Has anyone else ever been woken up in a tent by a lionness roaring at quarter past three in the morning? On Dartmoor? This was my second Girlguiding adult-only residential in September. Two weeks ago I was at Try Inspire Qualify and now I’m pitching my tiny yellow tent in the rain at a zoo! … More We snoozed at the zoo!
Three and a half years ago, and more, I sat down one weekend and sewed a bag to Icelandair’s exact personal item size and it’s still going strong. I was tired of hunting the house for a bag that maximised the limited space allowed. People criticise the likes of Ryanair and easyJet for being too … More I made my own custom personal item
This is a trip from 2013 that needs a bit more writing up. I’ve done a few excursions from it but I’ve never tackled the whole thing as a block and since four weekend adventures in five weeks isn’t filling up my blog schedule as well as I hoped it would, I’m going back in … More Exploring Iceland’s Highland Circle by bus
Picture the scene. It’s August 2014 and I’m in Switzerland, on an adult Guiding trip where, of the 12 of us, I’m 29, the youngest is about 26, the next youngest after me is 52 and the other nine are all in their late 60s and 70s. We’re staying in a big chalet (which we’ve … More My first visit to a live-ish eruption
Second weekend in a row of uniformed adults having adventures in the woods! But this time, we’re not pretending to be Scouts and the neckerchiefs aren’t a festival costume; we’re the real thing – Girlguiding adult volunteers and the neckerchiefs were mostly Region ones. Try Inspire Qualify is an adults-only event run by Girlguiding South … More I made a knife at Try Inspire Qualify 2026
Welcome back to the second part of Camp Wildfire 2026. The story so far: it’s rained for 24 hours, I’ve made a copper necklace, mastered lino printing, earned a point for Hawks Patrol in Filipino stick fighting and met the Chief Scout. And now, on Camp Wildfire… I always wake up early in a tent … More Camp Wildfire 2026 part 2 (in which I
After three years, I’m back at Camp Wildfire! I said last time that I probably wasn’t going to bother; that after a credits error in my favour in 2023, I didn’t really have any activities left that I desperately wanted to do, at a festival that’s all about the activities. If there was anything I … More Camp Wildfire 2026, part 1
My Iceland film photo collection is getting pretty good! By which I mean that this is my fourth set of film photos of Iceland and it’s also possibly the best set so far. Winter 2024 was in black and white and not nearly as high-contrast as I dreamed. Summer 2025 was with my grandad’s massive … More Iceland on film (June 2026 edition)
35mm film photos are very hit and miss. The pictures from Málaga are pretty terrible; quite dark and all the shadows tinted green, the pictures from Helsinki are a bit overexposed (blame the snow) and 17 are missing altogether and most of the pictures from Switzerland in January are a bit dark. But the pictures … More Denmark on film
Once I’d decided I was going to Copenhagen (and had my trip to Stevn’s Klint in my itinerary), the first thing I wanted to do was go over the Øresund Bridge to Malmö. I like a train adventure, especially one that can go across national borders and you bet I wanted to see the really … More The best way to visit Malmö from Copenhagen isn’t by train