Camping and Caravan Club

Breakfast in the tent in the rain

Breakfast in my MSR Hubba tent, MSR titanium mug, Alpkit Kraku stove, Platypus roll up bottle making fresh camp coffee
Breakfast today, fresh coffee, Polish black currant jam and peanut butter sandwiches – separately not mixed!

It has been raining most of the night here at Kelvedon Hatch. I was lucky last night I decided to get in to my tent and watch a video on my iPad so I was settled in before the rain started – if I had stayed in the car I would have got wet.

So this morning it it breakfast in the tent, which is – whilst I write this – filled with the smell of fresh coffee. Who cares about a bit of rain.

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Walking and Camping

I am backpacking today from outside Horncastle to the Camping and Caravan Club site near Woodhall Spa.

It is not a very long walk so I have one or two bits of extra gear with me as the pack weight is not critical. I have a 10Ah power supply for my iphone as I plan to watch a couple of videos tonight. I have a Chicken Chow Mein microwave meal with me so I have packed my larger Alpkit MiTiMug to cook it in as well as bringing my smaller titanium mug/cook pot.

For a change the weather is perfect – so I have packed extra water and one of my bottles contains an electrolyte drink.

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Walking to Woodhall Spa – Day Two

The weather was good when I was packing up – which was lucky as packing the new Golite Jam 2, did not go as easily as it did when I packed it at home. I had put the tent in the large outside pocket but this was a mistake as that pocket has to be packed before the main bag. Both pockets share the same volume – packing the main pocket reduces the size of the outside pocket. This means the tent needs to be packed first – when actually, when packing up, it is the last thing to go in the bag. This morning, I simply piled my gear up on a small tarp I had with me, took the tent down and then packed, but it was dry and sunny. So I need a new packing plan.

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I ended up meeting both Richards in Bardney – one had had walked there from Lincoln city centre the other drove – and we went for coffee. So that was the end of the walking, we got a lift home.

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At the Campsite

I camped in the same spot as I did a couple of months back – but with no ducks.

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I have added a wing nut handle to my mug lid – it has proved to awkward to lift the lid off with my Leatherman. The wing nut arrangement means the handle can come off for packing, with the wing nut being stored in the same neoprene case I keep my milk powder, tea bags and lighter in.

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To save washing up I made my instant custard in the packet, using the mug only to hold it in and to save burning my hands as I ate it.

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I really like Indian tea, but I like it with plenty of milk in (or better still made with condensed milk) – this means it uses a lot of my limited store of dried milk. Yesterday one of my clients gave me some milk sticks, for use this walk but they have all ended up in the same drink. I make the tea the all in way, milk, cold water, Indian tea bag and two brown sugars all in the mug and bring to the boil – then I take half the tea out to drink top up with more cold water and bring back to the boil. Excellent. However this adds to my washing up as the titanium mug/kettle is a mess when finished and it gets worse if it boils over as it did during my Scotish trip last month.

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This morning the weather is fine – with a nice sunrise right into my tent as I make some tea.

The bad weather did not materialise here, infect when I woke up there was no wind at all and my tent was perfectly still. However I have asked Diana to check the TV weather and call me.

Breakfast is simple here this morning, plenty of tea and granola bars – many walkers have bars for breakfast so I thought I would try it today.

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Walking to Woodhall Spa – Day One

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The pack weight is 11.4kgs – including all food and about 2.2l of water. This note is written after about two hours and the Golite pack is proving much more comfortable than the Karrimor I pushed into service.

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There were a few drops of rain as I approached the campsite but they did not come to anything, so I got the tent up in the dry. However the warden mentioned that later we may get some wind and rain, the leftovers of a hurricane!

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