Camping in July with the usual gang of friends from uni.  That'll be nice - most likely warm(ish) and hopefully dry.

Or not.  After a ridiculously slow drive (thanks M5 roadworks and 'start of school holidays' traffic) I arrived at a very wet Ruehill campsite to find Jo having a major tent disaster - she'd left the flysheet at home!  I quickly popped my tent up, then retreated to the car to wait for the others to arrive while she went and bought an emergency new tent from a local halfords.
(Fun fact: 'showerproof' £10 tents very definitely can't cope with rainy... continue reading »

Last week I attended the Outdoor Bloggers weekend in Snowdonia.  It's been a while since I met (in real life) any random people from the internet, and I've never really done any sort of networking so wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Despite an afternoon off work and good intentions, I arrived in the dark.  Good thing my tent only takes a few seconds to put up!  We were camping at Llyn Gwynant, which rather conveniently features a pizza shop on busier weekends.  Yum yum!

We sat around the campfire telling stories and getting to know each other a bit - though... continue reading »

Another bank holiday, another camping trip.  This time in Snowdonia, staying at Dolgam near Capel Curig.

Saturday started with some mountain biking at Coed y Brenin.  Firstly the green Yr Afon trail (at 5 year old pace!) then after lunch a much more exciting mix of MinorTaur (blue) and Cyflym Coch (red).

To cool down after that we went wild swimming in the Llugwy, just below the siphon-tastic mess that is Pont Cyfyng.  Yuck. Others did actually swim, but I splashed around waist deep because it was rather cold.

On Sunday I turned down more mountain biking on grounds that the Penmacho trail... continue reading »

Remember when I was on a mission to walk/cycle/kayak the whole river Wye?

Well, I still am - just keep getting distracted by other stuff and rubbish weather.

Anyway, it was nice the other weekend and I had no other plans so on Friday afternoon I drove up to Llangurig.  After a brief evening stroll from the campsite into the village and back, I sat with a bag of chips watching the sun set.  Lovely.

Saturday was a little less relaxed.  I got up and drove to Rhyd y Benwch in the Hafren Forest.  A really nice (and quite popular, it seems) Forestry... continue reading »

Tyne Tour - a new one for my kayaking repertoire!  I wanted to go last year but was away working, so was quite excited about actually going this time.

Hexham is a long way away, so we left at lunchtime in order to get there at a reasonable hour and perhaps avoid the worst of the traffic.

But nooo. There'd been an accident on the M42, so it took 2.5 hours to go about 8 miles. Then we hit rush hour around Nottingham, and at some point stopped for food too, so eventually reached our Travelodge (yes, really) in Gateshead at something... continue reading »

Part two of "making the most of days off work" - a weekend walking in Rhayader.  (by 'weekend' here I mean Sunday and Monday, but that's a minor technicality).

This plan wasn't decided until Sunday lunchtime, and since it's a 2 hour drive away I think I did quite well to start walking at half 3!

I'd paddled a small section of the Upper Wye in February, so decided to spend a couple of days completing this stretch.  Started from the layby at Pont Marteg, I walked up through Gilfach nature reserve (next to the Afon Marteg) then over a hill and... continue reading »

I've been on holiday to the French Alps again! Been back a week now, but it's taken me until now to sort through the 300+ photos I took (split between 2 cameras, as I now have a little waterproof one too, which is rather cool)

Anyway, same campsite as last year, with some of the same people.  But this time, no floods and barely any rain!  So much more kayaking was done - not especially by me, as it turns out I'm not so keen on Alpine water (it's fast and continuous and scary).  Obviously I fell out of my boat... continue reading »

I spent Easter weekend in Scotland

Bit of a last minute plan, following a conversation the weekend before that went something like "Scotland next weekend?" "ooh, can I come?" "yeah, sure".

Wild camping around the Fort William area - near to rivers, obviously (yes, it was a kayaking trip).

We left Birmingham at stupid o'clock on Friday morning, and arrived at about half 2 I think.  Went for a walk along the banks of the Etive, which had a lot of water in it.  Randomly bumped into some people from Cheltenham canoe club while we were there. As a side note, walking... continue reading »

Because it would take far too long to properly write up the two weeks I've just spent in the French Alps, here's a random photo and a list:

I'm probably missing... continue reading »