August Microadventure - a tale of two sore feet

August was yet another busy month at work including two weekends working. I knew I had committed to a monthly micro adventure but as the month wore on I began to convince myself that perhaps it wasn't going to happen. 

I had three days off after a working weekend at the end of the month.  In my mind I had committed to walking the first half of the Ridgeway.  But as the month went on and I started to feel more tired I began to look for all the excuses not to do it. A rail strike was due so perhaps I wouldn't be able to get to my start point at Avebury.  The weather was starting to look a bit dodgy etc. 

In hindsight that was all about the fact that I was tired and when you get like that your instinct is to seek 'rest'. The reality of that of course is that you end up sitting on the sofa watching television doing nothing. So, I am glad that at the beginning of the year I committed to an adventure a month because that meant that in the back of my mind I knew that whatever happened I had to go.

The country's long distance paths are a great source of micro adventures, they give a structure and a purpose to a trip out and of course they are usually set in beautiful countryside.  I also like the fact that there is a beginning and an end which ultimately gives a sense of achievement.
So, on Bank Holiday Monday (just meeting the August deadline!) I set off.  

Public transport is a great start to a micro adventure as all the worries of where to leave your car etc. are irrelevant.  You also start to slow down to the pace dictated by circumstances rather than the accelerator pedal of your car. 
I took the train from Maidenhead through Reading to Avebury.  

Bank holiday Monday was slightly busier than usual thanks to festival goers leaving Reading.  I felt slightly out of place with my rucksack given that I was probably 30 years older than everybody else with rucksacks!

A bus from Swindon to Avebury Completed my pre-adventure phase and by lunchtime on Monday I was at the beginning of the trial.

On previous walks I have worn heavy boots. Given the fact that I was likely to be walking on a well-established path I thought I would lighten the load and wear a pair of lightweight trainers.  

They say that time spent in preparation is always useful and I wish I had done some preparation around the weather forecast and thinking what the rain that had been falling for some time would actually mean.  Within a few minutes I realised what it meant as I was skipping from puddle to puddle in deep mud created by the 4x4 vehicles that use the western end of the Ridgeway.

It didn't take long before I managed to fall over and as well as covering my legs in mud I got my feet very wet.  Thankfully my "comedy moment " was not witnessed and I was able to crack on but now with wet feet on a wet day I was storing up a few issues for the future. 

The views of the Ridgeway and the surrounding Marlborough Downs Were heavily curtailed by the rain but after 10 miles with occasional vistas of prettiness I arrived at Ogbourne St George where I was going to spend the night. 

I had rung a local horse stable who had agreed that I could sleep on the corner of the field for the night.   I am glad I did as my wet feet were now starting to get sore and a guaranteed place to kip took one concern away from me.  I also had access to enough water to get the worst of the mud off ! Based on previous experience I had decided to rely on local pubs for main meals and so I was able to spend the evening drying off with a pie and a pint which was nice.

Day two dawned much brighter. however I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. I had one pair of dry socks and one pair of socks still wet from yesterday.  My shoes were still very wet and I was aware that the grass on the track would also be quite damp.  My feet were going to end up very sore if I kept them wet.  I then hit on a great idea of putting my dry socks in plastic bags inside my wet shoes.  Whilst cutting a slightly bizarre figure as I walked along this helped keep my feet relatively comfortable whilst my shoes slowly dried out on what was becoming a fairly warm day. By mid morning I was able to remove the plastic bags and avoid the odd glances from the occasional passerby.

My walk that day from Ogbourne St George to Sparsholt was beautiful. Magnificent views across the downs and numerous ancient hill forts marking the way and setting a real context to a walk that people had obviously done for millennia. I am not sure however if they had to cope with the concept of inappropriate footwear.  After 17 miles my feet, despite my best efforts were feeling very sore thanks to the lack of cushioning in the shoes that I was wearing. 

So I was glad to pitch up at a mates house who lives just of the Ridgeway and was able to spend the evening in fine company with a few beers and a small stock of plasters. 

