Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

[Cochise]

I now have a image of wild rats hitching lefts in cars, the same way pigeons use the underground....

Those pigeons freak me out, they seem to deliberately get off at their stop.

They probably do. I imagine they follow the same route every day from their roost to their feeding ground. I bet they can count stops, or possibly they just know where they are in relation to the Earth's magnetic field. These are after all basically the same bird that can be bred into homing pigeons.

I had a wasp (or big bumble bee - didn't look that close but it was big) in the car the other day. It got in because I'd left the windows open to keep the interior cool. Didn't notice it until I was halfway to town - opened the windows again to encourage it to leave - but despite the open windows it wouldn't leave the car until I got home again.

 

[rynner2]

The other day I was on a bus (as usual!) heading back to Falmouth. A man got off at a stop just outside the village of Ponsanooth, and, rather than take one of the two side roads there, he set off walking up the hill, ie, away from the village. There is a building there, but as we passed it I realised it had no doorway on the main road - its entrance must be on the LH side road - so he wasn't going there.

Shortly after we passed the building, the footpath petered out, so any pedestrian would have to risk the busy traffic and walk along by the hedge at the side of the road. I kept a look-out for where the man could be going, but all we passed for the next few miles was hedges with occassional gateways into fields, none of which seemed likely destinations.

When we finally reached a small hamlet I noticed there was a bus stop there that he could have used if that was his destination. So where was he going? I've been that way once or twice since, but I still haven't seen a likely answer!

 

[Trevp666]

Maybe he was just going to find a bush to go have a wee behind?
Poor bloke was probably hoping for a bit of privacy....

 

[Pete Younger]

Or maybe he was looking for somewhere to make adjustments to his underpants.

 

[rynner2]

Maybe he was just going to find a bush to go have a wee behind?
Poor bloke was probably hoping for a bit of privacy....

Unlikely!
He'd get more privacy on one of side roads than on the busy main road.

And anyway, he didn't look like he was bustin' for a pee - he was just a bloke who rang the bell to get off the bus at a particular place.

It was only when I noticed there seemed to be nowhere obvious for him to go along the main road that I started to wonder about his destination.

 

[rynner2]

Or maybe he was looking for somewhere to make adjustments to his underpants.

Er no!

I think my comments above cover this possibility too!

(And why get off in the middle of nowhere, rather than continue to your intended destination and sort out your sartorial problems there?)

 

[uair01]

Any chance of filling in the blanks on some unidentified animal tracks? I would make a lousy outdoorsman!

http://uair01.blogspot.com/2012/03/animal-tracks.html

And a wonderful animal research device. I want one!

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/beetlecam.html

 

[Limelight]

...So where was he going? I've been that way once or twice since, but I still haven't seen a likely answer!

Did he have a pack or rucksack at all? He could have been doing a long walk and simply picking up where he left off the day before. Someone walking Lands End to John o' Groats, for example, might conceivably go through Ponsanooth (but maybe find lodgings in Falmouth or Redruth).

 

[ramonmercado]

Or maybe he was looking for somewhere to make adjustments to his underpants.

Er no!

I think my comments above cover this possibility too!

(And why get off in the middle of nowhere, rather than continue to your intended destination and sort out your sartorial problems there?)

A pixie (in disguise) on his way home?

 

[rynner2]

...So where was he going? I've been that way once or twice since, but I still haven't seen a likely answer!

Did he have a pack or rucksack at all?

No rucksack. Didn't look like a hiker, more like a student, in fact.

But I didn't really pay him that much attention. It was only after he'd got off the bus, and I realised there was nowhere obvious for him to go in that direction, that he became a man of mystery!

But perhaps he was just lost in a mental world, listening to his iPod or whatever, and only when the footpath ran out did he realise he was going the wrong way! But by then the bus would have been out of sight.

I can't be sure he had an iPod, however, but many people do listen to them on the bus. I'm amazed at how much time people spend disentangling the leads before they can put their earpieces in. I'm thinking of inventing something that stops the leads tangling in the first place - I could make a fortune! 8)

 

[rynner2]

A pixie (in disguise) on his way home?

...or a road ghost? :shock:

 

[Mythopoeika]

I can't be sure he had an iPod, however, but many people do listen to them on the bus. I'm amazed at how much time people spend disentangling the leads before they can put their earpieces in. I'm thinking of inventing something that stops the leads tangling in the first place - I could make a fortune! 8)

Somebody beat you to it.
There's 2 main designs - (1) A spring loaded reel and (2) A kind of zipper attached to the wires.

 

[rynner2]

I can't be sure he had an iPod, however, but many people do listen to them on the bus. I'm amazed at how much time people spend disentangling the leads before they can put their earpieces in. I'm thinking of inventing something that stops the leads tangling in the first place - I could make a fortune! 8)

Somebody beat you to it.
There's 2 main designs - (1) A spring loaded reel and (2) A kind of zipper attached to the wires.

Curses!

 

[Mythopoeika]

I can't be sure he had an iPod, however, but many people do listen to them on the bus. I'm amazed at how much time people spend disentangling the leads before they can put their earpieces in. I'm thinking of inventing something that stops the leads tangling in the first place - I could make a fortune! 8)

Somebody beat you to it.
There's 2 main designs - (1) A spring loaded reel and (2) A kind of zipper attached to the wires.

