Because it was good weather this morning, Mark from The Little Frog Group, used his alternative transport to get to our business meeting.
I’m not a motorcycle enthusiast, so I cannot tell you what it is, but it is old and Mark restored it to it’s current condition – when he first got the bike it was a bit of a wreck! So if you know someone who has a pet “restoration” project that has stalled then give the Little Frog Group a call and see if they can help (details in the side bar).
update – Mark has subsequently told me it is a BSA A7.
I have another trip planned for a couple of weeks time in Scotland. I plan to walk from Grantown-on-Spey to Charlestown-of-Aberlour with an overnight stop at Cragganmore, following the Speyside Way. The family are staying in Aviemore at the Scandinavian Village for a week in August so I will desert them, get a bus to Grantown and then get picked up the following day. My son and I will be camping for the week before and week after the family week – so I will only need to take the backpack with me to enable me to overnight as I will have the other equipment with me.
When I started looking for a campsite somewhere between the two towns I discovered there was a free site at Cragganmore – just to be sure we are going to take a drive out to check what the site is like before I commit to stay there.
Food
Today we were stocking up on some camp supplies and so I also have stocked up on some backpacking supplies.
Following the trip the other weekend I needed to add to the food I am taking
“No fridge” salami snacks
Crackers – eight portion packs of Italian Crackers (I will probably carry four packs)
Nutella portion pack – a bit expensive but convenient and can be used with a pack of crackers.
Extra bag of cashew nuts
Backpacking Food
Tomorrow I am going to pick up some dried banana flakes, from the market in the Lincoln, for trail snacks.
Fuel
I will be carrying two 100ml bottles of meths, one bottle will cover the evening meal and breakfast, the other will be for hot drinks during the day – I’m on holiday so I expect to stop several times. I will also pack two solid fuel tablets for spare fuel.
We have replaced our office printer – with another HP. As I tell my clients, you are never disappointed with an HP printer.
I bought an HP Laserjet Pro CP1525nw – mainly because it has HP’s ePrint, which means it will work with my iPhone (and my son’s iPod).
HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw
I installed it to our network, on a wire and disabled the built in wireless connection and fixed the IP to match the IP plan I have and so I can find it easier when I want to manage it. It has a slightly larger foot print than the old HP 2600n but we were still able to fit it in that space on the bench.
The ePrint servcies have to be installed via the internet, after the printer has been installed on at least PC on the network. The ePrint services give you far more than just iPhone printing – you can also send print jobs to the printer by sending an email to it. On installing ePrint you set up an account with HP, from there you get a secure email address for your printer and a management console for the service. For extra security you can alter the email address to be something very complicated and also limit what email addesses can send jobs to the printer (I did this). To print attach the file you want to print to an email, send it and get a notification email back telling you the job was a success. This opens all sorts of possibilities – we try and run a paperless office but we still need some things in print. Diana is looking forward to when she is working in Spain and is able to print something out in the office here and having it put in the post or on file.Printing from the iPhone works from any app that has a print option – there is an HP ePrint app, when that is installed it gives you many more options for printing.Anyone with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad should get one of these printers.
Coleman Bedrock 2 tent
Pole
Ti pegs I did not use any of the bags the tent components came in. The inner tent and fly were refolded and packed in the main pack compartment at the top. Pegs went in the pop stud packet they were sold in and went into the pocket with the spare clothes. The pole went into the middle of the sleeping mat roll.
30l Karrimor Hotlite pack circa 1986
2x Karrimor 3l extension pockets
LowePro small lens case (brew kit)
LowePro bottle case – Inc 600ml Sigg bottle and drinking cap
2l Camelbak
Self inflating sleeping mat – black sack to pack it in and 2x small bungee cords
Karrimor lightweight sleeping bag – in stuff sack
Fleece sleeping bag liner
Both these items are packed in a drysack
In a 5l litre drysack
Light fleece jumper (very warm)
Fleece hat, head over and gloves (for extra warmth)
Spare underware and walking socks All this clothing goes inside the head over to make a pillow This bag was compressed into one of the extension pockets
Lightweight raincoat
Kitchen/brewkit
Ti mug and aluminium lid
Ti stove – inside the burner three solid fuel tablets and the copper mug stand
Plastic beaker with lid
Lighter
Small brewkit in neoprene case contains
* 5x tea bags in ziplock bag
* 15ml bottle of dried milk
* 2x sugar
* Lighter
50ml bottle of meths
Small LMF spork
2in1 coffee sachet
2x cereal bars
Poly bag for rubbish The above is packed in the lens case and was secured to the pack
Half sized aluminium wind shield
Hardboard stove stand
Both of these items were packed in the second extension pocket
110ml meths
Folding knife and spoon
Wide plastic mug
Heavy duty plastic sheet – packed under the bungess hold the mat onto the pack (these bungess were a good place to dry things under, whilst walking, on the second day)
The following items were all packed in a 2l drysack and carried in the other extension pocket
Petzl headlight
Small FAK including hotel sewing kit and toilet paper
Pocket pack of tissues
Miniature wash kit
* hotel soap
* 15ml toothpaste gel
* folding tooth brush
* comb
* small mirror
* 50cm square hi-absorbent towel
* Hotel sachet shower gel
* hi-absorbent cloth 20cm square All packed in the case the towel came in
2x plastic clothes pegs
Hi-absorbent cloth for drying up
5ml washing up liquid in hotel bottle
1/4 washing up sponge
Small repair kit
* 1m gaffer tape wound onto a stoppered tube
* inside the tube two needles, thread and 1m of thin string
Two large and four small cable ties
1.5m paracord
LMF Scout firesteel and striker
Sun screen stick
Compeed stick (not used!)
