Chat about backpacking, trekking and hiking
At Stanfords last night I was chatting to Jonathan Williams, MD of Cicerone Books. What are you doing tomorrow he asked? Fancy coming to Cambridge? What are you doing there? I should really do some work I replied! I’m there to present a lifetime achievement award to Bill Bryson ….
… damn and blast
It has been frustrating watching the cold but glorious weather here over the last week or so. I’ve watched a stunning sunrise over the Cotswolds, all pinks, magentas and cynans, but only from a train carriage. And I’ve seen glorious sunsets with the air as clear as a crystal, but the skyline has been one of central London.
When I was eventually able to sneak out the other day the weather had changed. Rain was forecast, but we aim was a high and lonely day and poor weather does mean that you have the hills to yourself.
I turned to Caradoc, the hill opposite the Long Mynd which although only of a modest height has sharp climbs that seem unnaturally severe for this part of the world. A lack of planning or forethought soon because evident. The ground was wet and on the sharp slopes the grassy, muddy, surface soon gave way. I received a sharp reminder that there is not much tread left on my Terrocs (indeed one of them has a crack in the sole). Progress was slow due to a rather pressing need to keep safe.
As I reached the top of the ridge I was caught by a fierce wind that I hadn’t bargained for. Gusts almost blew me off my feet and were strong enough to knock my walking poles out of position. And then came the freezing rain and the hail, all pretty unpleasant stuff. The last time my face had been stung that hard was on the top of Bynack More in the Caringorms. Come to think of it this walk was so high and wild that I could almost have been there, the two mountains sharing some dramatic limestone rock formations, cut out by centuries of prevailing winds.
As I descended to shelter I decided to look on the positive and look at this as training for the Highland crossing in May. I found a dry, grassy, seat under the shelter of trees and began to munch my lunch. Normally there is no way that I would consider a walk the simply consists of Caradoc, I would carry on over the main road, up on to the Mynd, along the ridge before descending by one of the lonelier routes.
But this was pretty unpleasant stuff. I found myself thinking what would my mate Alan Sloman do? And so, I toddled off to the comfort and sanctuary of a cozy tea room.
As ever the weather and the bottom of the valley floor was almost pleasant giving few clues as to the horrors that reigned above on high.
Still, even a short day on these hills is never a wasted day. I’d given myself a much-needed break. And the walk had been my equivalent of training in a wind tunnel. My legs, knees and ankles certainly felt as if they’d tackled a full day.
New Year’s Day walk in Boland. Everywhere very wet and the bogs almost worse than Scotland. Good to get out onto some high, open ground. Then back to dry out followed by wonderful roast leg of lamb. The fire is glowing and the company good. The village has been deadly silent all day. All of that pogo-ing has obviously taken its toll on old, rusty knees!
Farmers. AC/DC. Punk. Pogo. Quo. Stones. Roy Orbison …
… And lots of air guitar …
…phew …
Well, it’s New Year’s Eve and we all have high hopes for the coming year. Well, I suppose in the current climate, we are keeping our fingers crossed that we avoid falling into complete destitution!
Anyhow, this year finds us with Shirley ( Peewiglet) ‘up north’. Since arriving at lunchtime we have been plied with gin and tonic and put to work cooking an exotic oxtail stew. I beginning to see the point of rural northern communities – I really is the case that you can go shopping without the expectation of being stabbed!
Anyhow, Shirley and Piglet are in very good form. Photos and more dispatches from the front line soon.
Long standing readers of this blog will know that this is a stressful part of the year, not least because of tradition that has grown up off giving me presents from backpackingligt.co.uk.
Put basically, Kate always insists of buying things from Bob that are completely useless. I should be clear. This is not because the products themselves are useless but because there is now way that I would use them. Bob has higher standards than me. He is a man hat is into grooming. And there are no compromises.Even on a multi week trek Bob will maintain his standards. Many of these little present reflect this. I’ve had lightweight shaving mirrors, little clever things to carry HHS and seasonings (which I can never seem to open) and so on. For the life of me, the last thing I’m into on a long trek is grooming …
Anyhow, I’ve often reported these presents here on the blog. Understandably, Bob has got a bit fed up of my comments. So this year – when Kate put in her order – Bob was on the phone to point out that these were not good presents and he recommended alternatives.
