The Brecon Beacons not The Lakes
We have had a last minute change of plan – we are now going to South Wales rather than the very wet Lake District. The sunrise is over Washingborough as we were leaving.
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Travel
Overnight trip to the Old Man of Coniston
Next weekend I am planning a backpacking trip to the Lake Dustrict, with a couple of friends, to walk up the Old Man of Coniston with an overnight camp – depending on the weather. (Click on the map for a larger version).
The main reason for going away is to spend the weekend taking photographs – so we are taking a tripod with us and I am going to try my hand at some video on my iPhone. I have a bracket to mount my iPhone on a tripod.
This weekend I have been sorting the gear.
- I will get to try out my second inflatable pillow!
- I am going to take my MSR Pocket Rocket stove with a 100g cannister – I have not yet used it on an overnight trip
- I am going to test using a Molle water bottle pouch to carry my lunch and brew kit – fixed to the hip belt or compression strap on the Golite Jam2
- I am going to pack the titanium meths stove and 50ml of meths in the Molle pouch – for hot drinks whilst walking
Food for the trip
We are going to start walking after lunch on the Saturday
Saturday
- On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts
- Instant white coffee – I can make a brew whilst waiting for the light to change for that perfect photograph
Evening meal
- Smoked Sausage
- Tortilla x3
- Onion Gravy
- Instant custard and chocolate chip cake
- Tea
Indian tea (with milk and brown sugar) wafer biscuits
Hot chocolate, wafer biscuits
Sunday
Tea and biscuits whilst still in my sleeping bag
Breakfast
- Cereal bars
- Breakfast biscuits
- Crackers and jam
- Apple flakes
- Tea
On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts
Extras
- Boiled sweets, apple flapjack bar
- 2x instant peach teas (use hot or cold)
- 15ml of dried milk 2x sugar packets 2x pepper packets 1x salt packet 1x tomato ketchup sachet
- 1 oz Southern Comfort
- Tissues
Emergency Food – Glucose tablets
Water
- 1l in my CamelBak for the walk – this should be enough for both days as we are not walking far
- 1.3l for evening meal
- 0.7l for breakfast
- 0.9l for extra cups of tea and cleaning
I am going to store some water in the car so I can drink before setting out and on my return.
Let’s hope the weather is good enough!
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Two Night Trip
I had been planning a two night trip further afield – but the variable weather and the unseasonably low temperatures meant I changed my plan to a walk to Woodhall Spa. (I have been walking for about 30 minutes, as I write this, it was cold and grey when I set out, it rained, the sun came out, it rained and now it is grey again!)
I put my iPhone in the waterproof case at the start of the day, to protect it, so I can use it as a camera for those bad weather photos and so I can write this blog as I walk – wiping the rain drops from the screen so I can read what I write.
The plan is walk to Woodhall Spa campsite from Bardney using the Viking Way – tomorrow loop out around Horncastle using the Viking Way and other paths – then Monday back to Bardney on the Water Rail Way.
Two days food, extra fuel and some spare clothes has added to my pack weight – the starting load complete was 12kgs. One thing I do need to manage is the power consumption on my iPhone – so I have disabled the 3G and data function, whilst walking, to conserve power and no movies tonight in the tent – I also plan to turn on flight mode over night.
It has now hailed on me.
The path has been very muddy in places particularly two stretches that go through cow fields. I found a convenient bit of low wall for lunch – but sitting still I got cold very quickly – so lunch was a quick stop.
I got the tent up in the dry.
I have my new inflatable pillow with me – as I do not have enough spare clothes with me to make a decent pillow. You can see the two days worth of food to the left – the milk I got from the campsite shop.
Here you can see how useful the small tarp is for giving me somewhere outside the tent to sit – and my sleeping bag in the stuff sack makes a useable stool.
A pitch right by the lake in among the trees.
Rand Farm Park
We are working at Rand Farm Park today installing a new webcam in the main animal barn.
For more on this story see the post on the Octagon Technology blog here.
Camping Trip
Today is grey and overcast – having had a week of going to work in the brilliant sunshine! Jeremy had great weather for his trip to the Peak District on Thursday and Friday.
I started off from Fiskerton footbridge at about 8.30am and followed the Viking Way across the Witham and up across the fields.
The path goes through the grounds of the ruins of Barlings Abbey – where a local farmer is grazing a herd of cows with very sharp looking horns.
Just past the abbey was another herd of slightly less fierce looking cows – who lined up for a photo.
At about 10am I found a convenient log to sit on to have a break, coffee and half a bag of cashew nuts. Sitting quietly there was a lot of varied bird song around me and I saw some grey squirrels and rabbits.
I followed the Viking Way to Bardney..
On leaving Bardney I changed onto the Water Rail Way. Mainly I changed paths as there are a number of seats along the river suitable for a lunch stop. The table I found had a metal SusTrans logo set in it an ideal place to set up my stove.
I got to the campsite at about 5.30pm – there had been a few spots of rain during the day, but not enough to get my waterproof out, and there were occasional sunny spells but mainly it was a grey cold day. I had a similar pitch as before next to the pond and between the trees. I was glad to get the tent up and my pack emptied so I could get a hot drink made. My little tent is very cosy when I have a hot mug of tea, the mesh door down and the fly sheet open, so I can see out (I had also bought a bar of chocolate at the reception to have with the tea).
I did not start cooking my evening meal until about 7.30pm, which gave me an opportunity to photograph my stove burning, where the meths flames can be seen.
this is my titanium mug with the lid, that was made for me by The Little Frog Group, standing on a vented stand that they also made (there is a link in the side bar to their website)./em>
This is a better shot of the vented ring that holds the mug away from the burner, so it works more efficiently and allows for the heat to get under the mug.
I am going to send both of these photos along to Mark at the Little Frog Group so he can see his work in action.
Snowing
All day the BBC news has been constantly talking about the coming snow. It started snowing and settling here about 5pm.
