Go Outdoors Blog Awards 2014

Go Outdoors have launched a new walking blog award, there is a shortlist of fifteen blogs and I have been luck to be one of the fifteen.

Its a great honour to be on a list of blogs that include Chris Townsend, Keith Foskett, David Lintern and Alan Sloman.

 All these write and promote that outdoors much better that me. The winner will be decided via a poll on the Go Outdoors website, I encourage everybody to pop across and vote. If you choose to vote for me, then a BIG thank you but if not then vote for one of the BIG little guys.

New Blogs

I have set up a couple of new blogs; both are to do with photography.

The first is On The Street which is my attempts at Street Photography.

The second site is really a place for pictures that don't fit in with either backpacking or street photography but are IMO worth showing.

Lick of Paint

As the blog is coming up on its fourth birthday; I thought a lick of digital paint was in order.

So here it is the freshly painted londonbackpacker.

There will probably be a few tweaks over the next few days; so be careful as the paint may still be wet.

Shiny-Shiny

After last week's little trip; I decided that I would need some new equipment before  my forthcoming trip to Scotland.

The first piece I felt needed a change was my cook pot, so I ordered a titanium pot and pot cozy set from Backpackinglight.co.uk.

The Ti pot is a Vargo one  which weighs in at 130g and with the cozy comes to 160g. This is about a 100g saving on my previous cooking pots. The pot's capacity is about 750 ml but this is full to the brim, it can easily hold 500ml of water and I can't every imagine needing to boil anymore than this for a meal.

Ti Pot, Pot Cozy, Primus Express

Next up was a trip to Cotswold Outdoors today to get some gas, while there I was looking at the stoves and after the problems I've been having with the Pocket Rocket, though it might be time to invest in a new stove. After look at the three gas stoves that Cotswold had instore the clear and outstanding winner was the Primus Express.  This weighs the same as the Pocket Rocket but seems to have a bigger and better flame, on a test this afternoon it boiled 300 ml of water from the tap in 4:35 minutes, this was using a half full 100 canister.

The pan supports are much larger, which means it can take larger pots and they look to be a lot more stable.

 

Primus Express

(top) Express in bag

(bottom) folded up

 

I also bought a light my fire meal kit, this kit consists of two plates, a spill-free cup with lid, a combined colander and cutting board, a "spork" and a small waterproof box.  I bought the kit mainly for the spill-free cup (as it seems you can't purchase this separately). The cup holds 300ml and has measurements at 100 ml so will help went measuring out liquids.  The cup is called spill-free because it has a lid with a hole to drink through; although if knocked over I would imagine liquid will still leak out.  The lid does help to keep the liquids warm for longer.

The Spork will replace my lexan spoon & fork so save a tiny bit more weight.

 

Light my fire spill-free cup & Spork

Weekly Film Winner

Last week; Michelle over at Love In A Tent posted about live for the outdoors running a competition for homemade movies on the subject of the outdoors.

I entered a 60 second version of my Dales Way trip from last year and amazingly it won the video of the week; for this week.



The prize for a weekly winner is a year's free YHA membership, so now I'm the owner of a YHA membership.

Peak District Weekend Part Two

We had decided that we wouldn't camp at the campsite where the backpackers club were, for two reasons firstly because we wanted to get away early the next morning and secondly there didn't seem to be a great deal of room.

Leaving Ashford-in-the-water; we headed South-west towards the village of Sheldon, this involved a steep-ish climb out of Ashford and got the leg muscles working after sitting around for a couple of hours.

The climb up finally flattens out after a mile and opens up views across to Magpie Mine.

Usual on maps with mine (dis); you normally only expect to see some lumps and bumps on the ground but here there is a great example of a 19th century lead mine.

Magpie Mine

There is plenty to see in and around the site from the Cornish Engine house to the mine's cottage.  I could of spent a couple of hours walking around the site and taken photographs.

Winding Gear

From there we continued South-west and came across this big fellow.

Luckily the footpath to Monyash didn't go through this field.  Once back in Monyash we headed straight to the Smithy cafe. From there we went back to where we left the car and meet up with the owner of the campsite.

He informed us that there was a group of about 20 D.O.E's down on the site.  Keith decided that he couldn't take another night of, no or little sleep; so we set of home.

Lightweight Show

The first port of call was the camping site where the Backpacker club were camped.  It seems as the camping area was split in two; one side for the campers and one for all the lovely shiny new tents.

Although I'm not in the market for a new tent (yet!) it was nice to see the big range of lightweight tents out there.

While at the campsite I bump into a couple of old BPC friends and a reader of the blog (trenthamwalker).