The result, well, some really useful stuff for once!
On my first TGO Challenge I carried with me a really useful piece of cheap kit from Bob. It was a key ring sized light that ran off solar power. I simply clipped this little thing to my pack and it happily charged while I walked. There’s not much night time in Scotland in May and I soon found that this was the only light that I needed. On my way back from Scotland I somehow contrived to loose light. Bob had sold out and so a great piece of cheap kit had gone!
My first Bob pressie is an updated version, a little bigger than my original. Over the years solar technology has made great strides and is new version really charges quickly and packs an impressive light punch.
The second pressie is a slightly bigger device which is a solar charger. The charger is a smaller than an iPhone and is effectively a solar powered, rechargeable, battery. The device takes 15 hours to fully charge but this is perfect for the long days in Scoland. You can also charge it from a laptop. Once charged you connect it to your phone and charge up the battery. Obviously it is not that easy to get 15 hours of light at this time of the year but early experiments to suggest that the technology will work. In Scotland I use my iPhone as a simple navigation tool – it has a very accurate GPS and a full 1:50k map of the UK.
About 3 Challenges ago I bumped into John Manning. He was carrying a huge thing on his chest – some kind of solar panel. Apparently, this did bump up the phone a little and so was useful. But this little baby seems even more efficient and – to be quite honest – a damn site smaller and less ridiculous looking.
So, for the first time, these little walking pressies look certain to make it onto the trail.
Love it or loathe it but Christmas is a time of traditions, big and small. Walkers also have their traditions at this time of the year. Fellow blogger Martin Banfield, for example, always has his Christmas walks. He emails all of his mates to tell them where Sue and he will be this year so that if you are anywhere near them you can hop over and join in. I’ve never been able to make one of Martin’s sessions, but keep the invitations coming – one year …
Me, I always like to prepare for the day itself by taking a walk somewhere on or around the 23rd. It just kinds of takes away all the stress and the strain and sets me up for the big day. This year – as I’m on my own for a few days – I might even avoid the boxing day sales by going and wild camping somewhere. The I don’t really like it at this time of the year as the nights are so long, but a good sleeping the open might be just the thing to banish the excesses of Christmas.
So, I’m interested. What are your walking and hiking traditions at this time of the year?
We’ll be spending New Year with Peewiglet (Shirley) up North. And there will be goose for dinner …
This week I’ve been helping a first time TGO Challenger with their route. He can plot a route on a screen but he doesn’t have a proper mapping program. I offered to take the basic routes and put them into a mapping program in order to calculate total ascent – there’s no way you want to spend hours counting contours on real maps these days!
Anyhow, the first batch of routes appeared by email and I loaded them up into the computer. I opened the file for Day 1 and looked up the route profile. The elevation graphic was flat with a huge spike in the middle. I’ve walked this route and it certainly didn’t look right. The distance for the stage as correct but according to the read out the highest point on the route was 45,000 metres above sea level! I reloaded and got a similar result.
I’ve not seen this before. The map is the complete 1:50,000 map of the UK! I’ve been using this map for ages without any anomalies; I guess there is a glitch in the map data I guess.
So, where is this momentous point? Well, according to my map, it is in Soulies Bay, a hop skip and jump away from the bothy! It is a very localised blip. I simply redrew the route to trot around the low tide mark of that but of the bay. However, if you are going this way for the first time don’t worry. You can just walk past h bothy and you won’t need an oxygen mask!
Our Christmas Party Camp Spot
So, you all want know. How did we get on?
A quick recap. Our trip was a quick dash to the hills to celebrate the Outdoors Station Christmas Party which, being Bob and I, had to be held in the form of a wild camp.
The central challenge of our trip was to see whether we could cook a traditional three course Christmas dinner out in the field. No dehydrated food or short cuts but as close as we could get to the real experience.
