Walking – Page 80 – Clive's Blog

Camping Supplies

8 March 2011 / Walking / camping food, food, hiking

We went to Tesco at the weekend for the family shop but I also picked up some stores for the forth coming camping season.

Our favourite spice for camping is smoked sweet paprika – and it was get three for £1.20, a real bargain.

With pancake day coming up there was Betty Crocker Pancake Mix, just add water to the mix in the bottle and shake. It will be easy to make at camp, so the plan is to have bacon, pancakes and honey for breakfast at Easter.

We often use bread sauce as a starch with ham and tinned carrots or our favourite jarred petit pois and baby carrots. It is a useful way to use up milk and a very compact ingredient to have in the camp kitchen box so I bought two packets.

My son and I like to cook when camping, various meals from fresh ingredients, lots of chopping, adding of herbs and spices, and stirring, but sometimes we need quick and convenient, if the weather turns bad, we get back late or we just want quick! There are a good range of wet pack meals available from camping shops but they can be expensive. On a recommendation from the UKBushcraft forum we tried a Chicken Korma in a bag with a pack of micro wave rice all cooked in a sauce pan. If we had added some bread, extra vegetables or a dessert it would be a hood meal for two. We were very pleased with the taste and quality of the sauce and quantity of tender chicken. So next week when I good shopping I will buy some of this curry for the Easter trip.

I’ll post some photos of the curry and other supplies after next weeks shop (I have already thrown the Korma pack away).

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Practice Walk for the West Highland Way

27 February 2011 / Walking / coffee, tea, walking, West Highland Way

I am writing this post while waiting under the Kirkstead Bridge to be picked up. Why under the bridge, well although it started off sunny earlier today there has been hail and now it is pouring down! But I did get a 20k walking in – I think I will start a mileage tally of the practice walks for the WHW.

There are two words to describe today’s walk – DOG’S MESS. now I am sure there are many responsible dog owners who clean up after their pets, however there are many who do not. I took shelter under the bridge and sat on the concrete ledge to finish my coffee, to discover my boots were in several piles of unmentionable and these were not the first piles of the day. There were many not even at the sides of the track but in the middle. And to add a final twist to the behaviour of some pet owners, some people are clearing up after their animals and then hanging the full baggies in the trees along the path side! Someone explain that!

The photo below show the high level of the water in the Witham – making use of the flood protection overflow banks.

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The Belgian Cafe

20 February 2011 / Walking / coffee, England, Ramsgate

I am in Ramsgate this weekend, for my Granddaughter’s fIrst birthdays – but with the West Highland Way less than 8 months away, I wanted to get some walking in this weekend. So I got ip early and walked along the sea front. The only thing this morning is that the sun has forgotten to rise – it is a grey, damp claggy day.

Ramsgate was closed this early on a Sunday morning – except for a cafe near the Marina – The Belgian Cafe. It serves excellent coffee and the bacon smelled great, the only problem is that this is walking to get fit so bacon sandwiches are out. The decor is eccentric and I guess that adds character, and I am not sure whether the accents of the staff were Belgian but they were continental. Well except for the chef who was London/Essex! And the coffee was good.

Try it out The Belgian Cafe – pics below.

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Wet and Windy on the Water Rail Way

13 February 2011 / Walking / coffee, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, walking, Washingborough, Water Rail Way

Walked from Washingborough to Woodhall Spa today as the real start of the practice to tackle the West Highland Way in October. It has been a while since I have walked seriously for a length of time – there is always something else to do – and it really showed when I was keeping up a good pace! So more practice needed.

It was a wet and windy day and it got very dark from time to time. I took my gas mask case with a flask of hot water, a brew kit and stove. Two stops for coffee from the flask and I heated water for a cup-a-soup during the hardest rain of the day. There is a lot of public art along the path and many “interesting” seats so I found a good place to sit for the brew up with a little shelter from the wind.

The Water Rail Way is a good walk and I would recommend it anyone – it is not tough but it has some good scenery and sights, including information boards to add historic and natural history notes to the walk.

