Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
2017: I'm only going to do this once. 2018: Oops, I did it again. That's probably it though. 2019: Several routes planned a week after getting home. 2020: ? In my house there's a sort of informal rule: do something 3 times and it becomes a tradition. This is why I always go to Dartmoor … Continue reading I have to do it – it’s a tradition!
This year I only managed 18 wild camps (plus an additional 4 tame camps on the TGO Challenge) against a loose target of 24, falling short largely because I shelved plans for weekends away in September and November due to indifferent weather. In any case, 24 would have been well short of some yearly totals, … Continue reading Camp of the Year 2019
How have art and the outdoors overlapped this year ? 2018 was all about my debut solo show in a London gallery, and I was painting furiously for that. This year, though, I've slowed down a bit, but not been short of ideas and have a huge queue of possible paintings. The prime targets this … Continue reading Art Roundup 2019
August, three weeks after my weekend in the Arans, and another trip. Another short one, as I had to be home to go away on a "proper" holiday. But just time for a couple of camps. Having walked all these hills before, I didn't put myself under any pressure to bag anything particular or to … Continue reading Return to the Big Hill
In need of a weekend in the hills, after much tossing up between an attempt to move my Cambrian Way marker forward by a couple of days and the idea of going somewhere new, I eventually fixed on a visit to the Arans. This came out of my research for the optimal way to get … Continue reading The Arans
The train dropped me at Ravenglass at lunchtime, and with a pub practically on the platform it would have been rude not to "fuel" for the rigours of the arduous trek that lay before me. Suitably fortified, I sallied forth and set off past the Roman Bath House and down to the Esk. A delightful … Continue reading Ravenglass to Coniston
2018's section of the South West Coast Path never happened, the year being taken up with a combination of art exhibitions and the asthma-y aftermath of the TGO Challenge. So it was 2 years, almost to the day, that Dad and I returned to Bude for the 60 mile (or so) section to Barnstaple. What … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2019
If you made it through the 7 part story of the Quest for the Shirt of Destiny, well done. Even more well done if you kept up with it, and could follow where we were at any point. I thought I should put something together that reviews this year's Challenge in plainer, more everyday, terms, … Continue reading TGO Challenge 2019 (or The Shirt of Destiny)
I wake, if indeed I slept at all, and I don't feel good. There is rain in the air - it is clear both from my lungs and from the recent advice of sages, that it is coming. Our luck with the weather has come to an end. We stow our bundles and return to … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 7: Doom, Gloom and a Room
Beer barrels clatter close to our chamber at the inn and sleep is fitful. I wake feeling unrefreshed and earlier than I’d like. So we are away early in search of food to break our fasts. Light rain falls on us as we head into a Great Forest. The sort that feels like nothing but … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 6: The Red Mountains
Once upon a time, when bandits roamed the land and all manner of thievery and roguery was the norm, the sheriffs of my land ran out of places to lock up these undesirables, and instead sent them on a long sea voyage to the lands at the end of the earth. They settled in that … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 5: The Grey Mountains
Ahead of this merry band of adventurers lies the Great Glen, and a chance to stock up with provisions at the Great Trading Post that lies towards the southern end of the Great Waterway. Keenness to reach this mythical place stirs our tired limbs from our beds, aided by the ever-present sound of cuckoos. We … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 4: Civilisation
A cold night, but there are no complaints about preferring to sleep in the old shack. Not for us a night punctuated by farting and snoring of fellow travellers. Nor a night woken by the crunch of giant’s teeth on my bones. I have survived the encounter. The gods of this valley seem to have … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 3: From Fjord to Forest
We adventurers rise early for there is much to be done. Fasts to be broken; equipment to be checked and packed; parcels to be despatched; and provisions to be secured for the journey. Finally, the Moor Man and I queue up to inscribe our names in the Grand Ledger of Questers kept in the inn. … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 2: Pursuit by a Giant
I slouch on the back seat of the charabanc trying to get some sleep whilst simultaneously keeping one eye alert to the near continuous passing by of restless, incontinent natives to what is laughably termed the “facilities”. It seems an odd way to begin such a momentous quest – hurtling north in pitch darkness to … Continue reading The Shirt of Destiny – Part 1: Beginnings