Sometimes, just sometimes, no plan is the best plan of all….

 

 

 

So,

a quick update on my quick getaway. The weather was superb and with a bit of last minute preparations I managed to get out for the weekend to walk and camp high up in the Black Mountains. I had a super Saturday afternoon walk and finished up at my campsite for the night, Y Das, next to Rhos Dirion. I was treated to a fabulous sunset and I managed to try out my new shelter (all will be revealed this week!). Another glorious day of sunshine today meant that I completed over 20 miles of walking along with a special wildcamp spot.

I’ll write up the trip a bit more sometime this week aslong with the kit review. It was one of those mini trips that was just so relaxing and enjoyable. I didnt plan where I was going to go until about 20 minutes before I parked up. I really made my mind up from a handful of possibilities at the last minute!

So, no plan = the best plan (well this time anyway)

 

Heading off out…!

Work has been manic and a lack of blog entries testifies to this. The weather has been taunting me all week so by Friday I had cracked. I informed my nearest and dearest that I was heading off into the hills for an impromptu camp and walk. I am about to set off and I have absolutely no idea where I will end up.

I really havent decided

But thats part of the pleasure of this weekend. I have no agenda, I am packed up and raring to go. I dont care where, or how high or how wild

I just need hilltime…..

I’m back

What is it with my mega camping/bunkhousing trips? We have had 4 weeks of rain and as soon as I go away, we have sun. SUN I tell you!!!!

Had a really good time. We had a good mix of people and the weather helped. Managed to do some family walking and the kids didnt moan for once

Will do a proper write up of the trip when I get chance. Needless to say the others in my group approved of the upgrade to a luxury bunkhouse this time around. So much so that they are giddy with excitement for the next trip.

The road goes ever on and on…..

Just a quick entry to say that the bunkhouse beckons. The kids and I are packed and ready for the weekend. The weather is not fab today but I am hoping for a bit of brighter stuff later on and certainly tomorrow.

We have a great base from which to explore, the only downside is that there are so many things to see and do, 3 days hardly seems enough. Still things will be dictated by the weather , oh and the fact that there are 14 of us. It may take some time to agree on what to do

Hopefully a nice little update and some pictures when we get back. In the meantime, hope the weather is kind where you are and enjoy……

The eleventh New Year’s Resolution…..

Yes, a bit late for making new resolutions but I thought I would tag this one onto the back of the others I did at the start of the year. Its not outdoor related but is a subject dear to my heart. Having been ripped off by a garage last week I have vowed that this will be the last time!

I have made myself a promise that when and wherever possible I will attempt to fix the car myself (apart from blown head gaskets and similar)

Ok, so I should be doing this anyway but I got lulled into that false sense of security that tells you to take it to a garage cos its quick and painless. NO! It is not!!!

So in the spirit of this new resolution, I have started to fix the odds and sods that have plagued the car recently. I have changed the aerial mount and connections in the roof. I have ordered a new horn (dont say anything) and am patching up the hole in the door where the thieving gits forced the lock last year.

The already good news is that a job that the garage wanted £95 quid for (to change the aerial and connections), I have managed to do for £9 (you do have to love ebay and wiki answers sometimes). The horn was a tenner and if I manage to fit that ok its another £90 saving.

Of course it didnt all go smoothly this evening. I managed to remove half the roof liner trying to access the aerial mount before the internet told me to just remove the courtesy light (oops). I then dropped and lost the retaining bolt for the mount (sigh) but after half an hour of swearing and cannabalising an old bike, managed to find a replacement (phew).

So by my reckoning after doing the 2 main jobs, I will be nearly £180 better off (hurrah!). Is that a good enough excuse to go and get something for the outdoors?

Drip-drip-drop, little April showers….

It has been wet. In fact its been orrible. Went out today for a walk in the Carmarthen Fan and gave up after 2 hours. Getting alternately battered by 60mph winds and drenched by horizontal rain from all directions wasnt fun. Sometimes walking in the rain is elemental and raw (fun) but not today… I did manage to have a peek at the bunkhouse my party are going to on Friday. Very nice and if it does bucket it down at least we have a bit of luxury from which to stare out at the rain :)

It was so wet today that on the way home, inside of the car got like a Turkish steam bath. I had to pull over, dry my glasses and wipe all the windows down It was a bit like the “Titanic” moment but alas without Kate Winslet

The other thing about this time of the year and the weather is that its my birthday tomorrow and I always get one of two types. Its either absolutely gorgeous or its peeing it down. I phoned up Coral but they werent taking anymore bets and the price of submarines on ebay just went up 100-fold…

dive, dive, dive!

Pegs part 4….

Ok, really it should be pegs part 3b but I thought I would keep it simple

This article looks at the pegs that came with the Lightwave T10 tent that I tested last month. And it has to be said that these were a selection of very funky pegs indeed. There were red needle pegs, “twist” Y pegs in silver and large “twist” pegs in gold.

Before I sent the tent back to Lightwave I did a very quick measure on the staying power of these pegs in the same way that I did for my other pegs (see my earlier “pegs” posts parts 1,2 and 3). I didnt have time to faff about so just did a straight pull out of the ground (I know I must get round to doing some 45degree angle tests at some point!). The ground was very moist and contained a few stones.

• red needle  pegs 4-5 kg or approx 40-50 Newtons of force 
• silver twist Y pegs 8-9 kg or approx 80-90 Newtons of force
• large gold twist Y pegs 10-11 kg or approx 100-110 Newtons of force

Last time out I checked the more usual skewer, Y and V pegs. The nearest I could get the same conditions was the waterlogged results which were:

• V pegs 9-10 kg or approx 90-100 Newtons of force 
• Y pegs 8-9 kg or approx 80-90 Newtons of force
• Skewer pegs 2-3 kg or approx 20-30 Newtons of force

Difficult to draw conclusions because the tests were not conducted at the same time but it does highlight that needle or skewer type pegs are pretty poor when compared to the Y and V varieties. The larger “twist” Y pegs were better than the smaller “twist” Y pegs in this evaluation but again its hard to draw conclusions versus the normal V and Y pegs because of the different conditions. I would hasten to say that the results look similar in which no one type of peg being especially better than the other.

Even if they dont give any great advantage over the more normal type of pegs you have to admit they do look very funky

Finally, yes, I will get around to doing some 45degree angle peg tests next month. If you are interested that is……