hike | camp | paint
I've just come back from the Peak District where I notched up my 200th wild camp - indeed that was the whole purpose of the trip! I was on 198 before going, so just needed two nights to get the double century, but I planned on being there for three. As it turned out, keeping … Continue reading 200 Wild Camps
In early November, I headed up to the Dark Peak for 4 days / 3 nights of backpacking, with the aim of visiting some bits I'd not done before. Recent events (you know the sort of thing...) have meant it's been 4 years since I last visited the Peak District for a hike. And 2½ … Continue reading The Dark Peak Exploration
Cath's (@wellycath) been wanting to get a group together for a camp around her birthday for a couple of years now, and finally managed to seize her chance last year when Team Social Hiking decided not to contest the 5-in-5/10-in-10 this year, and instead to try to get together socially sometime in June. This also … Continue reading Never invite someone called Dale to somewhere all the places have “Dale” in them
Apart from a forlorn-looking ice cream van (why are the damn things always there when you don't need them and never there when you do ?!) and a couple of cars dropping off kids on the school run, Ilam was deserted as Stuart parked up and we put on our packs. A short walk across … Continue reading The White Peak Journey
Poor old Cath (@wellycath), she tries to arrange a get together and the weather forecast doesn't play ball. Yours truly ends up having a sneaky camp on the North Downs instead. She tries again, and then finds everyone dropping out for a variety of reasons. Still I made it. Having long earmarked the weekend for … Continue reading A Quick Pop Up Kinder
Despite the ferocious wind, an automatic reverential silence descended as we stepped into the midst of the dispersed metal. I stood among the frozen peat staring at the wreckage strewn about. Bits of engines and aeronautical bodywork lay scattered all around, interspersed with small floral tributes, mostly but not exclusively poppies, to mark the place … Continue reading Salvage
Stuart was staring at his phone as I made a beeline for him through the crowd at Manchester Piccadilly - not difficult as he tends to stand head and shoulders above everyone else. Within a few minutes we were in the station pub taking on essential fuel for our trek. I found myself handing over … Continue reading Modelling on the Pennine Way
I waited for everyone else to disappear from the office for lunch to mark the departure of a colleague, and then counted down the clock until I could decently head off in the other direction. Within minutes I was at Euston and looking at a train almost an hour earlier than the one I'd planned. … Continue reading A Peak District Mini-Adventure with Twitter Chums
Andy came over and delivered the news that would tip any cider connoisseur over the edge into a full breakdown: "They've run out of draft Addlestons, there's only bottled Magners left." This was on the very first evening of the meet, which therefore put in jeopardy the whole "social" aspect - or at least it … Continue reading Frozen Apple Juice
My head throbbed with the effects of alcohol and I knew I was in for a bad few hours. I didn't want to do much other than sit somewhere quiet and feel sorry for myself. And it was raining outside. Maybe that would teach me to drink the scrumpy. When a drink's kept in a … Continue reading The Curse of the Apple Juice
A tale of butchery, outer space and gritstone. Friday 30 March - Sunday 1 April 2007 I woke to a sense of freedom and a burning lip. The sense of freedom arising from having left work for a three month sabattical, made all the more stark by a frantic last minute rush to get things … Continue reading A week in the Peak District
So, having signed up a couple of weeks ago to do the Three Peaks with a bunch of work colleagues, I started to really look forward to the annual university friends reunion that we do every year around this time. We're in the Peak District, the first time I've been here and I'm really liking … Continue reading The Peak District (2005)