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In early May, for my TGO Challenge warm-up, I headed for the Lake District to get mind and body into the groove, and to test out certain elements of my gear strategy. I wouldn't normally go on such a trip the week before the Challenge, but I had planned to head for Scotland a few … Continue reading The 10th and 50th
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
After the disappointment of not being able to get out much last year, it was pleasing to get back to a more normal level of camps out this year. This year I racked up 26 wild camps and 9 "tame" camps. This takes my all time total to 194 wild camps - which means I … Continue reading Camp of the Year 2021 (and other matters…)
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
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”
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
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 – Summits
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 … Continue reading Best Wildcamps – Introduction and Tarn Camps
This morning, the following photo popped up in my Facebook memories: ...and gave me the idea for this post. Yes, this was my first wild camp. Only 8 years ago, but it seems like longer. I'd intended to camp wild as early as 2007 when I went on my abortive tour of the Lakes. Back … Continue reading An Anniversary
This year I only managed 18 wild camps (plus an additional 4 tame camps on the TGO Challenge) against a loose target of 24, falling short largely because I shelved plans for weekends away in September and November due to indifferent weather. In any case, 24 would have been well short of some yearly totals, … Continue reading Camp of the Year 2019
Persistent readers will no doubt be aware that for the last few years, I've had a camping out competition with my daughter, who does quite a few camps due to her involvement in several sections of the Scout movement. We did it again this year, but with 2018 being A Level year, it was pretty … Continue reading 2018 Round-Up Part 1: Camps
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
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
Stood at the sink washing up one night in September last year, it suddenly occurred to me to add up the number of camps both I and my daughter, Rebecca, had done so far that year (I think of a lot of odd stuff like that while washing up). I realised with all of the … Continue reading The Great Camping Challenge 2016