The main and most interesting part of the show was a 10 minutes walk away at the Village hall; where most of the well-known lightweight traders were.

Backpackinglight.co.uk, Alpkit, Expedition Foods, Ultralight Outdoor Gear and The Outdoor Warehouse.

The one great thing about this show was that you could get all touchy feely with a lot of the gear we see on the Internet. Although I'm not really happy using an alcohol  stove, it was nice to see the Caldera cone in the flesh.  Also seen was the White box stove and Triad stove; with which Bob did a demo with.

As I wasn't staying at the site; I couldn't buy to much as I had to carry it.  I picked up a tick remover and some freeze dried food from Expedition foods.  I'm looking at maybe taking these to Scotland instead of dehydrating my own food.

One of the items that did turn my head was the new GoLite  Shangri-La 2 tent/tarp this look a nice piece of kit and at a weight of only 708g but with as much room as my Hilly Nallo2. Even with the floor added the weight is still only 1200g.

While at the show I managed to link up with John, Dawn and Darren. After a lot of faffing about trying to get some lunch in the two pubs we descended on the local village shop who were happy to serve us, then back to the village hall to sit on the grass and shoot the breeze about gear and forth coming trips.

As usual I spent more time chatting and looking at equipment, that I forget to take any pictures of the show.

Again it was good to see some old friends there and the few people who recognised me from the blog.

Peak District Weekend Part one

This weekend was arranged to fit in with the lightweight show that was being put on in Ashford-in-the-water and not wanting to spend the whole weekend on one site, it was decided to do a full backpack and take in the show on the Saturday.

It was also a chance to test out some of the equipment I maybe taking to Scotland in May.

Monyash was decided as the best place to start out from to have a good walk on the Friday, to then give us a short walk in to the show on the Saturday.

The Friday didn't start to well, when my pocket rocket didn't want to connect with the Coleman's  Gas canister I had brought for the weekend. After some heavy handed tightening I finally got the stove to work.

This problem has happened on a couple of occasions and I think one of these days , I'm going to strip the thread off the stove.  Maybe it's time for a new one.

Our intended route was to go north from Monyash, through Deepdale and Monsal Dale then get up onto the edges above Great Longstone, then onto the Eastern edges above Curbar and Baslow.

We followed the route until just West of Baslow; where my legs decided that they didn't fancy a climb up onto the edges, so we dropped down in to Baslow and made our way to the little shop/cafe just outside Chatsworth Park.

By now it had started raining so it was on with the waterproofs.  We took the lower path through Chatsworth to the Robin Hood Pub and then up to the Eric Byne Campsite.

In total we covered just under 13 miles; which wasn't bad for a first day's walk for many months.

The site was empty where we arrived but this was to change over the next few hours.

Anyone who knows the Eric Byne, will know that it is a massive field, room for probably 200+ tents.  So why this it that when a group of D.O.E's arrive; they have to camp right next to us.  Not only this but as the evening wore on more groups arrived and set up around us.

I now know how Custer felt.

They were a very noisy bunch; I had my MP3 player going most of the evening and then earplugs during the night, so missed most of the problems.

Next morning; Keith told me, that the noise was so bad that he had left his tent and bivvyed in the next field to get away from them.

There were about 50-60 D.O.E's all around us, so we had a quick breakfast and set off for the lightweight show.

The route was back into Chatsworth but this time taking the higher level over Dobb Edge then down to the main house.

Going through the park we saw some deer and I had a 'johnny Kingdom' moment trying to creep up on them to get a better picture. I was using a big boulder to screen myself but by the time I got there they had run away (I need to work on that!).

After this we walked through Edensor village to Bakewell and a slight detour to get an original Bakewell pudding for SWMBO and then on to the lightweight show.

View Larger Map

I.T.M.A

There are 7 new podcasts from Bob available tonight.

I must admit, I don't know how he does it. I have enough trouble writing one blog post!

For your listening pleasure this week; we have; five in the Cicerone Press series:-

Cicerone Press - Cycle Touring
Cicerone Press - The Ribble Way
Cicerone Press - Life As A Writer
Cicerone Press - The Book Of The Bivvy
Cicerone Press - Walking In Scotland

Followed by:-

The Gourmet Hedgerow

and then of course the weekly podzine

The Podzine 21/4/08

As I'm off to Scotland in a few weeks (yes; that what the train tickets were for!) the Walking in Scotland should be an interesting listen.

As usual all are available through iTunes or from The Outdoors Station







*I.T.M.A

Ripple in the pond

So was this the ripple in the pond?

