| HOME | GREEN MAN CHALLENGE | COMMUNITY FOREST PATH | ACTIVE GROUPS | CONTACT |
 | The Green Man Challenge. |
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The Challenge:
| The Green Man Challenge celebrates Bristol, a green city in the midst of the countryside, as part of the Forest of Avon. The Challenge follows the course of the Community Forest Path around Bristol, with some minor alterations mainly for safety's sake. This scenic route, girdling the city, is advertised as 45 miles long by the Forest of Avon Team, who created and maintain the Path, although G.P.S. measurements have varied from 44.7 to 48.6 miles. Step-by-step directions, in the form of an Adobe Acrobat* PDF file, can be obtained by clicking here. *To download a FREE copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to the WAYFINDER page, see above. Up until now, all those who have accepted the Green Man Challenge have run the whole 45 miles as individuals or in pairs in under 12 hours to qualify as Woodwoses. If you have already done this, contact The Gaveller to claim your Woodwose certificate. But there are at least two other ways to do it.
If you have already done that, contact The Gaveller to claim your certificate. It has been suggested that it is possible to walk the course in less than twelve hours and to run it as relay team in less than six hours. If this is true, participants would obviously qualify as Woodwoses. WARNING: These challenges are a serious undertaking, so it is important to prepare well in advance if you attempt either. There are three problems: 1) Nutrition, including water; 2) navigation and 3) communication. 1) Your muscles run on glycogen. How far you can run depends on the size of your glycogen stores. These can be increased by training, but no-one has big enough glycogen stores to run 45 miles; so you will need to top up your levels by taking in carbohydrates and water to metabolise the stuff as you go along. You need to train your body to do this in advance otherwise the sugars may just make you feel sick. Personal accounts from people who have completed The Challenge to become Woodwoses contain helpful information about this and can be found on the TACH website and on the Gaveller's weblog. 2) You need to have the map-reading skills to navigate the route safely. It is helpful if you have familiarised yourself with the route by exploring it in stages before you make your attempt. Be aware that road crossings are a particular hazard when you are tired. Step-by-step directions, in the form of an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, can be obtained by clicking here. In addition, take a look at Martin Berkeley's Runreplay site, here, for a view of the entire route from above. The Gaveller's weblog also indicates where people have gone wrong in the past.
3) You should not attempt these challenges except as part of a team. You may be able to carry all the food and water you need on your back, and you may be the best navigator in the world, but if you break your leg or have a seizure of some sort, you will only get out of the situation if you have some support on the other end of a mobile phone. Therefore, you need a mobile phone and some one you can trust at the other end. If you need such support check out the here. Personal accounts from people who have completed the challenge to become Woodwoses can be found on the TACH website and on the Gaveller's weblog.
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Woodwoses: |
Anybody who conquers the 45-mile Green Man Challenge around the Community Forest Path is termed a woodwose, from the Old English wuduwāsa or wood-being, regardless of gender. Woodwose is the proper name for the wild men and wild women that haunted the imaginary forests of medieval Europe and is entirely appropriate for anyone mad enough to conquer the Community Forest Path!
The name of any person, who is entitled to call themselves Woodwose, shall be entered in the Forestal Book of the Honourable Order of Woodwoses, provided that they submit a report of their achievement to the Gaveller within thirty days.
The following athletes have already been entered in the
Forestal Book:
Some of these times are remarkably speedy and the record now stands at 7 hours 19 minutes and 52 seconds.
 A speedy Woodwose (from a Dürer Woodcut).
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| Wistmen:
Wistman's Wood is described on the Legendary Dartmoor website - www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk - where it is said that it is "a wood of dwarf oak trees". | "Once you walk into the tangled web of trees you are transported into a mystical world of moss carpeted boulders, lichens of all descript, finger like oak branches, all engulfed in a wonderful smell of earth and age. For millennia this small, mystical, stunted woodland has been held in awe and for many fear. Tales of Druids, ghosts, the Devil and a host of other supernatural creatures abound, some dating back to the long lost ages before man could write. Many writers have described the wood as being 'the most haunted place on Dartmoor', others warn that every rocky crevice is filled with writhing adders who spawn their young amidst the moss and leaf strewn tree roots. Locals will never venture near once the sun begins it slow descent over the nearby granite outcrops for it is when the dark mantle of night draws tight that the heinous denizens of the wood stalk the moor in search of their human victims. So be afraid, very afraid, as the wagging finger of fate warns you to stay clear and risk not your mortal soul in the 'Wood of the Wisemen'." Wistmen are evidently folk to be reckoned with and will be entered in the Forestal Book and suitably certified by the Gaveller when they come forward. People who have assisted Woodwoses by running stages with them or by providing other support should also be known as Wistmen, regardless of gender, unless they prefer the equally obscure term, Woodwight. We hope to arrange some sort of event to turn Wistmen into Woodwoses on or around Samain (or Halloween) when the Constellation Orion begins to dominate the night sky.
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The Gaveller:
Click below to | Read The Gaveller's Weblog. Keep up-to-date with all things woodwosish. A Wordpress blog.
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The owner of this website acknowledges the copyright of all external linked sites. All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained herein; the owner regets, but accepts no responsibility for, accidental errors. Website by Martin Wolff, Bristol. © Closer to the Countryside, UK, |