Day three began with a beautiful sunrise.

My friend dropped me off at the beginning of the path rather than having to walk a mile to it which was a good morale boost to the start of the day.  Her big morale boost was to photograph me and then put a joke post on Facebook about giving a hobo a bed for the night.  Worryingly some of her friends believed it!

The final day was 17 miles from Sparsholt to Goring. I am glad I set off early as it gave me plenty of time to rest every now and again as by this point my feet really did hurt! However, knowing that this was my last day I was able to crack on knowing that I was nearly done.

I arrived in Goring in the late afternoon and caught a train within minutes of my arrival so there was no real time to bask in the satisfaction of having completed three days and with that the whole of the Ridgeway path.

However 10 days on, now that I found the time to write this up I do feel a real sense of satisfaction. Not only have I completed my first long distance path I have also got a renewed sense of energy. Sometimes it's only when you take time out and do something which makes you focus on the basics (like keeping moving even though your feet hurt) do you realise what's important. Before my three day microadventure I was tired. A few days away and I am rejuvenated, and thats the point.

July Microadventure - an italian walk

I like holidays in the sun and spending time by the pool with the family. That is how I've  spent the last two weeks of July but how was I going to fulfil my monthly Micro adventure challenge on holiday given that the first two weeks of July at home had been so busy?
Microadventures don't always need to be extravagant affairs.  At their simplest I think they are about getting out of your normal routine and doing something different.  So my July Microadventure was going to have to be less than a full blown night away and more of a simple do something different affair.

Airline weight limits prevented me prioritising adventure kit so a day out would have to suffice.  In some ways the challenge of being abroad, away from the familiar would make up for the lack of a night out.  We had rented an apartment on the edge of the Cilento National Park in Southern Italy.  The coastal sections, according to the guide book, were spectacular.  Good old Google maps offered a 10 mile walk with the prospect of a beautiful view from Ponte Tresino.  Navigating only by phone and a Disney style tourist map I had a suitably enhanced challenge for the day!

I set off about 0700 with lots of water and headed towards the sea.  I left early as the temperature was likely to be well above 30 C within a couple of hours.


Within the hour I'd  reached the beach by dead reckoning and turned north hoping to find a track which I had seen from a distance and which looked like it led the right way.   However, when I arrived at the start of the path I was met with a classic 'Privato'.  Normally I would have cracked on and pleaded ignorance.  However the CCTV poles and shiny steel rising bollards suggested a Bond villain style coastal retreat.  Eager not to be fed to sharks or castrated by laser I decided to see if there was another path!  Sadly, after an hour of uphill farm tracks leading to pleasant but gated villas I realised my route to the 'wild and beautiful' Cilento coast was going to be denied to me.
By now the heat was increasing and I decided to head back reasoning with myself that I had at least given it a go.  But I had not really justified a micro adventure write up.

As I neared home a short time later I realised however that there was another offering available to me. 


On the hill opposite our villa was a statue. That would surely offer a good view at least and normally these things have a pretty good route to them so people taking a stroll can access them comfortably.  Oh how very British I was being!

Several aborted trips up likely, dusty roads later I was feeling a little frustrated at the lack of Italian footpath signs.  I just could not find a way up!

Then from a little run down farm a small elderly man appeared, a bit like the shopkeeper in Mr Ben.  My only Italian is 'I'm sorry I don't speak Italian'.  I used this to great effect with the man who smiled and replied in his best Italian with words to the effect of 'and I don't speak English'.

After many smiles and mimes of walking to the statue on the hill he took me by the hand and led me to a rough track at the entrance to an olive grove.  He pointed up, gestured that I should zigzag and waved goodbye as I set off uphill.

At last I had a clear sense of being on the right course. Half an hour later, having scaled walls and followed goat tracks I was no closer to my objective, starting to get thorn cut legs and sweating to the standard of an Englishman abroad.  For the second time I decided to call things a day.


