Wonwell | Torcross »

The two-day gap that we have between Wembury and Salcombe is particularly tricky. It involves crossing three rivers, so is dependent on tides and ferry services. Today we tackle the "second" half of the walk since the ferry across the River Avon near the start of this walk doesn't operate on Sundays and we'd like to complete both walks this weekend.

Public transport in this part of Devon ("South Hams") is pretty lousy too, so it's lovely to have Mum with us acting as taxi service. She joined us on the walk down to the ferry before heading back to the car.

At Cockleridge we bellowed "Ferry!" in the rough direction of the village of Bantham and before too long a boatman replied with the same word, pointing at a beach upstream where he'd land.

Bantham seemed a popular spot for surfers, but those out today seemed unable to remain on the board for long. From here to the inspirationally-named twin villages of Outer Hope and Inner Hope, the path raced along low cliff-tops.

We had a brief lunch with Mum whilst we sheltered from a sudden rain storm, then headed on to the higher cliffs that led to Bolt Tail and Bolt Head. The further east we got the more strenuous the path became until eventually we reached Starehole Cove and picked up a very well-worn rock path to the road which led in to Salcombe.