Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
I ambled along Fenchurch Street, by now used to the looks of mild disdain that the sight of a guy dressed for the outdoors and carrying a rucksack evokes in city folk. I left them to hurry on to their early heart attacks while I headed for nature's playground, deriving extra satisfaction from the fact … Continue reading The Odyssey resumes
In case you were wondering, this isn't a post about Dale Winton. Although I'm sure that would be a most worthy subject for a blog entry. No, this was inspired by a piece I read on sectionhiker.com where our man was talking about his routines for making and striking camp, Â It struck me that I … Continue reading Improving My Camp Routine
My head throbbed with the effects of alcohol and I knew I was in for a bad few hours. Â I didn't want to do much other than sit somewhere quiet and feel sorry for myself. Â And it was raining outside. Maybe that would teach me to drink the scrumpy. Â When a drink's kept in a … Continue reading The Curse of the Apple Juice
I'm just back from a week's family holiday in Cornwall, staying in a cottage on the edge of Bodmin Moor. So it seemed rude not to at least attempt a walk on the moor... With my usual gift for just missing the optimal weather, we turned up in Cornwall for a week of lashing rain, … Continue reading A Short Walk on Bodmin Moor
The sky darkened and rain streaked across the carriage window as the train drew further north. Not a good sign. Time to put some faith in the weather forecast, which had remained consistent over the last few days, promising largely dry conditions with the odd shower and light breezes. Not perfect, but certainly sounding better … Continue reading Yorkshire 3 Peaks TweetMeet
It could have been a great trip, were it not for the weather and the way I dealt with it.  Here's the story of the trip - how it was planned, what happened and the lessons learned. The individual posts telling of the story of the trip are indexed below: Initial Planning - The initial phases of planning … Continue reading Trip Report: A Far Eastern Odyssey
There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes. Or so goes the proverb. Â But it's a load of sanctimonious bollocks... If there's one piece of so-called outdoor wisdom that really gets on my tits, it's this. Not because I totally disagree with it, but because of the way that people trot it … Continue reading A Far Eastern Odyssey – Part 4: Bad Weather ? Bad Gear ? Bad Decisions ?
Faint strains of cuckoo song broke through the assortment of snoring and farting noises as the new day dawned. A typical hostel night with 6 blokes in an 8 bed room which makes for very poor sleep. And a tactical error timing my check-in meant I was in the top bunk. Hoping that inspiration had … Continue reading A Far Eastern Odyssey – Part 3: Whiffs of Vanilla and Echoes of Thriller
Sunday 1 July Today was a severe test of resolve and several issues were thrown my way. Not all of them were successfully resolved. I woke to the sound of rain pattering on the tent. I'd expected that but not for it to last 4 hours. So the tent was wringing wet by the time … Continue reading A Far Eastern Odyssey – Part 2: A Lost Mojo
Saturday 30 June I alighted from the train at Windermer to be met by the usual mix of Japanese tourists, walkers and locals milling around and getting in each others way. The locals and I made straight for the waiting 599 bus which was about to leave due to the train being late. We took … Continue reading A Far Eastern Odyssey – Part 1: A Failure Avenged
There's now only three sleeps left until I load up my camel, plant my feet firmly on the Silk Road and head to the Far East. Â Well, the "Far East" of the Lake District, that is. Â And I've started gathering some gear... As anyone who read my previous post will have gathered, I've been a … Continue reading A Far Eastern Odyssey – Loading my Camel
Monica has a lot to answer for. It's all because of her that I've spent so much money on gear this year... For anyone who doesn't know, Monica is my tent, a Scarp 1 from Tarptent. Ever since she came to stay, sometime in March, two trends have been happening. Â The first is that the … Continue reading Some new gear
I've spent what little spare time I've had in the evenings over the last week staring at the map and my Lake District wallchart, trying to crack the puzzle that is the Far Eastern Fells. Â And I think I might finally be getting somewhere... The octopus-like nature of the FE Fells makes for difficult planning … Continue reading My “Oriental” Plan takes shape
Every year on the weekend nearest to my birthday I go away for one or two nights with the tent. Whilst it's good to get out, the main driver is the fact that my daughter's birthday is 3 days after mine and she somehow manages to pull rank when it comes to any parties scheduled … Continue reading A Birthday Camp
All Change The rain is falling outside, but otherwise all is quiet as I have the house to myself. Soon the family will return from their afternoon out and in a few hours time the long Jubilee weekend will be over, and it will be time to head back to work. And it's likely to … Continue reading A Far Eastern Odyssey