Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
After the big skies and open views of the previous sections, this one was a bit unexciting in comparison. Also, I did this section as a daywalk rather than planning to sleep out - which was just as well as there didn't seem like much of a choice of spots to secrete a tent either. … Continue reading The Essex Way: Part 4 – West Bergholt to Mistley
Three years ago, I took my son for the Official Annual Birthday Camp (mine, not his), and chose a spot on the North Downs that has forever after been known in this house as Slug Meadow - you can probably imagine why. Well this weekend, my daughter, who's the same age The Boy was at the … Continue reading Return to Slug Meadow
It has been a month, and high time I ventured out to knock off the next section. Luckily the forecast was for two days of bright weather, little or no rain and wind and reasonable temperatures. It would have been wrong not to go for it. I dumped the car on the outskirts of Witham, … Continue reading The Essex Way: Part 3 – White Notley to West Bergholt
Last weekend was the first trip to Dartmoor of the year, as a combination of illness and uninspiring forecasts made me decide to forego the now traditional Dartmoor New Year. Consequently I was itching to get out to camp somewhere I didn't have to hide, both overnighters so far this year having been in lowly … Continue reading Dartmoor: Not Quite as Forecast
A little over a week later from my first section of the Essex Way, I was back and ready for more. This time the plan was to pick up where I left off, conveniently at a bus stop, and walk to White Notley where there's a station. My mapping software, into which I'd imported a … Continue reading The Essex Way: Part 2 – A1060 to White Notley
The Essex Way is a long distance route of 130km (81 miles) stretching from Epping in the West to Harwich in the East. It was created as a result of a competition organised by the CPRE in 1972, and some of the original CPRE-branded waymarks can still be seen on the route (although now largely replaced … Continue reading The Essex Way: Part 1 – Epping to the A1060
Artistically, 2017 has been increasingly busy, with my first London exhibition to prepare for, a couple of art fairs, and I also began teaching. I have, however, had some time to produce a few paintings - so here is a selection of this year's work. All items are available for sale, so feel free to … Continue reading Art of the Year 2017
This is just a selection of a few favourite memories and pictures from what's happened this year.
The route for 2018's TGO Challenge came back from the vetter yesterday unscathed in terms of significant changes. The route is basically ok, with a couple of recommendations in terms of better camp spots and places to cross rivers. Disturbingly our vetter seemed to want to up the difficulty level of our route by ADDING … Continue reading The 2018 TGO Challenge Plan
After last year's formal camping out duel between myself and my daughter Rebecca, we decided to give it another go this year. Both of us enjoyed taunting each other about the race, and for my part it did help motivate me to camp out with fair regularity. A slight tweak to the rules this year … Continue reading The Camping Duel 2017
A hectic schedule of work, art fairs and the like suddenly opened up and I found I had a 3 day window to get some time on the fells. The forecast was for cold, so the winter bag was packed. A train delay saw me arrive in Windermere an hour later than schedule, and with … Continue reading A Mooch About the Middle
If you liked my watercolour that featured in the "In the Frame" feature in the October issue of TGO Magazine, and have been burning up with curiosity as to how you could get hold of it, then I'm delighted to tell you that I have a limited run of prints of "Cairngorm Glen". These come … Continue reading Liked my picture in @TGOMagazine …?
The results of the 2018 TGO Challenge application came out today, and thankfully I made the cut. For my second crossing, I'll be walking with my good friend Paul Buck, aka Moorland Walker. We did the Devon Coast to Coast together last October and found we could stand each other's company for a whole 8 … Continue reading Made the Cut
Barely am I back from my cruise to Greenland, Iceland and Norway (more about that if I get around to it in due course), then the post-holiday gloom of returning to work hits full face. A lack of decent walking opportunities on the cruise, means it's 3 months since I did any form of backpacking, … Continue reading Unexpected Joys in the Clag
I finally got around (largely prompted by watching Andy's video) to putting my photos into a video of this year's Challenge. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS_KJrTqTFo