Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
Day 2: Black Mountain to Ysgŵd-ffordd - 27.84km, 734m ascent / 780m descent It's amazing the effect of a decent night's sleep, and last night's was just such a night. I woke feeling a lot more positive. My pack up was more efficient too. although I still wasn't quite fast enough to do it with … Continue reading Glyndŵr’s Way – Day 2: Under Surveillance
It was a long and excruciatingly slow journey to Wales, with speed restrictions/engineering work doubling the journey time to Crewe. This was also my first train travel of any kind since You Know What. So, it was a relief all round to complete the last leg of the journey and step down onto the platform … Continue reading Glyndŵr’s Way – Days 0 and 1: To Knighton and Beyond…
Recently I decided to make a determined effort to tick off the National Trails, and moreover to thru-hike as many of them as I can. To date I've only completed the North Downs Way, and am just over 90% done on the South West Coast Path, but neither of these have been done in one … Continue reading Glyndŵr’s Way: Planning
Social Hiking (shareyouradventure.com) dies tomorrow, and I spent much of yesterday backing up/saving down my tracks and routes, which took several hours. For anyone who has yet to do this, you've got until 10pm tomorrow night. A blog post by Phil explains what you can export and how. And while I was steadily working through … Continue reading Goodbye Social Hiking
A video version of this adventure... https://youtu.be/ND-m9hpw6q0 The blog post for this trip is at: The Darent Valley Path See also some reflections following the trip: The Clarity of the Trail
Although it was a bank holiday weekend, this time it wasn't practical to head for the hills, especially with choice much reduced by the current "situation". I had no desire to be in some honeypot location fighting my way through hordes of people; no desire to sit on a train in a mask for hours … Continue reading The Darent Valley Path
Just back from a long weekend of backpacking and as my thoughts start to settle on another successful trip, I am reminded of some musings I've been meaning to set down on this subject. This weekend's trip was what many would consider a bit of countryside rambling, involving no mountains, dramatic vistas and the like. … Continue reading The Clarity of the Trail
I've now had a chance to pitch the shelter somewhere other than the garden, and so also have been able to spend the night in it. I took it on my recent Dartmoor trip to try out, although the forecast was such that originally I had decided not to risk it: quite windy and cold, … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 12: Field Testing
A familiar route, the road walk to Two Bridges. I stopped a few moments to watch the geese. I took the path that heads towards Wistman's Wood, although I wouldn't be going quite that far. I slanted off up the hillside towards Littaford Tors, not bothering today with Crockern Tor, as I was on a … Continue reading Dartmoor: The Safari – Part 3: The Land of Horses
A spot of negotiating meet time for Tuesday morning turned on contrasting definitions of what "early" meant. The time agreed being a little too early for me, considering how long I would take to pack up and do the walk into Princetown; the time agreed being a little late for Paul. Ultimately we set a … Continue reading Dartmoor: The Safari – Part 2: Harts, Foxes and Sheep
Lockdown eased and social media was awash with people taking their first tentative steps back into backpacking. I had a week off arranged for mid May - a remnant of the time already reserved for the TGO Challenge - but with a reasonably settled forecast, and some evolution in things going on at work, I … Continue reading Dartmoor: The Safari – Part 1: Cats, Bears and Bunnies
While you're waiting for the main write-up, here's a few images from the trip... https://youtu.be/-pBEIKetfVM
With the tent "finished", I was obviously itching to see what I'd ended up with, so put it up in the garden. I knew it wasn't the neatest sewing job ever, but was hoping it would look ok. Results are a bit mixed, to be honest. Your eyes do not deceive you - it is … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 11: The Result
The time has come. I've made a small prototype and am happy with the design. I've made some other items in the materials the tent's going to be made from. I concluded I'm as ready as I'll ever be to start on the real thing. And a 4 day weekend seemed like a good time … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 10: The Build !
As part of the process of building up to making a MYOG shelter, this weekend I made a few smaller bits... Before embarking on the tent build itself, I'd decided that not only did I need to prove the concept with a prototype, but I also wanted to get some experience using the actual materials … Continue reading MYOG Bits and Pieces