
Walks and Wild Camps
Blogging and photographing adventures in the wild
Although I am a born and bred city boy, the lure of the peace and quiet of the countryside, and the high places they contain, have for a long time appealed to me as the go-to place to escape the crowds and the hustle and bustle that living in a relatively big city brings. I enjoy the conveniences of city life, but I can't think of anything better than slinging a bag on my back with just enough in there to survive, and then to head off to Kinder Scout for a weekends hiking and wild camping. Sitting on a mountain with not a sound around, and staring into a view - preferably, with a beautiful sunset - is perfection, for me.
In addition, one of the other habits I have developed over many years, be it on a holiday or following an adventure, is to document it in the form of a journal. No one else has seen the piles of notebooks and diaries I have sitting in a box at home, and all they have ever been is simply a way to remember a moment in life, and years later to be able to recollect it. Thank goodness I have done, for when re-reading the pages of admittedly occasional borderline indecipherable text, it's always the random little thoughts and memories that are recalled the most fondly, and would have been lost forever had they not been haphazardly scribbled down before the moment is lost in time.
In recent years the adventures abroad, of backpacking in a far flung destination somewhere, have been replaced by backpacking around the beautiful landscapes of, mostly, northern England. Living only a train ride away from the Peak District means copious opportunities to spend weekends up there, and those weekends have developed into weeks of long distance hiking and though wild camping has been experienced sporadically over the years, that also has become a regular and happy pastime. So, with the love of writing and the love of the outdoors, it's somewhat natural that they should marry together, and the result of that union is this blog. I am not even close to being a professional writer, I simply enjoy putting thoughts and memories into electronic print and, if I enjoy reading them back, hopefully others will, too.
In addition to these ramblings, I have also, somewhat nervously, created a YouTube channel. Any videos I will make are set to music, I am far too self conscious to record myself talking to the world, and much like this blog, they are only ways to document an adventure, and to enjoy it and remember it in retrospect. I hope you enjoy them.