Phill’s Ely trek report

Written by on

The first warm-up trek for our 350 mile trek has been completed. We covered almost 50 miles in 2 days. It rained.

We set off during the worst of the rain, but moving along at a good pace, we felt we were getting there quickly. About 10 miles in, I began to suffer. My feet were wet. I knew I’d be getting blisters on this journey, but had no way of preventing them whilst pools of water formed inside my “waterproof” boots.

Almost as bad as following the sun all day.

We probably should have paid more attention to which direction we were travelling in

We could see Ely Cathedral in the distance, my mood lifted, and onwards we continued. We sort of knew the route; it was just a case of following the river. We were content, making good time and everything was flowing nicely. We chatted, we walked and we rested when we needed to. We did not look at the map properly. We couldn’t pinpoint where we were on the map exactly, but we were following the river, so we must be right. I’m glad we learnt this particular lesson during our warm-up trek. Here’s a picture, can you guess what we did wrong?

Yes, we quite happily followed the river round a bend and started walking in the opposite direction. We ended up walking up the A10 to get back on track, adding hours to our journey, and leading to a long hard trek past our campsite into Ely. Also, I accidently left my phone’s GPS switched on, so the battery was dead by the time we arrived in Ely.

Fizzy drinks, sandwiches and ice-cream saw us watch the sun set before another 3 mile hike through to our campsite. We phoned the campsite to say we running late. The owner said not to worry and to just knock on the first caravan on the right.

Happily arriving at our destination, the first caravan looked deserted, we phoned up again and were told to knock on the door and to ask for Michael. We did so and out came a rather unhappy Michael. He wandered back into his caravan. Then he wandered back out and apologised, noting that he wasn’t going to lie to us, he had had a few. Travelling towards his office, he realised that keyless he’d not have much luck with the door, and so returned to the caravan to get his keys. Twenty minutes later and we were finally ready to pitch the tent.

Once we got sorted and settled down it was 11pm, so straight to bed. I slept quite happily most of the night, but was perhaps a little on the warm side. In the morning we had a nice cup of tea and got ready to set off.

It was then we were greeted by Michael, who asked if we stayed there last night, whether he had met us, and whether we had paid. He then quite happily wandered back off, and we set off on our journey. The next two hours were pleasantly uneventful.

Just after 11am we were wet, hungry and demoralised. We also had the misfortune to stray slightly off the path, walking along a track, which bent around right back to the footpath. I say misfortune, we were walking past caravans through a Marina and although we were hungry, we weren’t doing too badly. As I said, it led straight back to the footpath so we were fine. Had we known we didn’t have to walk around the outside of the marina, we would have saved ourselves a couple of hundred metres, so there was a little wasted effort on our part.

However, like a Brothers Grimm fairy-tale, we had our first Hansel and Gretel experience. We encountered a particularly vile woman, who was extremely concerned that we were quietly walking through private property within metres of a public footpath. Could we not read a map? Sarcasm and bitterness obviously ran through her veins. We felt suitably accosted and apologetically scuttled off as quickly as possible, before she could potentially eat us. So there we have it, perhaps not a cannibalistic witch, but certainly a troll under the bridge.

From there we stopped for lunch during a break in the weather, perhaps earlier than we should have, but certainly in need of nourishment. We definitely need more food that we can snack on whilst walking.

Tuna and rice, along with a good cup of tea, helped ease the pain of the journey, and we set off just as the weather decided to rain again. I left my warm jacket on and promptly had to take it back off a couple of hundred metres later when I realised I was now too warm.

To make up 20 miles for the day we walked a little towards Cambridge, then away a little, then towards again. This, along with the stop-start rain, made for a very up-down journey. The sun is shining, we’re heading towards Cambridge, all is good. Oh dear, we’re walking slightly away from Cambridge, it’s raining on us again, and Heley has just navigated us round a neat little circle, not so happy now. Up, down, up, but we continued through it, and at least everywhere else we visit is not going to be a twenty minute car journey from home.

