The plan was simple enough for a weekend of wild camping and scrambling around Coniston with my daughter.
From the school pickup we joined the sea of traffic heading north around Manchester towards the Lake District.
A few years back we we discovered Audible as a way of keeping everyone happy with long journeys, this was after one particular challenging car journey with my little people to the Isle of Islay in Scotland. For our journey to the Lake District this time we listened to Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome to get us into the right frame of mind to head up on an adventure to Kanchenjunga, their name for the Old Man of Coniston.
For the Friday night I had booked us into a Bed and Breakfast at our starting point. We arrived a little later than I had hoped due to traffic so after a quick supper, sandwich for Tessa and Naked Thia Style Curry for me it was time to pack the rucksacks from my kit list and to get to bed.
Very kindly the owners agree to let us keep our car in their car park for the next night and I moved the car to a spot out of the way. I have over the years found a number of nice business have been happy for me to leave the car while I head into the higher ground to wildcamp. These have typically been family run hotels and rural pubs that I’ve been a customer at.
The morning was soon upon us, the forecast for the weekend was looking promising and it looks like our biggest challenge might be the midges. What better way is there to start a wild camping trip than a cooked breakfast before heading up into the fells in the sunshine.
From Torver, we headed up to Goats crag with a break by the stream above the queries. Then up to Goat Crags and the start of our scramble up the south side of Coniston Old Man. This easy scramble makes for a lovely route up the fellside picking our way through an area littered with small craglets. It made for an enjoyable and quiet way to get up this popular mountain.
After Tessa made light work of the scramble we were rewarded with amazing views before heading down to Low Water for tea on the trangia.
Having started my wild camping adventures using boil in the bag rations, I have migrated to taking food close to what I eat normally rather than using expensive commercial bought dehydrated food. To start with this was to keep cost down and more recently just because I prefer it. I find that good food and decent amount of sleep, keeps me in right place physically and mentally on multiway trips and worth the extra weight.
For food our go to meal starts with rice noodles mixed with miso soup followed by Uncle Bens golden vegetable rice and Angel Cake and Custard for dessert.
For those looking for some inspiration on foods to take into the mountains on overnight trips my favourite books on this topic are:
- The Backpacker’s Cookbook: A Practical Guide to Dining in Style
2) Moveable Feasts
As the afternoon was getting on, it was then time to go and find a nice spot for the tent for the night. We were looking for somewhere on the side of the mountain that was little exposed to catch the wind to keep the midges away, not too far from a stream and out of sight from paths etc.
I normally use the map to find a few options and then look to see what they are like. I have found over the years I am getting better a predicting where will be boggy, and where will make for a good spot.
Then after finding a spot we wandered a little further to fill up the water bag in a stream, which proved a little challenging as there was small gravel in the water and we made good use of The Brown Filter Bag to filter out the bits, before using water purification tables to kill any bugs living in the water.
Then as it got close to bed time we got the tent up and Tessa settled down to watch a film; how things have changed over the years, in years gone by I carried a short wave radio to listen to radio in the camp in the evenings. Now we have a wide choice of audio books, podcasts and films if we want on top of just relaxing in nature.
From our elevated position in the morning we got to watch the world pass by far below us through our field glasses while we had our breakfast.
After packing up and collecting some more water we headed down to our scramble of the day on The Bell. This turned out to be a really lovely scramble and in place a little more challenging than the day before so managed to get some good use of my new 30 meter triple rated climbing rope.
Tessa cruised up the scramble and Unicorns seemed to handle the exposure from their perch in her rucksack well. As we were heading up I noticed that Tessa naturally scrambled along very upright, something I was going to be learning more about on Chris Ensoll’s Movement Masterclass later in the week.
Here is a video from the masterclass that was made by FellmanDave who was one of the other attendees of the course.
From the top of our scramble, Tessa and I made our way down into the Copper Mines Valley round the bottom of the hill and picked up the disused railway line to get back to Torver, making it back just in time for a well deserved ice cream at the Deli.
We both had a thoroughly good weekend and are looking forward to many more to come.
What I had in my bag
60 litre rucksack, waterproof liner and waterproof bag for lid pocket
Tent: Hilleberg Akto (if not in the inside plastic bag to keep it dry)
Two light weight mats, maybe 3/4 length
One sleeping bag for both of us.
Sleeping liner for both
Sun cream
Insect repellent
Toilet kit (Multipurpose soap, loo roll, tissues, baby wipes, lighter, dog poo bags, small trowel)
Stove (at least one pan + handle + scrubber)
Fuel + two lighters
Pen knife
Bowl and spoon each
Cup
4 litre water bag
1 litre water bottle, useful to have one litre as this is the volume my water purification tablets are designed for. (Take a smaller water bottle for Tessa)
First Aid kit (will document my thoughts on this else where)
30m triple rated rope, slings and karabiner. Light weight harness for daughter would have been useful.
Wash kit: cream, hand sanitiser, mouthwash, timer, mirror, hairbrush, Toothpaste and brushes
Small towel
Waterproof jacket
Waterproof trousers
Nano puff jacket (if cold) generally aim to have an extra layer on top of what I expect to wear for active part of the day
Fleece jumper
Spare top (thermal)
Socks (and maybe waterproof bags for campsite)
Waterproof bag for boots if bivvying
Boxers
Spare trousers for the kids / running tights
Hat, gloves, bandana (+spares if leading group)
Face masks for during pandemic
Scrambling guide
Maps + case + compass (if leading x2)
Spot satellite tracker
One head torch each
Come to like petal e-lite and small lantern running on xxxx as low light output good for keeping a lower profile.
Waterproof case for wallet
iPhone + case + external battery (medium)
Camera + tripod
Books and toys for children
Binoculars
Bird book
Flower book
Water purification tablets
Wearing walking clothes:
Boots or running shoes
Soft shell trousers
Food for two days on the hill.