Summertime Blues

Was this the moment that someone though; Hey! it's about time that we in England & Wales have something similar. If it was, it certainly seems to gotten people interested.

Well when I say interested I mean the 1355 people who have signed the E-Petition to legalise Wild Camping in England & Wales.

Now although 1355 doesn't sound a lot of people; it has passed the figure that the Scottish Parliament had when it was deciding about the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. The difference with the Scottish number is that theirs was a public consultation on the matter, where as our E-petition is only a petition to get the chance of legal wild camping looked at.

1355 signatures is a good number of people considering that nearly all of the information about the E-P has come from bloggers and word of mouth; all of the big players (Ramblers Association, BMC)in the outdoors arena have managed to ignore the E-P, even small groups like the Backpacker Club have chosen to act as if it doesn't exist.

Also a lot of the outdoors forum groups have been quite dismissive of it and some have been quite nasty in replied comments.

But through all this the E-P has been collecting votes; back in March I thought that the votes had peaked and that they would only be increasing slowly, on the 15th March the votes stood at 770 votes; so 580+ votes in a month is not a bad return.

A big thank you to everybody who have already signed; and if you haven't here's the address again

Legalise Wild Camping in England & Wales

Aquagear water purification filter bottle part II

Aquagear water filtration bottle

 

The Aquagear Survivor arrived as seen, with a printed double-sided A4 sheet with information and instructions on how to use the bottle, the same instructions are painted/silk screened on to the bottle.

The first thing you notice this that the top of the bottle does not unscrew; I found this out after two attempts and then reading the instructions.

Personally I've never see a water filter bottle that works by filling up from the bottom but because it does, this means that the bottle can have a pre-filter fitted.  This is the 40 micron sieve which looks like a tea strainer, and help to keep large objects from entering the bottle. The filter sits between the bottle and the base. The base also has a little screw-off compartment to place either a iodine or chlorine tablet in.

40 micron pre-filter sieve & base

40 micron pre-filter sieve, base & iodine/chlorine container

This bottle only weighs 180g with the neoprene sleeve or 156g without it. The bottle is also sightly tapered; the base (7cm) being wider than the top (6.5cm), the length of the bottle is 23 cm. The body of the bottle is made from a soft plastic, this is to allow for squeezing of the bottle to push the water through the filter. It can deliver 100-300 ml/minute.  The drinking cap is a normal sports pull/push type but it does have a dust cap to help keep it free from dirt and contamination.

 

2 micron filter

The main filter unit is built into the top cap. This filter does all the work removing not only waterborne diseases like Giardia, Cryptosporidium & E-coli but can also remove taste & taint, Chemicals, Hebicides, and Heavy metals.

This filter uses a system called 'Tortuous path technology'.

The high-tech porous plastic micro-filter is impregnated with both the finest granulated activated coconut Carbon available and Seychelle's exclusive adsorbing media for superior analyte removal capability.

In addition, the controlled 2-micron filter contains thousands of omni-directional pores that result in a "torturous path" for superior analyte reduction.

This gives the water bottle a capability of 99.8% reduction in 4 areas of Contamination:-

• Aesthetic
• Microbiological
• Chemical
• Dissolved Solids

neoprene sleeve

So far I have only tested the bottle with normal London tap water, and the bottle seems to filter this as good as the water filters we use at home.

Next weekend; I am off to the Peak District for a few days and will be taking the bottle with me to test in the rivers and streams up there.

 

Bottle top & dust cap

One little niggle I have is that after only 4-5 dunkings in water, the print on the bottle is starting to come off.  Although not a major issue; it is a bit annoying especially as the flaked off print seems to stick to my hands quite easily.

Print coming off

Aquagear water purification & filter bottle

A full Monday

It looks like Bob has been busy over the weekend; as there are three new podcasts to enjoy.

As usual there is the weekly podzine show.


In this environmentally friendly Podzine we chat with the original hippy celebrity cafe owner Pete Norton in Snowdon, catch up with John Hee one of the main organisers behind the Legalise Wild Camping campaign and discuss the recycling ethics within the tent industry with Andy Ayers from Green Outdoor. Plus announce the winner of last weeks camera competition and set this week's challenge.

The Podzine 14/4/08




Download MP3 File

Next up is the first of an Outdoors Show special; all about gear.

More from this year's Outdoors Show at the NEC and a podcast dedicated to the wonderful subject of gear! We hear what is coming soon from Alpkit, all about the Freeloader charger from Solar Technologies, have a clothing update from Montane, catch up with Sam from Shewee, understand more about Pacer Poles and speak to a man standing in a bucket of water! Diverse or what?

