Back in May, I wrote a post about my first swim of the season, my goals for the season and just generally my thoughts on swimming. The season has now come to an end; the pool has closed for the winter and I guess I’m now not swimming again either until it reopens next May … More 2021 swimming review
I’ve been kayaking before. I’ve been kayaking on the sea before – in fact, I’ve only ever been kayaking on the sea. But this post is about learning to kayak on a closed cockpit sea kayak with a spraydeck. The reason is there’s a thing I wanted to do but it’s only available to groups … More Learning to paddle a sea kayak
The other weekend I went for my first ever Moonlight Swim at Shepton Mallet lido. It’s an event they put on during the summer at the full moon and it features a two-hour outdoor swim by moonlight, firelight and fairy lights and a free hot chocolate to warm up afterwards. It’s a heated pool, heated … More Moonlight Swim at Shepton Mallet lido
Another year, another large-scale event missed. This time it’s Wellies & Wristbands 2021. I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s not my favourite of Girlguiding’s flagship events because I find it’s just too much and it’s too busy and too noisy and mostly too expensive but I could fix all of that and make this … More Wellies & Wristbands 2021 (at home)
I didn’t know I was going to Tintagel or I’d have 1) booked tickets to the castle 2) read my guidebook about the village 3) taken the Once and Future King with me. But I thought I was having a weekend walking on Dartmoor so I didn’t do any of that! It was my birthday … More An unexpected day at Tintagel | Camping on Dartmoor July 2021
In mid-June and late July, I went camping just off the edge of Dartmoor. It was supposed to be two weekends in June but the campsite was booked out and so I had to change my dates (and got a free night thrown in). I’d like to talk about the campsite but I have such … More Oaktree Lane Dartmoor campsite review | Camping on Dartmoor July 2021
I was camping the other day and realised that someone needs to speak up about fire safety while camping. Guess it’d better be me. My qualifications for this subject are that I’m a Guide leader of fourteen years’ standing, I was the fire marshall at my last job (and I wrote our fire procedures manual … More Fire safety while camping
In this series, I’ve covered how to choose and buy a tent, how to look after it, what kit to take, how and what to cook and quite a few of the basics of camping. It took until a Twitter exchange this morning (by which I mean last Monday because pre-written and scheduled post!) for … More Why go camping?
As I may have mentioned in my last post, I went camping in the heatwave and made some errors in judgement. But those errors were caused, in part, by the lack of any information whatsoever about how to camp in hot weather. People talk a lot about how to camp in the cold – I’ve … More How to camp in hot weather
In honour of it being A Level results day tomorrow, let’s talk about degree possibilities. Specifically – what can you do with a language degree? Considering languages are so important when you’re travelling around the world, and considering the state of language teaching in the UK, I sometimes feel like one of my unique selling … More What can you do with a language degree?
I Am A Polar Bear 