Curses!

Sorry for being a dream-killer.

 

[Trevp666]

Any chance of filling in the blanks on some unidentified animal tracks? I would make a lousy outdoorsman!

http://uair01.blogspot.com/2012/03/animal-tracks.html

Hmm...I read just recently somewheres that tracks in snow get more difficult to recognise as time progresses. A small footprint/pawprint will appear much bigger after only a slight thaw.

 

[Trevp666]

....It was only when I noticed there seemed to be nowhere obvious for him to go along the main road that I started to wonder about his destination.

I just had a quick look at google streetview and on that A393, just a hundred yards or so on from where the path sortof disappears, on the opposite side of the road there appears to be a well trodden path going up the bank, at an angle, and it would exit through the tree line into the grounds of "Mill House".
Maybe he works or lives there, or one of the other properties further up Commercial Hill, and this is his 'cut-through' from the bus-stop?

 

[rynner2]

...there appears to be a well trodden path going up the bank, at an angle, and it would exit through the tree line into the grounds of "Mill House".

I can't find this image on Google, but it's years since I played with it.
There's no track or footpath shown there on the Ordnance Survey (via Bing maps), but I'm going that way tomorrow so I'll keep a look-out and report back. If I have time I may even get off the bus and search on foot.

 

[Trevp666]

Yeah it's a bit fiddly but if you zoom in on the village then go to streetview, point yourself in the right direction then move up the hill to that point, look to the right, and you'll see what looks like a 'desire path' up the bank, so I don't expect it would show as an adopted footpath on an OS map.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Trev, please could you give us a clicky link so we can see?
Thanks.

 

[Pete Younger]

This is the road Ryn is talking about but I can't see any paths.

 

[Monstrosa]

There is a gate into the grounds of what is labeled Viaduct works. It isn't, it's actually two houses called the Old School House which you can see if you go down the lane to the left in Street View.

 

[rynner2]

There is a gate into the grounds of what is labeled Viaduct works. It isn't, it's actually two houses called the Old School House which you can see if you go down the lane to the left in Street View.

The Google images are a few years old now. But the mystery man didn't go that way anyhow.

 

[Monstrosa]

OK Rynner, tell us which way he did go

 

[Cherrybomb]

rynner, maybe he was going to go into one of the fields and wait for a UFO to pick him up? 8)

 

[ramonmercado]

rynner, maybe he was going to go into one of the fields and wait for a UFO to pick him up? 8)

Aaaargh! They picked him up instead of Rynner!

 

[rynner2]

I didn't get as much time as I wanted today to look into this, but I did manage one flyby in the bus, looking out for the "well trodden path going up the bank" that Trev reported seeing on Google. And I didn't see it!

There is a steep bank there, so much so that it's marked on the OS map, but it would need steps rather than a path to climb it, unless the path zig-zagged. And the next opening to the right after the bank is a gateway into a field.

Trev, can you post a screen-shot of your 'path'? Or take a pic of it on your monitor with a digital camera. Then I can see if it matches anything that I can see, hopefully tomorrow.

But for now, I'm in the same position I was in at the start; I saw a man start walking up the hill, but I couldn't see any place he could be going to.

 

[Monstrosa]

OK Rynner, tell us which way he did go

Please.

 

[rynner2]

OK Rynner, tell us which way he did go

Please.

I don't know!
That's why this is in Minor Strangeness, FFS!

It's not a guessing game, or a riddle, just a real-life experience which, so far, puzzles me.

If I told you a story where I'd seen a man go along a road, and into house, or down a path, you'd probably say "So what? What's the point of that?"

 

[Mythopoeika]

:lol: :lol:

 

[Trevp666]

...There is a steep bank there, so much so that it's marked on the OS map, but it would need steps rather than a path to climb it, unless the path zig-zagged...

Trev, can you post a screen-shot of your 'path'? Or take a pic of it on your monitor with a digital camera. Then I can see if it matches anything that I can see, hopefully tomorrow...

Well, I'm not too adept at picking screen grabs and turning them into postable pics, sorry, but I can describe where I mean more acurately.
You're correct when you say the path would need to zig-zag - it does.

The pic posted by Ronson8 is the same googlemaps view that I went to.
The A393 (shown/labelled) has two bus-stops opposite eachother (marked with the little blue sign), these are the first/last stops on the edge of town.
Assuming you were heading out of town (towards bottom right-hand of pic) you would go past the place marked 'Viaduct Works' (I bloody well hope it does!) on your left-hand side.
On your right-hand side are the grounds of Mill House, (behind the line of trees) and between the road and the trees is the steep bank I referred to originally.
So I put myself on 'streetview' along here and looked at the steep bank but it looked way too steep to walk up. When I turned 180 though, there was still a nice path/pavement to use, so I continued on along the A393 beyond the point where the path sortof dwindled away, looking back at the steep bank, and suddenly I could see an obvious well trodden bit, which looked like the sort of path you would take if you had walked up from the bus-stop, crossed the road, walked along for a 100yds or so, then started walking up the bank at an angle, instead of trying to walk straight up. There was a gap in the trees at about the same point too, and the path had just one deviation, about halfway between the road and the trees.
Dunno if that helps really but I tried.