Bob picked me up at Malvern Train Station, slung my pack in the boot of the car and then we were off, a quick dash to Brecon and the Crickhowell horseshoe. We parked the car and then all kinds of wonderful stuff came out of the boot and into the packs, tupperware containers, camping plates and cups, platypus’ full of wine and a mound of titanium cookware We found our camp at the side of a stream that cut down from the mountain tops, through forest and rusty coloured fields that were bathed in a lovely soft, winter, light.
I suppose we should have expected it, but we had fixed our party for one of the windiest nights of the year. We didn’t quite have the storms of Scotland but it was pretty bad. Putting up the tarp tents was something of a challenge and getting them to stay in place an even bigger one. Fortunately we were pitching next to a broken down dry stone wall and its larger stones soon found themselves weighing down or guy lines and tent pegs. The tent finally stable, and gear stashed securely inside, it was time to drop round to the neighbours for dinner.
Inside Chez Cartwright I found the man himself surrounded by all kinds of packs and gadgets. Two gas canister stoves had been hammered into the ground and three titanium pans, pot cosies and a titanium frying pan were carefully placed around the chef.
The gaff was kitted out for a party. Various coloured glow sticks were suspended from the internal ties of the tent. A little gadget from Lidl was plugged into a tiny iPod. This was not only a small speaker but featured three disco lights that flashed on and off in time with the Christmas selection that Bob had carefully assembled. We cracked open two Christmas Crackers, put the paper hats on top of our woolly hats and happily read out the dreadful jokes.
We started with mince pies washed down by a slug of Rose’s fine home-made sloe gin. Next two mini Christma puddings were placed in a titanium kettle suspended by a trivet made of windshield aluminium. The puddings were bought to the boil and then stored in their pot cozy. Then it was time put on the spuds. The last of the home grown new potatoes were ought to the boil for a minute or two and then placed in a second pot cozy to continue to cook.
We opened with a tomato and basil soup which is one of those new soups that come as a paste in a tube. The taste was quite familiar, not unlike many of the tomato and basil soups that I have had in pubs and service stations the length of the land. It was the kind of soup that — our mate Humphrey — would have described as being of Break Brothers menu 2. But it tasted OK and was topped up by a finally chopped garnish of fresh parsley.
Soup consumed it was time to put on the other vegetables. A third, and wider pot, had been been adapted with more windshield foil to provide three containers. In one was a collection of diced carrot and swede. The other two featured broccoli (or calabrese to be culinary correct) and sprouts — test this was to be a traditional as possible. The vegetable were bought to the boil and placed in their own pot cozy. A smell of sprouts filled the tent!
It was the time to crack out the wine and a fine merlot flowed from the platy container.
Then it was time for the main event. Bob took two pieces of finally sliced Turkey bought at the butchers in Malvern and then gently fried the pieces on the frying pan. Towards the end of cooking time two discs of traditional stuffing were added to the pan. While the turkey was sizzling a ready made mix of gravy was made up with some of the cooking water from the vegetable pan, a tiny cooking whisk ensuring that there were no lumps.
Soon all was ready and we were tucking into sizeable portions of turkey with three veg and potatoes, washed down with yet more of the delicious red. The cooking had been something of an achievement, not least because the gale force gusts of winds had us rushing to ensure the sides of the tent didn’t break free and overturn the stoves.
The result? Well, it was a fine meal. The turkey was delicious and quite moist. The spuds had cooked properly in the cozy and had just the right amount of fitness to them. Similarly, the vegetables were done to a perfect al dente state. I can honestly say that this meal was better than the majority of pub Christmas dinners that I have had over the years. And, of course, there was no miserable hits getting pissed in the corner.
The Christmas puddings were also well cooked and topped out with home made brandy butter. Then it was after eight mints, alcoholic chocolates and sugar coated almonds washed down with a good single malt.
And that wasn’t the end of it. After an exceptionally cold and windy night it was back round to Bob’s for freshly cooked — and tossed — pancakes!
A fine little jaunt in the country. And of course you will be able to hear it complete on a forthcoming podcast!
Cartwright mixing pancake batter!
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