As I headed down by a completely different path who should I meet but my Italian friend.  He looked alarmed at my appearance and a little surprised that I had re emerged from an unexpected direction.  I shrugged and shook my head. He then spent more time pointing uphill, making climbing motions and pointing in a zigzag way.  What I understood was that if I climbed the way he pointed and turned left at a tree I'd find a path to the top.  He then offered to whistle when I reached the right place.
So, for the final time I set off happy in the knowledge I had a guardian angel.

A few wall climbs and a lot of thorn bushes later I stumbled on an overgrown track.  I could see a route to the statue and followed the rough path.  Within a few hot minutes I reached my objective at last.  The view was beautiful and all the more rewarding for having reached it with no map, a bit of determination and the friendliness of a local with whom I had no common language other than a smile.











So, on reflection I am counting this as my July microadventure because of the sense of satisfaction and the departure from the normal holiday experience.  Though when I look back on it I don't think I ever heard the man whistle!

June Microadventure - Canoeing on the Wye

A good mate of mine is a very accomplished canoeist (or is it canoer?).  I can spell canoe and even recognise a canoe when presented with one.  I am not however a canoeist.  Or at least I wasn’t but after my summer solstice microadventure perhaps I have started to become one.

Carl and I had spoken for some time about combining my interest in wild camping with his abilities on the water so it was a pretty simple thing to commit to a convenient date and pull something together.

The River Wye is a beautiful and, importantly navigable river that is canoe friendly (lots of hire companies if you don’t have your own).  It’s also less than three hours from London and the home counties so easily accessible for me.  Saturday morning arrived much earlier than normal and by nine we had met up with some of Carls canoe buddies between Hereford and Hay on Wye.

  Having a few vehicles meant the logistics of transport at either end of our journey were well covered.  The point at which we put boats in to the water was pretty busy and I had visions of a crowded river but within minutes of getting on the water people had strung out and we had the river to ourselves. 

And how cool did it feel to be on the river in the sunshine after what had felt like a pretty busy couple of weeks at work.

Whilst I got used to the boat I occupied my normal seat in the front but soon got confident enough to take the back seat and start to practice keeping the boat in a straight line.  Not as easy as everyone else had made it look but the beauty of being with a group of friendly and capable people was the tips came quick and fast and I soon felt confident to enjoy the views and not worry about the driving!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch on the bank was followed by a play on a bit of moving water.  Everyone looked pretty impressive so I reasoned that it couldn’t be that difficult.  Wrong!  Managed to fill the canoe with water and nearly capsize it.  Apparently my face was a picture (which thankfully no one took) so I took to being team photographer in the shallows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the day passed in the way that only days on the river in summer can.  Birdsong, the sound of rippling water and the occasional stop to collect dead wood for the cooking fire planned for the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

We used a campsite rather than wild camping so we’d have no qualms about a fire and have ready access to a beer supply.  Still got to use my hammock and tarp and at £5 each I didn’t feel like the bank had been broken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typically the rain decided to fall whilst we lit a fire and cooked dinner but it soon passed and a pleasant and relaxed evening followed sat around a campfire sampling a few local, organic brews.  Life sometimes really does feel at its best when it’s at its simplest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning arrives very early in the summer.  I’d used ear plugs for the first time ever to top off the relaxed experience that is hammock camping and I have to say I recommend them.  Sleeping outside can actually be pretty noisy and earplugs help with a better nights sleep.  That was my experience anyway.

Boats were launched and one of the group kindly let me use their boat solo for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stopping places were scarcer on day two and having missed our planned stopping point at a stately home plan B kicked in.  The boats were tied together and lunch was eaten as we gently drifted downstream.  I was really impressed with Carls ability to brew up with a trangia on the move and even more impressed with his gondolier impression!

Another beautiful day, this time paddling my own canoe.  Ten or so miles later we arrived at Hereford and were heading home in the late afternoon sunshine.  Only one night away but it felt like we’d had a great adventure and I really felt like I had taken a big step in learning a new skill.

