hike | camp | paint
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
It's been over 2 years since I met someone at a station to set off on an adventure. That time the station was Euston, the (well one of them) person was Darren, and the walk was the TGO Challenge. This time the station was again Euston, the person was again Darren, but the walk was … Continue reading A Slow Lake District Backpack
A look back at some stand out days of backpacking. Today we go back to September 2014 and the Southern Fells of the Lake District. I orignally blogged this as part of The Four Valleys Walk. I'd arrived in the Lakes the previous day and headed out from Keswick to Borrowdale and climbed over the … Continue reading Best Backpacking Days #2 – High House Tarn to Sampson’s Stones
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
It's been a while since I updated my Wainwright lists. And lockdown provides a good opportunity to get things like this up to date. Of course, I finished them in 2015, but I had a bit of tidying up to do. In the aftermath of the completion of the 214, I noticed that the overwhelming … Continue reading Wainwright Stats
The train dropped me at Ravenglass at lunchtime, and with a pub practically on the platform it would have been rude not to "fuel" for the rigours of the arduous trek that lay before me. Suitably fortified, I sallied forth and set off past the Roman Bath House and down to the Esk. A delightful … Continue reading Ravenglass to Coniston
After the struggle of last year's Challenge, disrupted by hayfever that went so rogue it turned into full-blown asthma, I've been determined to make up for it this year. With the summer following the Challenge largely wiped out by getting the condition under control and finding a new normal, no sooner had I tentatively started … Continue reading Training and A Pre-Walk Walk
After all the shenanigans getting ready for my art exhibition at the start of the month, and then helping a friend with her exhibition which immediately followed mine, I'd managed to rack up a couple of months without any significant time in the outdoors. Other than a brief snatched camp out locally, but then a … Continue reading The “No Wainwrights” Lake District Backpack
Things were looking good: the forecast was encouraging, workdays were slotted into place, and I was ready to drift off to Dartmoor for a few days of backpacking as a warm up for the big event, just as I did last year. And then Paul messaged me to say he was ill (again), and that … Continue reading Making it up as I go – The pre-TGO Challenge shakedown trip
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
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
Some sad news from home had greeted me at the hostel, and it was in reflective mood that I set off for the last full day of the trip. After 15 miles of walking the previous day, I decreed that today would be a gentler one, a series of shorter walks, and spending some time … Continue reading March in the Lakes – Part 4: Reflections
When I was deep into my carless Wainwright round, the Far Eastern fells presented something of a problem. The only useful bus route runs along the western edge of the area, making the fells to the far east of the far east virtually inaccessible on a day walk. The need to pick off these fells … Continue reading March in the Lakes – Part 3: “Close” to home
Somehow, in a little over 24 hours, I'd broken Cath. We'd done no strenuous walking, beer intake had been modest, we hadn't even carried heavy packs. All I could ascribe her ailment to was some sort of allergic reaction to paintbrushes (it certainly wasn't the cookies as in a huge act of self-sacrifice, I pigged … Continue reading March in the Lakes – Part 2: A Sunday Stroll
The date was in the diary, the pre-order had been made, the accommodation had been booked. Then the unthinkable happened - Andy Beck's book launch was pushed back from the weekend of 4-5 March to the equivalent weekend in May. Issues with the colour reproduction in the printing process necessitated this delay, and one I … Continue reading March in the Lakes – Part 1: Viewpoints