Pootler

This is an introduction to my 'Deep Past' Series. You have found it either on my bike routes website (pootler.co.uk) or my gallimaufry (oildrumlane.co.uk) My aim is to produce a brief, phone-friendly, jargon-free and high-level summary of the origin and nature of the general features of the landscape of this area, leaving finer detail to other posts.  This involves many compromises, so it  will be thin gruel. I have stuck to mainstream interpretations and explanations and  I cannot pose as an expert, but I have done some homework. If you can tell me how to improve this stuff without lengthening it, please do.  Note that the series is not a single linear narrative. I have diverted or disappeared down a rabbit hole where I think it adds to the the understanding of our area. Posts 1 - 5  take you from the creation (!) through to the arrival of humans. Posts 6 - 9  stretches to Feudal times with more about the inhabitants. Posts 10 - 13 look at the gradual crea...

In previous posts I covered the rock foundations of our hills and valleys, so now I will torture the analogy and look at the floor coverings. T his 4th post in the series starts from around 2.5 million years ago  which, in geological terms, is a distance from the present day no greater than the gaps in a country  bus timetable.  Effectively this is the  ice ages and their legacy.  The debates about the constant and radical changes to the landscape and the climate over millions of years have always made it hard for a non-specialist like me, to sift out simple cause and effect relationships. Now, as get closer to the present, the increasing amount of fine-grained detail available makes it  even harder. So i f any professional paleogeologists are reading this,  stop now,  for the sake of your mental health.    At the point when we left the last post, what is now South East England was still connected to Europe.  The map below will giv...

Dragging your bloodstained carcass out of the apocalyptic hole left by the second life-eradicating asteroid impact into the 'Tertiary' Period, you find a planet that is very slowly becoming more recognisable, mercifully shorn of giant reptiles and with mammals, birds and leafy trees.  Apparently, this isn't geo-politically woke terminology now and I should be giving the period the correct geo-pronoun which is (I think) the Danian Age in the Paleocene epoch in the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Epoch of the Phanerozoic Eon. (Point being, I am merrily skipping through around 5 of these Epochs and  20 Ages in this post and I want you to know just how much grit and gyp I am sparing you!) No quack remedy was going to cure the Planet's hangover from the Asteroid impact, and the d ramatic fluctuations that had afflicted it so far will continue. T he climate periodically morphed from icehouse to greenhouse.   T ectonic plates and the continents atop them continued to tootle...

On  the seventh day, God rested. H e p ut his feet up, had a beer and took his eye off the ball. C haos ensued.  Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure and time. (Red: The Shawshank Redemption)  This is about the landscape of the northern Home Counties. Nothing of early Earth can readily be seen in them, but I thought that I ought to start at the beginning and acknowledge the canvas before asking you to admire the painting. There are two big things that you need to be aware of. Everything else is detail. As I am sure you know, it all started with the Big Bang some 14bn years ago which, initially at least, wasn't big and wasn't a bang. If you want an explanation try this short video:  Link : Big Bang .  In any event, i t wasn't until 4bn years later that there was a proto-Earth. This would have been a hellish time to visit. Early Earth lacked a magnetic shield to protect it from the nasties that the sun was spewing out, an...

Route GPX file     Metroland The gossamer thin trainspotter rationale of th is route is to follow the long- abandoned extension of the Metropolitan Line beyond Aylesbury to its termination at Verney Junction near Buckingham. You will see work on its rather more expensive 21 st century substitute as you go. It is an easy ride on a clockwise route on quiet roads from Haddenham & Thame Parkway Statio n, through pleasant, gently undulating, but generally unremarkable arable and pastoral countryside. There are a couple of ridges to cross in the first few miles and a short but steep climb of 40m or so after you have crossed the A41 at Waddesdon on the return leg.  Also the estate road in Eyethrope Park has been temporarily closed, see the Route Notes below. Zooming In Highlights Include: The home of ‘Spaghetti Trees’. Playing detective to spot what remains of the abandoned stations. (Often not much!) The Buckinghamshire Railway Ce...