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Pine Lake Resort Internet – Final Word

25 January 2011 / Travel, Walking / Crusader Cook Set, MSR titanium mug, outdoor gear, walking

I went to the reception this morning to ask what was going to happen. To be fair the receptionist did not know, I didn’t think she would, but I needed her to pass my problem on. Helpfully she said she would pass my problem on to her manager, unhelpfully she informed me that Pine Lake could not authorise a refund!

So after a day walking along the coast – see photo below taken from the promenade at Morecambe – I went back to reception where there was some news. The site maintenance could not fix the issue, neither can Swisscom, so no Internet. I did however get my money back.

Moral – I am sure the high speed internet works here, but think twice before buying it could use up some of your holiday sorting it out.

It is a shame I did not pack one of my engineers and his laptop, spares and toolbox – I just have the feeling we could have sorted at least a patch to get the customer online.

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Lunch Break

23 January 2011 / Outdoor Gear, Travel, Walking / Crusader Cook Set, Lake District, MSR titanium mug, outdoor gear

I went for a walk in the outlying limestone area south of the Lake District today. The outcrop of limestone the path followed was an impressive bit of geology, worth seeing.

I came across a hollow just off the path which was a good place to stop for lunch – the stepped rock made for somewhere to put my sitmat.

Although it was a grey day it is interesting country to walk though – when I get back I will try and upload my Memory-map route.

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Titaniun Mug Lid

20 January 2011 / Outdoor Gear, Walking / Aviemore, coffee, Crusader Cook Set, iPhone camera apps, MSR titanium mug, outdoor gear, Scotland, tea

Once upon a time I didn’t worry how much weight I carried when out in the hills, now every gram counts. However I also enjoy a stop and a fresh hot drink and may be some hot food when walking and so I bought a Crusader brew kit – an excellent bit of kit, but heavy and lacking a proper lid (you cannot count the plastic drinking lid as it cannot reliably be used for cooking). A friend of mine who runs an engineering and maintenance company (The Little Frog Group) made me an aluminium lid for the Crusader mug. Two things the lid helps with, it shortens boiling times and it stops debris falling into the pot – a hazard when trying to shelter the mug and stove from the wind.

This got me thinking to make an even lighter brew kit. I have a Titanium stove and an MSR titanium mug which could be used as cooking pot. So once again The Little Frog Group made another lid, this time for the Ti mug.

One of the great things about the Vargo Triad XE Titanium Stove i that it can be used with meths or solid fuel tablets – but the problem with the solid fuel is that it leaves a residue on the outside of the pot. So if I used my mug as the kettle with solid fuel then it is probable that the smoke would taint the mug making it unpleasant to drink from. In my camp kit I had a beaker with a lid which fits nearly exactly into the mug and makes a reasonable cup for this brew kit.

Add to this my brew kit pouch (an mp3 case from a pound shop contains tea bags, milk powder etc), a small Light My Fire spork, a couple of 2 in 1 coffees, a lighter, four solid fuel tablets inside the stove, 2 50ml bottles of meths and some paper towels all in a “Brew Kit” stuff sack (bought many years ago from Footloose magazine) and I have a pocket sized (it has to be a big pocket) brewkit.

I dropped this kit into a WWII gas mask case – I have had since I was at school when it was not collectable but surplus, so mine is worn and stained – with a 600ml Sigg bottle of water, some biscuits and tinned fish. I have a 40cm by 60cm sheet of heavy duty plastic sheet, folds up small and gives me somewhere dry to sit. I also pack a very lightweight emergency kit which went in the haversack. Memory-Map on my iPhone, in an Aquapac took care of the navigation (an it is my camera) and an 8GB 3rd generation iPod Nano, full of podcasts and audio books, completes a very light walking kit.

Had a very good walk along the Speyside Way on Sunday, headed north out of Aviemore, did about 12 miles and had hot tea with my luch and more tea later in the day as the light was fading. It was windy and the foil wind shield was essential and raining – you can see the rain on the sit mat and on the bag.

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