Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
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).
No sooner had the last trip to Dartmoor worn off, than I was back for (and I can barely believe I'm saying this) the main backpacking trip of the year. This was to be a solo affair though, and it needed an objective... I really wanted to capture as much of the "big trip" feel … Continue reading Dartmoor: A Step in the White Direction
In my quest for the perfect pyramid, I became aware of the Pretents Soloist when scanning through one of the contintental European gear sites (I can't remember which one, though). At the time they were rather confusingly branded with mentions of Tara Poky, TFS (The Free Spirits) as well as Pretents. I think they were … Continue reading Pretents Soloist
It's been a long time coming, the first backpacking trip of the year. The intention always was to let the initial mad rush subside and then go, and it was handy that this tied in with the usual August non-firing on Dartmoor. The four of us were due to meet up in March to do … Continue reading Released onto Dartmoor
The sky is looking a bit grey as I set off, and I momentarily wonder if I've made the right choice of gear. The plan is do the bulk of the walk today, find somewhere to bivvy and then have an easier walk back. But a bivvy, even one with a hoop, isn't the most … Continue reading Chalk and Brambles
I recently took a look through my Wildcamp Gallery, which I started back in 2013 as a visual record I could look back on. The idea was to post one photograph for each wild camp done, and watch it build up over time. As the number of camps grew, the idea was that every time I … Continue reading Best Wildcamps – A Miscellany