Emergency plastic poncho – heavy showers were forecast and I had no pack cover
1oz single malt whiskey
Food
Two zip lock bags packed in the main sack
One containing the food and drinks for the first evening – and a 50g pack of REGO
The second contained the breakfast, drinks and trail snacks for day two
Total weight of pack including water and food was about 24lbs or 11kgs
In my pockets
iPhone with extended battery back fitted (allows for a complete charge and 25%)
I used the iPhone as
* a phone, email and text
* as a eBook reader
* with Memory Map for navigation
* to watch a movie on
Aquapak – for the iPhone – see note below
iPod Nano and headphones in a neoprene pouch – I used this rather than my iPhone to listen to whilst walking
LowePro PDA belt case (used as a wallet and kept in an inside zipper pocket) containing
* Money
* Debit card
* Frensel magnifier
* Camping and Caravan Club membership card
* Paper and pencil stub
* Emergency iPhone charger
* Swiss card
* Two plasters for quick access
Sun hat
Lip balm
Sun glasses
Tissues
Trail snacks
On a length of paracord
* Camper Swiss Army knife
* Leatherman original P4 Squirt
* lifeboat whistle
Wearing
Northface hiking boots
Three way Craghoppers
Lightweight long sleeved shirt
Walking socks
Underwear
Rohan vest
My kit - packing up on Sunday morning
Note Unfortunately the Aquapak I bought two years ago to use my phone camera in, has deteriorated so I can no longer see either the screen or use the camera through it – I am back to using my original Aquapak (over five years old) which does not have a transparent back, so to take photo I have to take it out of the case, that means no photos in bad weather. To be green Aquapak removed some plasticisers from their cases making the softer – I will never buy another. So I am on the lookout this summer for a new weather proof case for my iPhone – one in which I can use the camera.
Without any warning my phone speaker on my iPhone failed. The speaker phone worked, the hearphones worked on phone calls as did the bluetooth connection/speaker.
This happened Wednesday 13th July.
So I went to the internet to find the solution and although I tried a number of the solutions I found there from a complete restore from the backup to following complicated routines of unplugging and plugging in the headphones whilst starting and stopping the iPod player nothing seemed to work for me.
I was convinced it was a software issue but was resigned to a hardware fault. I was going to book an appointment at an Apple shop, on Monday but one of my engineers was off sick so I had no time to do this, when just as suddenly, I realised, as I answered a call and was about to switch on the speaker phone I could hear the caller through the normal phone speaker!
Well I was very happy about this but puzzled by it just starting. The only thing that I had done that day was to update four apps on the iPhone – don’t ask me which ones because I do not remember, but may be one of these patched the software issue, possible it was that app that caused the problem in the first place. Who knows?
Speaker magically resurrected Monday 18th July!
The one saving grace in the issue was the minature bluetooth earpiece i bought from Tesco sometime back. I linked this to my iPhone so I could continue to use it whilst the phone healed itself!
The days walking took me along the Water Rail Way, which follows the River Witham and then through Woodhall Spa to the campsite. The walk was good and the weather was good, considering that Friday night there was a terrific thunder storm and around me there were spectacular clouds.
Question – why do some dog walkers let their dogs run free, then look at you funny when their dog bothers you! Surely the responsibility is theirs?
By the time I reached the campsite I was pleased that all those years ago I padded the bottom of my pack! The belt I had fitted to the pack did not transfer the weight to the hips but to the back of my hips – the padding helped there. I has made my mind up to get another bag for more serious walks as this could be a real problem on longer trips or trips over rough ground.
I had a pitch at the campsite next to the small lake between the trees, if you had a car or even a slightly larger tent you could not have used this pitch but for a backpacker it was perfect. Once I had my tent up and gear stored, I was very happy to sit by the lake drinking SIS REGO (an excellent recovery drink – I swear by it after long walks, to make the next day better) and tea.
Lake side by my tentMy tentCamp site lake
Dinner consisted of
Tea
Tuna with BBQ sauce
Instant noodles with tomato cup-a-soup
Instant custard
Salted cashew nuts
later instant Cappuccino and biscuits (this was another fill of meths)
I filled the meths tanks on my Vargo Triad XE stove and set it going and by eating the tuna from the can, making the noodles in a small beaker with a lid (I used my sleeping bag as a cosy whilst they rehydrated), having the hot drinks in a plastic beaker and then finally making the custard in the Ti mug, one fill of meths completed the meal with the Ti mug being refilled with hot water.
In the future I will add something extra to this may be some extra banana flakes or dried fruit and “no fridge” salami.
In the evening I watched a movie on my iPhone and even had some single malt whiskey as the sun went down.
In the morning I was woken early by the brave ducks, foraging under the flysheet for bugs and insects they could find there. It was a hot sunny morning so early morning tea, whilst still in my sleeping watching the ducks and the lake was a real treat.
Ducks with no fear
Breakfast was two servings of instant porridge with dried milk and brown sugar, a cereal bar and plenty of tea.
I used 110ml of meths at the campsite.
The walk back was just a good as the day before but this time I took the Viking Way back.
Catering was probably the main thing I will change in the future, carrying some extra trail snacks and a little extra for my evening meal.
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