Hello people,

It has been a while since I last wrote anything on the blog, again due to work commitment, but here I am. I have been walking still, did some nice walk right outside London: Box Hill(Lycra Hill you’ll know what I mean) and The Devil’s Punch Bowl, both highly recommended. I must say these walk were really nice, I didn’t even expect these to be that nice.

But let’s get on my last proper wild camp, which was last weekend, me and my friend Mehdi have been thinking to try Wales more as it is nearer to drive to. This trip was supposed to have happened the week before but Mehdi got really sick and was on antibiotics. But anyway he kind of recovered a bit before that trip, but was still on antibiotics. So we met at his place and from there decided what we would do, Pen Y fan, Rhinogs or Sugar Loaf. Due to his health we decided to do Sugar Loaf, which seems much less strenuous compared to the other places.

So there we started quite late around 2pm, especially knowing that we would have much daylight and the weather was pretty rubbish.  But we decided that we were not going to chicken out and drive back home, but I had to keep an eye on Mehdi. So we kept on walking until we had about 30mins of daylight left and by then we were quite near the top of the hill, so we thought we’ll leave the top for tomorrow, hoping we would get a nice view. Hence we just started pitching our tent and settle down as well it was raining a little a bit and it was pretty windy.

We got cooking pretty much straight away as we finished pitching and I thought it was time to put something more comfortable and it was the first me wearing my Alpkit Filo on a camp and god what a pleasure it was. It was so warm and a nice feeling to the skin, as well I was so eager to unpack my new sleeping bag the Rab Neutrino 400 End. As soon as I unpacked it, you could see the lofting happening right in front of your eyes. So after eating I thought it was about time to go to lie down while listening to some music as this was going to be a long night as it was still only around 5-6pm. I kinda succumb to the comfort of the neutrino bag, it was soooo smooth that I dosed off. Somehow I got up at around 9pm plus, due to overheating in the bag and it was about 4c(and dropping due to wind chill). So me and Mehdi chat for a while to kill time and tried going back to sleep. Later this evening it started raining more and the wind was even worse. We got up in the morning, with sub zero temp and parts of my tent had frost, which I didn’t expect at all. But hey the weather was starting to look pretty good.

 

It has been a while since I posted anything, this is due to work commitment, but I thought let me take a breather and start writing again. So I thought I would post about the recent social meet I have been to at the usual Monsal Head(as the basecamp). Well as part of the tradition I got stuck in a some heavy traffic, but it was nowhere as bad as the one before.

Arriving at Monsal Head I pitched my tent, which I somehow still have problem with, then meet up with everyone. It was very interesting meeting new faces like Geoff, Shaun(Rosenrott) Shaun and Tony(Sawyer Filter), all interesting to chat with and enthusiastic as well. We had out dinner on the camping ground and then went for a drink at the pub. I must say I was completely knackered with the driving and soon started nodding off, but it wasn't before having a couple of pints of apple juice and a whisky. After that we went back to the camp and I probably had the best sleep of my life.



The next day we got organised and off we went for our day hike at Stanage Edge, which was decided the night before and as well due to the low level it would suit my dodgy knees. As you can see from the photos we were lucky with the weather, as it was not really good the night before. I must say that I had been itching to hike at Stanage Edge for quite a while and it sure did not disappoint me. It is truly a beautiful place to hike and camping as well. As the saying goes, a photo is worth a thousand words, Peak District keep surprising me all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter meet

Hello guys,

I have recently been on my first winter trek and I don't think I have seen so much snow  in my life. But first lets start with the beginning of my journey which started as usual from colliers wood. I left home on that Friday at around 10.30-11am and there was barely any traffic at all. I reached Leicester at around 13.30 that day which actually was not bad at all, until I encountered this endless queue of cars on the M1. I think I had only about 60-70 miles to reach destination and I'm used to being stuck in traffic, well guess that was not just any normal traffic, the M1 had been closed because of some accident. Yup it took me nearly 10 hours to reach Pindale farm that evening, I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, thinking of turning back, but luckily I stuck with it. The relief on my face when I reached the farm and went to the pub to meet the guys. Lets get back to that winter meet, it was nice meeting up with the usual bunch again as well as meeting new hikers. That night I got the pub, I managed to get only one pint of  'Apple Juice' as some of the guys, who managed to get there earlier, had finished the whole stock, so I had to switched to the Farmer's Blonde, we got back later on and kept on chatting in the bunkhouse to catch up and as well to finalise where we were hiking the next day.

As we got there we started getting our kits ready:

Then we started our trek and as you can see there was a bit of snow, but the further we went, the more snow we saw:

 

After a while we got to the point where it was uphill, quite steep and slippery (wish I had some type of snow crampon, the trekking type of course):

 After a while of ascent, we decided to stop for lunch and as well to enjoy the fantastic view:

 

 This was my first winter trek and never had I seen so much snow, but guess what that could easily one of my most enjoyable trek. I was so beautiful and silent up there (which reminded me of the song enjoy the silence by Depeche mode). It didn't feel like I was in the Peak District, which to me seemed just as good as being trekking abroad.

All I can say is that it was worth the traffic jam, really beautiful up there with the snow and I thanks the guys that were present for having organised it, a big thank you to everyone.

Haglofs Barrier Pro

Hi guys,

Lately my mind has been tormented by the thought of investing either in a Down or Primaloft jacket. Since the temperature has been plummeting lately, I decided to get myself a Haglofs Barrier Pro hood, made with 60g of Primaloft1, now don't expect me to get into all the techie stuffs as I'm not a professional hiker or such. I only do this as a hobby and not many times a year, though I'm trying to be as frequent as I can. So this is just my common man opinion, I have only had it for a week, seems good quality and very light, try it under the tap and looks like it has good DWR coating. I only got to wear it properly today when I was out and about walking near the Wimbledon common, ok I know it's not the Peak district or on any hills, but it was about 1C which was cold enough for me. I only had a T-shirt, micro fleece and the PL1 jacket. I must say it was not as warm as I thought it would be, but it was not really cold, surprisingly for it's thickness. I know the Jacket is part of a layering system (needed to wear a long sleeve base layer rather than a simple T-shirt), hence not made to be worn on it's own. But still I can't complain as I got it for a bargain of £100 from Blacks sales, but I must admit that I'm still thinking of getting a down jacket, why?? Guilty pleasure?? or maybe because I'm worth it. But for now we'll see how this jacket goes.