Sparkle & Ice is my favourite of Girlguiding’s large-scale events. That’s partly because I’m a polar bear and I like things that are meant to be cold and/or wintery and partly because I like the weirdness of it. We don’t generally camp in the winter, because we’re not tough enough and the girls certainly aren’t… More Sparkle & Ice 2022: the warmest Sparkle ever!
On Thursday, I left you at the foot of Fan Brycheiniog, after having climbed to the summit and then descended the sharp ridge and walked down the mountain that way. It was getting dark by the time we got back to the car and pretty properly dark by the time we were driving back to… More I decided not to climb a mountain in Wales!
At the weekend I went to Wales for a Region level 3 walking weekend. In our part of the country, landscapes that fit the Remote criteria are a bit harder to get at than they might be for people who live further north, so when we do a level 3 walking weekend, it’s usually in… More I climbed a mountain in Wales
Last week I watched Earthstorm Volcano, the second episode of the series. I was expecting a nice documentary starring Fagradalsfjall, the 2021 eruption in Iceland, and instead I got some high-octane nightmare fuel. It did indeed feature Fagradalsfjall and then it built up and up and up to bigger and more destructive volcanoes and finished… More Earthstorm: Volcano
This week I’m bringing you glad tidings from Shaftesbury, a royal town in North Dorset. Why? Well… If you don’t watch Richard Osman’s House of Games, it’s a teatime quiz show made on a shoestring where four celebrities compete to win dartboards, aprons, deckchairs and the like, all emblazoned with the stylised face of… More Shaftesbury: a royal town in North Dorset
You know how this goes. I was a language student; I had a compulsory year abroad immersed in my target language and I lived in Switzerland and attended a French language school. I lived in Neuchâtel, an hour or so from the French border in western Switzerland which is why I only made it to… More Year Abroad: sunny Lugano
I’m excited about today’s post because I’m going to be ranking geothermal spas in Iceland and deciding which is the best. That’s not based on my own thoughts and feelings, it’s based on number of points scored in each category and it means I have no idea which is going to win! The contenders are… More What is the best geothermal spa in Iceland?
Down in the depths of the Isle of Purbeck, you’ll find a perfect chocolate box village called Worth Matravers. It’s all built from local grey limestone, there’s a duckpond in the middle and one of these tiny local pubs perched on the hilltop, with incredible sea views, the sort of pub where you can get… More Walking to Dancing Ledge from Worth Matravers
Fourteen years ago this week I was on my first ever solo trip. Well – that kind of depends on your definition. I’d done the trip to Italy a good few years ago; it wasn’t solo but my only companion was another fourteen-year-old, and I’d spent a year living in Switzerland and travelling around in… More My first solo trip: Helsinki 2008
I don’t really celebrate Halloween. My parents never let me trick or treat as a kid and we never carved pumpkins either so those are both things I just don’t do. Well, by the time I was old enough to not need their permission to trick or treat, I was too old for it –… More Halloween at Upton Country Park