Archive for the 'Great Escapes' Category

One down, one more to go

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An update regarding those two resolutions for 2023:

            

I had those done back in January, and the pics were taken two days later. The text isn't as wonky now that the healing has finished.

Resolute

Happy New Year, folks!

Only two resolutions for 2023:

1: Tick off that final Wainwright - The Nab. Three times I've had the opportunity, and three times I've not taken it. This nonsense has to stop, so to that end we've booked a week away, based in Hartsop.

2: Get a tattoo. I was all set to get one, then AML foiled the plan, the haemos saying that it was too risky. When that risk subsided, Covid took its place. Right now I don't care too much for any current risk, so I figure that I'd rather have the local tattoo-artist stick needles in me rather than let the NHS have all of the fun.

 

January 2013 - The Nab - too far away for us to get there, back and down before nightfall.

Down the woods

Posted by on December 29th 2022 in Foraging, Great Escapes, Pics

It's not all about finding firewood:

 

Occasionally we find something much more interesting:

A Red-tailed Hawk.

A quick & dirty gear round-up

Posted by on November 17th 2021 in Bargains, Car stuff, Great Escapes, Shiny new kit

There's not much here for the technical-gear addicts, but we did try out a few bits of bargain kit to see how they fared during our week in the LDNP.

Fleece jacket: It's a Quechua Men's Hiking Warm Fleece Jacket SH500 X-Warm from Decathlon. I picked up a petrol blue / carbon grey and a black / carbon grey in the sale early last year. Each has waterproof bits, venting bits, breathable bits, stretchy bits, simple yet effective cuffs, a good pocket arrangement and a good zip-into-collar hood. Bargains at less than £30 a pop, with free Click & Collect at the local Asda thrown in.

Trousers: MOD-issue MTP PCS, I have a selection of sizes (mainly 80-96-112) in either temperate or warm fabrics to suit most conditions. Superb pocket arrangement, lightweight, quick-drying, fairly windproof, and tough as old boots. Prices and availability variable.

Baselayer: Good old Aldi merino long-sleeved tops. Always a bargain. I don't need to spend a fortune on anything more technical.

Headgear: In the fine weather there was no real need for tech-hats, but in order to keep the consultants happy I kept the UV off my sparsely-thatched bonce with super-cheap zandanas from eBay. They take about 20 minutes to wash and air-dry, and keeping a couple of spares in my pocket, along with a few face-coverings for pestilence-defence, is hardly a huge weight-penalty. I now have a fine selection of patterns to suit most occasions.

Footwear: I took the trusty Scarpa SLs but didn't wear them at all, opting for my Trezeta Incas. Had minor issues with them when they were new, the laces were stretching too much, replaced them with proper Scarpa laces and they've been fine ever since. Waterproof, grippy, and comfy. Nice to see that they're still using lasts nearly the same as Scarpa.

 

Headgear - jacket - trousers - boots - headgear - baselayer - trousers - boots

 

Pack: I used my trusty LA Alpine Attack 40 so no news there, but Chris was toting her new Forclaz Women’s trekking backpack 50+10L, another nice bit of kit from Decathlon. OK, so 50 litres is over-kill for a day-walk, but I'm not going to argue with her, she knows what she likes and she has to carry it so it's none of my business.

Comms: Not something that I use a lot on the hill, but when my previous handset died I opted for an outdoorsy waterproof replacement. I went for the Ulefone Armor X6 - it's MIL-STD 810G, IP68-rated and covered in all sorts of impact-resistant bits, so dropping it into water or onto rocks isn't too much of a worry. It's still passable as an everyday phone and it is way cheaper than any iThing.

Finally, there's Olga. Not sure if she qualifies as "kit" but she was a lock-down bargain and we wouldn't have enjoyed the holiday as much without her. She's built for comfort and for speed, and she has more in-built tech than I can shake a stick at, but I do wish that I could change the satnav's voice. I also wish that I could turn off the stupid alarm that tells me that the driver's door is open even when I'm sitting in the driver's seat right next to the door that I've left open on purpose.
One unnerving thing about her is that her warranty is longer than mine.

Why "Olga"? Well, here's a clue...

I couldn't bring myself to call it Bolg

A Friday finale

Posted by on November 15th 2021 in Car stuff, Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes

We woke to a glorious morning - clear skies with that late-season feel in the air, and the promise of a day of fine weather.

The garden was a busy place - a couple of pairs of braces of pheasant at last count. Of course, by the time I'd grabbed my camera they'd all buggered off.

Anyway, here's one last pic from the window:

Binsey... again

 

Packing the car is so much easier now that we use Really Useful Boxes for the majority of our stuff.

Talking of cars, here's the latest addition to our family:

Olga sitting pretty on the driveway at Owl's Roost

 

Soon we'd finished packing away our gear and were on our way, but I couldn't resist stopping for just one more pic:

Blue skies over Skiddaw and Dodd

 

And that was that. The end of a fine and much-overdue week away.
We're already planning another 🙂

A Thursday there-and-back-again

Posted by on November 14th 2021 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes

We didn't much fancy another full day of walking, as we would need to pack later for our departure early on Friday, so we stayed local and settled for a pleasant lakeside walk - a couple or three miles along Bassenthwaite Lake's western shore. A fair few interesting birds were about but none of them were interested in posing for the camera, so you'll have to make do with pics of less-mobile things:

 

Binsey again

 

A late and lonely Leucanthemum vulgare (ox-eye daisy, oxeye daisy, dog daisy, marguerite)

 

Looking towards Skiddaw

 

"Imagine that you're walking through a wood..."

 

A leisurely lunch was had at the much-lauded local - The Pheasant Inn:

 

Suitably dressed for the occasion

 

Despite evidence to the contrary, it was still Thursday

 

After that we toyed with the idea of spending the afternoon at Dubwath Silver Meadows wetland nature reserve but decided to leave that for another holiday. Instead we took a short stroll back to the cottage for a brew and a few hours of packing up ready for Friday.