Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
My big box of supplies from Ripstop By The Roll took a week to arrive. They had a fun journey from North Carolina via Memphis, Tennessee to the UK, and after some scare stories I'd heard recently from other people, in the end the import charges came out pretty much bang on what I was … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 7: The Supplies Arrive
"...it was just shit generally." This was the verdict on my first attempt at sewing a scaled-down version of the tent. This weekend, with supplies on their way from North Carolina, I needed to make some progress on the "skills" side of the project. Anyone (?) who has been on the edge of their seat … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 6: More Sewing and Refining
Over recent weeks I've been firming up what I'm going to need to build the shelter, and yesterday I finally cracked and put the order in. Here's a rundown of the main items... Fly There was a bit of last minute dithering over the main fly fabric though, the choices considered being: 1.1oz Silpoly (20D … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 5: Supplies
A look back at some stand out days of backpacking. Today we go back to May 2018 and the TGO Challenge. That year my route started in Oban, and took in Glen Etive, Rannoch Moor, Dalwhinnie, Glen Tromie, Glen Feshie, Ballater, Glentannar Forest, Fetteresso Forest and Stonehaven. An unexpectedly solo route after my walking partner … Continue reading Best Backpacking Days #3 – Rannoch Moor to Loch Ericht
A look back at some stand out days of backpacking. Today we go back to September 2014 and the Southern Fells of the Lake District. I orignally blogged this as part of The Four Valleys Walk. I'd arrived in the Lakes the previous day and headed out from Keswick to Borrowdale and climbed over the … Continue reading Best Backpacking Days #2 – High House Tarn to Sampson’s Stones
A look back at some stand out days of backpacking. Today we go back to August 2014 and the Eastern Fells of the Lake District. This was part of a multi-day effort to finish off the Eastern Fells. An orange glow in the sky and tint on the surrounding fells greeted me when I stuck … Continue reading Best Backpacking Days #1 – Calfhow Pike to Great Mell Fell
When I left you last, I had a revised design which I was pretty happy with, and the next stage involves turning the concept into something practical... This involves answering the following questions: How do I arrange the pieces of my tent when cutting out the fabric ?In what order do I then join it … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 4: Learning to Cut and Sew
In my previous post I went, at some length, through the design process, but that's certainly not the end of the story. Before committing needle and thread to fabric, I want to be confident that what I end up with is going to work. This is where prototyping comes in. Prototyping is no more than … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 3: A Prototype and A Re-design
In my previous post, I set out the background to the plan to make my own shelter, and in this post I'm going to explain the design itself, explain the process of designing it, and the decisions that have been, or will need to be made along the way. The aim of this post is … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 2: Design
At the end of 2020, I set myself a target of trying to buy no unnecessary outdoor gear in 2021*, and promptly went on a frenzy of going through the various websites to make sure anything I wanted I got before the end of the year. Equivalent to starting a diet, but pigging all the … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 1: Initial Thoughts
I'm sitting here, as are many, wondering when I will be able to get out for a camp. A camp, any camp, and it doesn't even need to have much of a walk to get to. What's clear is that it won't be anytime soon. This set me to thinking about past years and the … Continue reading The First Camp of the Year
Well, this should be a short post.... We all know what happened in 2020, so I won't go into that again here, but clearly the (non-) events of this year have curtailed the camping out somewhat. Ten camps - yes a mere 10 - is this year's haul. A pathetic number that I have to … Continue reading Camp of the Year 2020
Being on somewhat of a short leash this year, like many others I've spent time getting better acquainted with my local area. One place in particular that I've got to know better is my local wood. The Wood is nothing to write home about in terms of its size - about 200m long at its … Continue reading The Wood
It's been a while since I've had to work a weekend, and the weekend before last not only did I have to work at the weekend, I had to work the whole weekend. So I found myself working 11 days straight, and I can't remember the last time I did that. The current situation only … Continue reading A “Circuit Breaker”
You lucky people (or not, depending on your point of view). A video of my recent White Tors 4 night backpack is now available. https://youtu.be/-cIw-lhN5yU Enjoy ! (or not).