2022 Index

Rather than knocking out the usual self-aggrandizing post, going to great lengths to describe every adventure of the year, I thought this year I’d make it more of an index to the year’s content (which is what I mainly use it for anyway) and keep the remarks about how the year went to a minimum.

But 2022 has been a year unlike any other, at least in terms of my getting out and about, as I’ve had pretty much the whole year to play with. So I’ve walked more, camped more, run more and reached some milestones – my 200th wildcamp and 10 years of wildcamping.

On that subject, I recently updated my Wildcamp Gallery as the number of entries has become large, and it’s now split into galleries for each year, grouped by decade:

Wildcamp Gallery 2012-2019

Wildcamp Gallery 2020 onwards

This year my focus has been on walking a selection of trails, and so trips to the hills to just enjoy them have been rare. I started the year with a list of trails to aim for, and although it evolved through the year due to events and changing priorities, I’m happy with what I got done.

2022’s Adventures

Month	Adventure	Blogs	Videos
January	Elham Valley Way (3 days, 64km, 2 wild camps)	The Elham Valley Way (Plus a Bit)	Kent Coast to Coast via the Elham Valley Way
February	Dartmoor (3 days, 27km, 2 wild camps)	Halfway Across Dartmoor…	Wind 1 v Me 0
March	Peak District “200th wildcamp” (3 days, 16km, 2 wild camps)	200 Wild Camps
March	South Downs Way (8 days, 182km, 3 wild camps, 4 tame camps)	Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,	Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
May	Lake District “10 Years of Wildcamping” (3 days, 57km, 2 wild camps, 1 tame camp)	The 10th and 50th
May	TGO Challenge – Lochailort to Dunnottar Castle (15 days, 338km, 9 wild camps, 3 tame camps)	A long Wait The Misadventure Brothers (day 1) Escape from the Black Hole (day 2) Redemption (day 3) Headwinds (days 4-5) Behind Again (day 6) The Blair Pitch Project (days 7-8) Trade Route (day 9) Disappointments (day 10) Down The Dee (days 11-12) Slow Down and Enjoy (days13-14) The End (day 15) Reflections	Teaser Part 1 (days 1-2) Part 2 (days 3-5) Part 3 (days 6-8) Part 4 (days 9-10) Part 5 (days 11-14) Part 6 (day 15 and recap)
July	St Swithun’s Way (2 days, 64km, 1 wild camp)	St Swithun’s Way	St Swithun’s Way
June / August	Yorkshire Wolds Way (7 days, 168km, 5 wild camps)	Part 1: Hessle to North Newbold Part 2: Brough to Huggate Part 3: Huggate to Filey Reflections	Coming in 2023
September	Arans and Cambrian Way (4 days, 58km, 3 wild camps, 1 tame camp)	Across the Arans to Meet my Nemesis Cambrian Way: Dinas Mawddwy to Barmouth	Coming in 2023
August / September / November	North Downs Way & Kent Pilgrims’ Festival (9 days, 228km, 6 tame camps)	Dover to Paddlesworth Paddlesworth to Westwell Westwell to Detling KPF- Aylesford to Wye KPF- Wye to Dover Detling to Halling – coming soon	Coming in 2023
October	West Highland Way (9 days, 166km, 4 wild camps, 2 tame camps)	Introduction To The Loch! (Milngavie to Rowardennan) That Accursed Loch (Rowardennan to Tyndrum) The Good Bit (Tyndrum to Kinlochleven) The End (Kinlochleven to Fort William)	Coming in 2023

2022’s Wildcamps

Trailwalking, as opposed to walking where you like in the hills, tends to constrain one’s camps more, so this year hasn’t had the level of stunning camps of previous years. Nevertheless, there have been a few that have stood out from the crowd: the last two on the Yorkshire Wolds Way (#219, 220), the lochside camp on the WHW (#224) and the two in the Lake District (#204, 205).

Unrecorded Activities

Some things I also did but didn’t write about or video:

• Spent a week in North Yorkshire between Whitby and Scarborough – lots of running and local walks, including a small bit of Cleveland Way

• Enjoyed the view from the top of a hill in the Faroe Islands

• met up with @lonewalker and @wellycath for a walk to bag Shutlingsloe

• Walked the Levadas in Madeira

• made an inner for one of my tents (not especially neat, so considering a Mk 2 in 2023)

• and recorded a podcast for the Distance Hiker Series with Matthew Underwood

Stats of 2022

In total this year I…

• hiked 1,639km (1,018 miles)
• climbed 32,693m (107,260 ft)
• hiked on 88 days
• wildcamped 34 nights
• tame camped 20 nights
• completed 5 trails, including 3 on the LDWA’s National Trails list
• published 39 blog posts
• published 18 YouTube Videos with a total duration of more than 5½ hours.

2023…

I’m not going to set out a detailed list of aims for 2023 as they invariably change and evolve as the year goes on. As it stands right now though, I’m planning to focus mostly on my Walk the Chalk project – a series of trails over England’s chalk landscapes, and to tidy up some unfinished business (mainly the South West Coast Path, and my rewalk of the North Downs Way). I will probably insert a trip or two to the hills for a bit of variety, or for socials. I’m not doing the TGO Challenge in 2023, having decided not to apply this time – I’m planning to be back in 2024 – but to substitute it with a tour of Scotland with my wife.

In MYOG activities, I’m planning to make a summer quilt (I have the supplies ready to go), and if I get time to do that improved version of the tent inner. I may also have a crack at making a simple rucksack.

One gradual shift that started in 2022, and I expect will continue in 2023, is more videos rather than written blog posts – largely because I don’t think I’ll have the time to keep both up and maintain my personal journal. But ultimately that will be determined by how well my YouTube channel grows (or doesn’t!)

See you on the other side.