Kit list and other info;

Hammock - DD Frontline  - DD Hammocks.  Really comfy but use a sleep mat for insulation.
Sleeping bag - Snugpak Jungle bag (comfy at 10 degrees!).  Use it like a quilt.
Tarp - Elite evolution 3x3M  big enough to cover the hammock nicely
Cooker - Trangia

Food - Oat cakes and primula cheese spread.  Jamie Oliver Chilli spelt mixed with tuna and feta.  Porridge with Sainsburies 30p basics chocolate mixed in (yum!!), tea and coffee

May Microadventure - A journey round home

So, Inspired by Alistair Humphries challenge to a year of Microadventures and limited by time I decided to use May for a journey round home.

After spending time over my local OS map trying to find woods and hills the blindingly obvious struck me.  I live dead centre of a the 'Island' created by the Jubilee and Thames Rivers.  Why not walk that?  Its only about 15 miles, will take less than a day and has lots of opportunities for the obligatory overnight Bivvi.

Inspired by the simplicity and ease of access I did the all important thing and committed myself mentally to the task.  The usual domestic and work demands meant that I could fit the journey in to a late Wednesday evening through to Thursday lunchtime.

It was strange leaving the house after dinner at about 7PM at a time when it felt like I should be settling down for the semi finals of Britains Got Talent.  On reflection it struck me that this was the whole point of a Microadventure - do something different.  I had deliberately packed minimally.  So, compared with other trips I've done where my pack seemed unnecessarily heavy I was pleased to be walking with a spring in my step.  Again, that idea of carrying only what you need rather than what you want seemed to resonate and create a good feel for the journey.

The first hour saw me follow the Jubilee River East parallel with the M4.  Not pretty but already starting to create that all important sense of otherness that these trips can generate.  I soon drew level with the good old playing fields of Eton, crossed Datchet Golf course and joined the South bank of the Thames.  I've often biked this journey but being on foot meant I could actually walk the River bank properly.  That meant finding the field between the railway and the river and the boatyard I've never seen before, eerily quiet in the mid evening after work.  After two hours I was crossing the footbridge between Windsor and Eton.  The feeling of being on an adventure really struck home as the light began to fail, other people starting their pub and restaurant nights out and me on route to a hedge somewhere!

The walk along the Thames was deserted now as night began to fall slowly as did a fine drizzle!  Ten PM found me in a nice secluded spot where a quick hop over a fence found me a corner of a field where I could pitch my tarp and crawl in to my Bivvi bag secure in the knowledge I could not be seen but would see anyone approaching me.  Funny how despite being almost invisible in the dark and in one of the safest countries in the World we still have a small fear of being out of doors at night.

I survived the night and enjoyed waking at dawn to the sound of the Dawn Chorus and the sight of a fresh new bright day that you can only really appreciate when you are part of it.  A doze till about six thirty and then a quick pack up of my camp before heading to an open spot in the sun for breakfast.  Another great advantage of travelling light is the speed you can get yourself on the trail again.

My trip then took me on the final stage of the loop.  Under the M4, past Maidenhead bridge and re joining the Jubliee River.  In the process passing the usual commuter jams with a smugness that only Micoadventurers can have!

I final view of my surroundings before heading home reinforced the point made in Alistairs book that a trip like this really opens your eyes to what lies on your doorstep and often how close we all are to nature and to the beauty of our surroundings if we just take the time to appreciate it.


Roll on Junes adventure!

Kit list -
35l ruck sack and walking poles
Snugppak Jungle sleeping bag
Karrimor sleep mat
Alpkit Hunka bivvi bag
Thermal top, Down jacket, spare socks, lightweight walking trousers, wooly hat and gloves, Buff
Tarp
Waterproof jacket
Trangia burger, Trangia 'Triangle', metal mug, 200Ml Meths
Mug, Spork
Lighter
Anti septic gel, loo roll, trowel, tooth brush
Head Torch
Multi tool
2 l water
Instant porridge, Snickers bar and coffee bag