Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning

Somewhere

Around Haweswater

Last week I managed to get away for a three night trip around the southern end of Haweswater. After parking the car, I headed up the Old Corpse Road to camp near Brown Howe. The next day I climbed Selside Pike and continued to Branstree, then to Harter Fell and down to Small Water to camp. The following day I climbed back up the ridge to Mardale Ill Bell and High Street. From there I followed the ridge to High Raise where I had lunch. It was then an easy walk down to Low Raise and Measand Beck to a lovely camp spot. The next day I followed the western shore of Haweswater back to the car park. Here’s a slide show of my trip:

Secret camp

I managed to get out for another wild camp. A perfect spot. So perfect that I’m not going to reveal where it is. I used my Scarp as I didn’t have far to walk and fancied a bit of luxury. What a great tent. I was treated to a lovely sunset too.

Burbage Edge

We had a few days in Buxton. It gave me the opportunity to explore Burbage Edge and the Goyt Valley. It’s a rather lovely part of the Peak District. It wasn’t too crowded but I suspect it gets busy in the summer.

As always I was on the lookout for potential places to camp. The Goyt Valley has some spots but I imagine there are too many people around and possibly the park rangers patrol it.

There are a couple of spots on the ridge of Burbage Edge but I spotted a nice place a little way away from the Edge. I camped at 7pm and only one person passed me by.

Inevitably being so close to Buxton and roads there was a little bit of traffic noise carried on a cold Easterly breeze. Fortunately it wasn’t particularly intrusive. The night was pretty cold and the temperature fell to below freezing in the tent. There was ice on the tent and frost on the ground in the morning.

I was up just in time to see sunrise. It was pretty chilly, so I made a cup of tea and packed. Instead of going straight back to Buxton, I walked along the Edge, past the trig point and down to Bishop’s Lane.

It was good to get out again and it gave me an opportunity to try out my new Tarptent Notch Li. More on that another time.

Dartmoor September 2020

Last weekend I finally got to do some backpacking after the frustration of Lockdown and some other life events. It wasn’t a terribly taxing route as I was concerned at how my knee would hold up. As a precaution, I decided to use a Bioskin knee brace, which was surprisingly comfortable and minimised any potential issues. I was joined by an old school friend, which made for great conversation, although we were so engrossed I made some minor navigsational errors. Whoops! Here’s the route:

We spent four nights on the moor with three full days walking. The first night we camped at Taw Marsh which is a great place to start as it’s only a short walk from Belstone car park. I stitched together some nice palces to camp, South Teign Head, Rattlebrook and Red-a-ven, the last being somewhere I’d not camped before and was excellent.

Most of the walking was pretty easy although quite wet underfoot in places. The first two days were a bit cloudy and not great for photography, but the last day we had glorious sunshine with a cooling breeze most of the time. Here’s a YouTube slide show of the trip.

 

Deepdale and Angle Tarn

Here’s a short slide show of my trip to the Lake District last weekend. Apart from “just getting out”, it was also an opportunity to test my new Scarp 1 and to see how my knee is healing.

I stayed at Brothers Water in my camper van for the first night, then walked to Deepdale for an overnight camp before walking back the next day. It was wet and windy overnight, but the Scarp was fine and very stable with the crossing poles. Although the temperature didn’t get below freezing in the tent, the wind was bitterly cold in the morning.

The next day I did a circular day walk to Angle Tarn and back. It was a lovely morning, although still very cold. It clouded over at midday, which made it feel even colder. It was a lovely walk though and thoroughly recommended, with great views across to Fairfield and Helvellyn.

Overall my knee is improving and apart from the odd twinge I had no problems (I did wear a knee support though). I’m hopeful that I’m close to getting back to normal although I need to do a couple of full days with a pack before I really know.

So what’s happening?

This has been my worst year for backpacking for a while with cancelled trips and my knee injury. It’s sapped my blogging mojo as there’s not a lot to say. My knee is a lot better but every time I think it’s OK, it seems to flare up again. I did actually go for a short trip to the Lakes back in September. I did a short there and back overnighter from Brothers Water to Pasture Beck (picture above). The bad news was carrying a pack upset my knee a bit. The good news is that I was able to do a couple of afternoon walks of reasonable length with just a day pack without much problem.  It looks unlikely that I’ll be doing any more trips this year. I suppose it gives my knee more time to heal. The flip side is that I’ve lost confidence in my ability to do any longer backpacking trips at the moment, so I suspect I’ll just be doing short 1-2 night trips and day walks next year until I know my knee can stand the strain. Hey, ho!

TGO Challenge 2014 video slideshow

To complete the videos of my TGO Challenges, I’ve uploaded a video slideshow of my 2014 Challenge from Strathcarron to St Cyrus. Hope you like it.

TGO Challenge 2015 video slideshow

I finally got round to making a slideshow of my 2015 TGO Challenge. Hope you enjoy it!