Outdoors Show 08 - Gear!




Download MP3 File

The Second Outdoors Show special is about 'Getting Out'

Lets get out and about in this podcast from the 08 Outdoors Show. For social inspiration why not try the Ramblers Association. Perhaps the John Muir Trust could do with your help? For younger female outdoor enthusiasts there always the Guiding Association. Show sponsors, Ordinance Survey explain their on-line portal and who can resist Ireland's North West cycle trail.

Outdoors Show 08 - Getting Out!




Download MP3 File

There is also a fourth podcast available; which is about a new lightweight water filtration and purification bottle.

The Aquagear Survivor is the lightest proven system in the world. This affordable, light, flexible bottle will solve all the dilemmas you've ever had, when wondering if your available drinking water is safe. Perfect for the hiker, cyclist, kayaker, bushcrafter, traveler and business person.

Aquagear Survivor - Pure Water Anywhere




Download MP3 File

Early Podzine

Bob has managed to post the latest Podzine a day early.

In this weeks Podzine, we hear about some great new cameras by Olympus especially made for the outdoors person, talk with a 'get away from it all' bed and breakfast in British Columbia run by a British couple and discuss rights of way and access issues with the British House Society. Plus of course our diary section and a fantastic new competition.

I have heard that the competition prize is a great piece of equipment but you'll need to download the podzine to find out what it is (I`m not telling).

As usual the all the podcasts can be downloaded via iTunes or your favourite podcatcher, or at The Outdoors Station website.

Or click on the player below:-

The Podzine 7/4/08




Download MP3 File

There is also Bob Bushcraft Weekend podcast

A Weekend With Nomad-Bushcraft





Download MP3 File

C-C-C-Changes

One of the reasons I moved back to Blogger was that I find it easier to work with.

Over the last few days I've been adding bits and pieces and exploring what else I can do with Blogger.

One of the major things I have found is that Flickr will allow me to add pictures via email or my mobile phone to the blog. The only problem with this, is that flickr set the size of the picture. These sizes are thumbnail 100x75, small 240x180 and medium 500x375.

The first two I found to small for my taste and the medium one wouldn't fit correctly in the blog; it overlapped into the sidebar.

So I played about with the setting on the blog and have come up with a new setting that works with the 500x375 pictures.

Hopefully now I with be able to send pictures from my phone to the blog and they will look O.K.

The phone has a 2mp camera so the quailty should be fairly good on here.

Now if only I could find a way to connect my digital camera to the phone via bluetooth I could upload them as well.

OS outdoor purchase

So what did I buy at the OS outdoor show.

Well; I looked at the PacerPoles, and some of the books on the Cicerone stand, I couldn't justify the cost of the PacerPoles and there wasn't any books that really grabbed my attention this year.

Last year I bought a solar charger to use when on backpacking, which I used with some success last May. The battery pack charged up most of the time even in bad light; although took a lot longer to get the full charge which should take about 8 hours.

One of the problems though was that it's not water/weather proof so using in the rain meant having to put in a plastic bag and then in a side mesh pocket.

But now the freeloader people had come out with the SuperCharger, which charges the freeloader 2x faster so should give a full charge in only 4 hours (in good light).

The SuperCharger weights 200g and comes in a nice lime green weather resistant pouch, which has two crocodile like clips at one end and a longish Velcro strap at the other. This allow you to strap the solar panel to all kinds of luggage especially backpacks. It also means that the battery pack doesn't need to be on the outside anymore, as can be used even when raining.

So this is the only piece of equipment bought at the Outdoors Show but hopefully I'll get plenty of use out of it.

OS outdoors show '08

Another early start to get to the Outdoors show, although this time my paranoia in missing connections meant I ended up spending an hour hanging around Euston.

Once on the train it was just over an hour before arriving at Birmingham International and the NEC.

Probably because it was the Saturday there seem to a lot more people going in, even at 9:15.

This was to prove the case as the place was heaving by mid-afternoon.

The first person I bumped into was BG! at the Alpkit stand.

As usual these seems to a lack of genuine backpacking equipment but there were the usual mixed bag of high-end equipment (sat-nav's, digital mapping) to the lower end stuff from people like Regetta and Yeomans.

I did have a play with the pacer poles and although they did seems to work and feel different I`m not sure I would pay the price for a set of poles, I think I`ll stick to my Leki's. On the subject of Leki's I couldn't find one place selling a rubber tip for a pole.

