I’ve just watched someone in all seriousness tell a fairly large following that you can use Google Earth to plan a hike and therefore I need to announce categorically that no, you cannot! And thus here is how to plan a hike.. This is about the route, by the way. It’s not about equipment, experience, … More How to plan a hike
After my last post about hiking solo, today I’m taking you along on a solo hike! I needed a Dartmoor logbook walk (10+km, in Open country – there are lots of other details but that’s the important bit) but I also wanted quite a gentle walk and my guidebook suggested this one, a Princetown branch … More A gentle Princetown branch railway walk | Camping on Dartmoor June 2021
It occurred to me this week that although I travel and camp and hike and generally adventure solo, I don’t talk about it much, not about the actually solo aspect of it. It occurred to me because Cat Higgy was asking for advice on Twitter, about the South West Coast Path and about hiking and … More How to camp and hike solo
I’ll do a real YouTube-circa-2014 “what’s in my bag?” blog next time I go to Dartmoor but today a follow-up to “what to carry while out walking” from the other day: what’s in my first aid kit? I would recommend carrying a first aid kit whenever you go out walking. I mean, I don’t bother … More Outdoors 101: What’s in my first aid kit?
In the last Walking 101 post, I was mainly making the point that you don’t need a lot of stuff or to spend a lot of money to get outdoors and get into walking. This post is “what to carry on a day hike”, aka all the stuff you do need. But you still don’t need … More Outdoors 101: What to carry on a day hike
This is kind of second in the How To Get Outdoors series but after Outdoors 101’s “what shoes should I wear?”, consider this the first part of related series Outdoors 201: we’re going to investigate why and how to use a route card. What is a route card? A route card is a piece of … More Outdoors 201: Why and how to use a route card
Back in 2014, I finally did something I’d been wanting to do for a while. Given the lack of English-language information, putting it all together and figuring out how to do it was a bit tricky and so let me save you all that. This is how to climb Esja. Esja is Reykjavik’s mountain. If … More How to climb Esja
Last week, I finished my Dartmoor blog back at the car at Haytor, after a 10.13km round walk taking in Smallacombe Rocks, Becka Brook, Greator, Hound Tor and Saddle Tor, which is where I should have started. So let’s go back to the campsite. I mentioned that it was steep and it was basic. It … More Dartmoor: a warm, windy walking weekend (part 2)
I went to Dartmoor last weekend. I’d expected half the country to be joining me on my drive westwards on a hot September Friday but it seemed there was more traffic heading east and definitely a lot more caravans. Had Devon and Cornwall kicked out all the holidaymakers? I’d set off reasonably early in the … More Dartmoor: a warm windy walking weekend (part 1)
A few weeks ago, I did a post on my DofE practice expedition and this is the real thing. The expedition is both the most dreaded and the best known of all the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award components. As a general rule, I think it’s the last thing to get done. The typical vision of … More Stay At Home Storytelling: My DofE Bronze expedition
I Am A Polar Bear 