As I write this, I’m lying in the porch of my tent in the garden, having spent the morning making repairs and while I’m doing the Outdoors 101 and Camping for Beginners series, it seemed it would be a good idea to do a post on how to repair a tent. You’ve bought it, you’ve … More Camping for Beginners: How to repair a tent
I meant to do this last year but apparently I never did: a beginner’s guide to how to pitch a tent. It’s all very well to decide you’re going to try out this camping thing, to go to a shop and buy a tent, but how do you put the thing up? Tents come in … More Camping for Beginners: How to pitch a tent
Perhaps you’re here because you can’t fly off to your sunny summer holiday and you’re beginning to think people might be right about this camping thing, at least until the plague is well and truly gone. But you’ve never camped before; you don’t even know where to begin. Never fear, I’m here to help! Camping … More Camping for Beginners: how to buy a tent
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?
Unless the pandemic takes another horrible turn, today should be the day when self-contained accommodation reopens and that means today might not be a terrible day to give you some ideas for a 1 week Dorset staycation itinerary. (Let me just point out that I know there are two uses of the word “staycation” and the … More Dorset staycation itinerary (Poole & Purbeck edition)
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
When I put this Pafos itinerary in my blog schedule, I thought it might be possible that people might be going on holiday again by April. Well, we know by now that every date, estimate and guess is wrong in a pandemic. But if you’re hoping to get to Cyprus later in the summer, this … More 1 week Pafos itinerary
Nearly two weeks ago, Iceland’s new eruption started (I wrote a blog about it last week) and half the country flocked to see it. I don’t blame them, I’d be among them if not for the plague. But a similar eruption happened in 1973, the birth of the volcano Eldfell, and things worked out very … More Eldfell: the people who fought a volcano
We’re back on my Single Map today with another country walk and we’re going from Fiddleford to Piddles Wood. One of Dorset’s most endearing qualities is the ridiculousness of some of its names. A few years ago that spawned a quiz called Dorset Village or NFL Player? and I particularly enjoyed that one of the … More A Single Map: Fiddleford to Piddles Wood
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
I Am A Polar Bear 