Next up I bump into John, Who even at the early time was looking a bit stressed with his work on the E-petition work, so we when a had a coffee and some discussion on wild camping.

There seems to a lot more talks and shows going on this year, although I seemed to miss most of them but I did catch one from the OS on map reading.


Next up I meet a marauding Scotsman (no NOT Duncan!) but this chap.


I can't remember from last year show but this year there did seem to a lot more stands promoting tourism.

Now on to the second highlight of the show; The UK Outdoors Bloggers Meet 2008. This year was a much bigger gathering, so big in fact that the Pub was made bigger to accommodate us.

Among the attendees this year were Phreerunner & Nallo Lady (Martin & Sue), AktoMan (Duncan), Mick & Gayle, Doodlecat, (Phil), Alan Solman, Sally in Norfolk, Geoff Jones, Bob & Rose, and the usual suspects of Andy Howell, Weird Darren, and John Hee.

I managed to have a chat with everyone, except Bob & Rose. I think I spend to much time talking to AktoMan ( I hope I didn't bore him). I also did a piece for Andy but I`m not to sure how it will turn out, there was a lot of noise from the PA and it was quite difficult to think and hear the questions.

The highlight of the show was getting to hear (Inset your own joke here) Brian Blessed, for a 71 year old man, he has so much passion for the outdoors and everything. His latest venture is to become a Cosmonaut and go to the International Space Station.

Next up was a meeting for the wild camping E-Petition and where to go with it and how to take it to the next step. There were some good ideas and plans which will start in the next few weeks.

Overall the show was O.K. The social side was great as usual. There wasn't a great deal of equipment that I was interested in buying although I did buy one item (more later).

There seems to be a lot of activities for children; the ice axe climbing wall, the climbing wall, the high ropes experience in hall 1.

Although I was there from 9:30 until 4:30 the time went very quickly and I didn't get to see everything.

Wild Camping

Wild Camping

I haven't really blogged about the wild camping campaign, other that posting about the new website and a link to the petition site.

After two things that have happened this week; I 've decided to post about wild camping.

First, let me say that I am in favour of the petition.

The first thing was a news item that appeared in some of the red tops and the London locals.

This story was about swans being taken and eaten by asylum-seekers along the River Lea in East London.

These asylum-seekers apparently live in makeshift tents, on land which is part of the 2012 Olympics site; while waiting to be housed.

Now it seems and though a lot of people are up in arms about the taking of these swans and the Police and RSPCA are to investigate.

On one of the online reports of this, there are comments left by people. All the comments are about how cruel it is to kill the swans and how these asylum-seekers should have more respect for the birds and this Country.

So that does this have to do with wild camping?

Well there isn't one mention of the camp being illegal in any of the reports I can find. So does this mean that the General public and the media don't really care about people camping on land that they shouldn't be on.

In the last few years I have see asylum-seekers/immigrants camping in some of the parks in London; mainly Hyde and Green Park. These people are normally there early morning and gone throughout the day but reappear at night especially through the winter months.

If the authorities are letting this type of camping go on, then surely the type of wild camping we wish to do is never going to be severely challenged legal or not.

The second thing was while I was doing some work for the wild camping petition in work. Some of my co-workers saw the petition poster and were asking questions about it.

As usual the biggest problem was convincing them that we are not looking to camp in their garden.

It does seem as most people think that we are looking to camp in parks and on waste ground.

Comments like "if you legalise wild camping, people will be camping in the parks and fields all around us" "We have had trouble with travellers camping in the fields across from were we live" "we'll have the immigrants camping in the woods all around here".

What people don't understand is that we don't want to camp in their gardens, in parks or on waste ground; we want to be able to camp up on a fell or mountainside and appreciate a glorious sunset or sunrise. To be out on the fells with a feeling for the Countryside, not to be out there to destroy it.

Mass illegal camping has been happening for years and there are laws already in place for it; what we are look for is the ability to camping in small or individual groups away from the crowds.

The good news is as of 12:21 today the e-petition has hit 700 signatures.

Podzine - Lord Smith Interview

Now up on the Outdoors Station and available via iTunes or your favourite podcast downloader.

Andy Howell interviews Lord Smith.

Lord Smith of Finsbury is now well known as the President of the Ramblers’ Association, but in 1997 - as plain Chris Smith MP - he became Culture Secretary in Tony Blair’s incoming government. Working with colleagues he paved the way for the introduction of the Access legislation that is now well used by ramblers and hillwalkers throughout England and Wales. In this interview we talk to Lord Smith about the 100 year fight to introduce a right to roam, consider how these laws might be extended further and how we can best give young people better opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors.