Exploring and learning while out on outdoor adventures.
In 1998, I travelled to Tremadog for the Warwick University Mountaineering Club dinner meet. It became a weekend of first lead climbs, club elections and a performance of Wonderwall that I was very pleased to finish. More importantly, it marked the moment when I moved from being a relatively new member of the club to …
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Knoydart 1998: Between Pupil and Staff on a Stancliffe Hall Easter Expedition There are moments when you find yourself standing between two versions of your life. At Easter 1998, I was nineteen and in my first year at university. School was behind me, at least officially, but I had not quite left that world. I …
Continue reading “Knoydart 1998: A Stancliffe Hall Easter Expedition in the Scottish Highlands”
This months RSPB Field Trip was through one of England’s surviving lowland raised peat landscapes did not result in the longest list of bird sightings although there was so much more to see: carnivorous plants, prehistoric archaeology, aerial hunters and one particularly memorable encounter on the path. A grey heron was already waiting for us …
Continue reading “Birds, Carnivorous plant and an Unexpected Adder at Hatfield Moors”
Returning to Brownsea after more than a decade since my first visit with my preschool son; this time with more time to explore I found an island shaped by industry, war, wealth, wildlife and one experiment that helped create a worldwide movement. The timing could hardly have worked out better. After arriving at the Quay …
Continue reading “Brownsea Island Day Trip: History, Wildlife and Red Squirrels”
There is always a temptation with a nature challenge to think that every day needs to produce something extraordinary. A rare bird. A dramatic landscape. A long walk across the hills. Perhaps an encounter worthy of a wildlife documentary. But that was not really why I decided to take part in 30 Days Wild. For …
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There is a particular moment in a mountain navigation event when you turn away from the line everyone else seems to be following and head off on your own. For a few seconds, doubt creeps in. Have they spotted something you missed? Would it be easier simply to follow? Then you return to the map, …
Continue reading “Two days navigating the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon with my teenage son”
By the time our group gathered at RSPB Old Moor, the official weather warnings had passed, but the heat had not really got the message. It was, in theory, cooler than the day before. In practice, that seemed to mean only a few degrees lower, still close to 30°C, still heavy, still the kind of …
Continue reading “Reeds Above Coal: Finding New Life at Old Moor”
Sometimes the best adventures have to be squeezed into the gaps. The day had already been full of those practical and parenting things that can so easily take over life if you are not careful. Children dropped off and picked up from activities. Homework supported. Bags sorted. Bits of kit checked. All the small logistics …
Continue reading “Bikes, Byways and a Shortest Night Camp: A Father and Son Ride Through Derbyshire”
There is something deeply satisfying about an adventure that begins with public transport, a loaded rucksack and a late afternoon start. No long drive. No circular route designed only to return to the car. Just a line across the map, a campsite in the middle, and a train station waiting somewhere beyond the next day’s …
Sometimes the best adventures start with a very simple plan. Packing a bag, getting the bikes out and ride somewhere for ice cream. In our case my chosen ice cream destination was about 15km away, with a hill in the way, a tangle of Derbyshire lanes to negotiate and just enough unsurfaced track to make …
Continue reading “Derbyshire Gravel Ride: Stone Edge Chimney, Byways and Ice Cream at Rowsley”