Exploring and learning while out on outdoor adventures.
Flash Lane, Darley Moor, Matlock22 and 25 May 2026 There are some wildlife encounters that stay with you long after the evening has faded, not just because of what you saw but because of the way the experience unfolded. This was one of those. What began as a slightly tired attempt to join a nightjar …
Continue reading “Nightjars at Flash Lane: A May Evening Wildlife Encounter to Remember”
There was still one section of the Cornish Coast Path left untravelled. Not a huge one in the scale of the South West Coast Path, perhaps, but enough to feel unfinished. This was a stretch of coast I had walked around in fragments, approached from different directions, then written about in different years but not …
Continue reading “Completing Cornwall on the South West Coast Path: Padstow to the Devon Border”
There are worse ways to begin a field trip than being welcomed by a Chiffchaff calling from the car park. That was how our day began at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s North Cave Wetlands, near Hull. The sun was already bright, the reserve was full of spring life and our group slowly gathered beside the Wild …
There are some places that pull you back not because they are new but because they still have more to give. Pembrokeshire is like that for me. The light, the coast, the mixture of wild weather and calm coves, the old estates and the cliffs, the feeling that a day can hold beach play, birdsong, …
Continue reading “Pembrokeshire Family Holiday with Kids: Beaches, Castles, Walks and Things to Do”
And off we go again, another Saturday, another early start. Last weekend was spent indoors at the National Outdoor Expo; this time it was the train to Edale, leading a group out with the Austrian Alpine Club. The plan was a classic Kinder loop: up Grindsbrook Clough, across the plateau via Kinder Low and Kinder …
Continue reading “A Landscape in Motion: Grindsbrook Clough Scramble & Kinder Scout Walk”
Sometimes the brief is simple. A father daughter weekend away. Just the two of us; something that feels more precious now that she’s heading into her teenage years, standing on that edge of the teenage years where I suspect shared time might becomes rarer, more intentional. Somewhere comfortable to stay. Ideally with a proper cooked …
Up early, down to the station and onto a busy train to Birmingham. There’s always that small moment of relief when you find a seat. This wasn’t a last minute decision; we’d planned to come back after enjoying it last year although this time there was a bit more intent behind it. Partly it was …
Continue reading “National Outdoor Expo 2026: Reflections on Adventure, Community and the Outdoors”
The laptop went into the locker and my bag grabbed from my locker. Then a quick walk, almost a jog, to catch the 5:15 train from Sheffield to Edale. It felt like a small escape. I’d always had 20th March in my head as the start of spring; the equinox, that clean, scientific moment when …
The journey north always carries a subtle shift in mood for me; leaving the familiar roads behind, travelling between the Lake District and the Howgill Fells, the call of the mountains gets stronger. Our first stop came just over the border at Gretna Green. For centuries this small village has been famous for one thing: …
Just off the A1, somewhere many of us must have driven past countless times without ever really noticing, lies Langford Lowfields. This is a place that doesn’t immediately announce itself and yet sits quietly waiting beside one of the country’s great rivers. We arrived early to a simple car park, one that lacks the comforts …
Continue reading “At the Tidal Edge: A Wet Day at Langford Lowfields”