Getting back to Cambridge was good. We were greeted with glasses of coke and waddled off to kickboxing. I say waddled, Heley walked, she was more or less blisterless. With my heavy old waterproof boots I managed to achieve 17 blisters; I waddled.

I learnt a lot this weekend. I’m glad I’m getting new boots, I’m glad I’m not walking alone, and I now realise that somewhere between 350 and 380 miles is a bloody long way to walk. I’m quite looking forward to it.Sun setting over Ely

Trek preparations and the banning of Tilley hats

Written by on

It’s almost time for the first practice trek, which by happy coincidence totals almost exactly 42 miles.  The weather forecast suggests rain, so at least part of it is an authentic replication of the 4 days in Wales and 22 days in Scotland.

Tilley Hats - even dinosaur adventurers used them!

Tilley Hats - somewhat necessary for an adventure.

I have a rather inflamed knee. My kneecap is what can best be described as wobbly. Given that my shoulders are also considerably crunchy, I’m not entirely looking forward to this first trip. I’m going to be eating ibuprofen like candy next week to help manage the inflammation. I’m inflammable.

It’s my first time in a tent on a campsite in the last ten years. That’s going to be a little bit weird. I’m far more used to being up a hill and under the stars. A tent is going to be necessary, so I better get used to it.

We’ve almost nailed down the route and the kitlist. It’s now just a case of making sure it all makes sense.

The route is looking likely to take us an extra day, 22 instead of 21, and an extra 30 miles, pushing us up to 380 miles. That extra time and distance gives us a walk around Glencoe, up Ben Nevis, and around Cawdor and Dunnottar castles. Those were bits we were keen to see, and I doubt we are likely to repeat this trek, so we’re taking the time out to do the interesting touristy stuff along the way.

The current kit-weight for two people (excluding food and water) is 20 kg. I’m hoping that we manage to cut that down to 18 kg, partly because I like food, and the less we take the more food we can carry.

I still need to get myself a sunhat. I have no hair and even a hint of sun turns my skin crimson. I was, however, completely and totally banned from ever owning a Tilley Hat. I feel as though I have been robbed of a lifelong dream. It wasn’t even just Heley who banned me from wearing one. Daphne, my girlfriend, supported the ban and I’m pretty sure that Hatty, my little sister, only wanted me to get one so that she could mock me once I was wearing it.

How can this be a proper adventure without a Tilley Hat?

Image courtesy of Binaryape

Receiving advice about camping equipment

Written by on

I’ve been asking around for advice on what camping equipment to take. I already had a good idea of what I wanted, but still have areas where the load could be lightened. I’ve sent e-mails off in all directions, but the first two companies to get back to me are The North Face and Backpackinglight.co.uk

I asked The North Face about whether there was any tent re-sealer that they would recommend. They sent me a very polite “copy and paste” e-mail in reply apologising for the trouble I’ve had with my tent and outlining their warranty coverage. They go on to discuss how I should get in contact with my dealer… etc., etc.

My question was how best to re-seal a North Face tent. Ahh well.

I had a distinctly different response from the very helpful people at Backpackinglight. Not only do they have hundreds of hours of podcasts that I’m downloading and listening to, but they quickly replied to a series of questions I had about their gear.

After their advice to use meths, rather than gas, I have to have a quick rethink of the food strategy. The problem with gas is getting hold of it, or carrying enough canisters to last 3 weeks. A lot of smaller camping shops have closed; however, hardware shops and some petrol stations sell meths. I’m not used to cooking with meths. It’s not as simple as gas; you can’t just turn the meths off and pour it back in the bottle. Heley and I have plenty of time to work out exactly how much meths we need to boil enough water for two cups of tea though!

For filtering water we’re also looking at the Travel Tap, or Aquapure Traveller, both are much lighter than my MSR Water filter, and it sounds like either are suitable for use in highland streams. It helps that we can take 2 of them for less weight than the MSR Water filter.

We had been thinking about sharing one set of walking poles; however, at Backpackinglight they are really keen on the use of walking poles. They claim that “using poles will reduce the accumulated stress on the feet, legs, knees and back by an estimated 8,877+ kg (31,500+ lb) per mile.”  Given the state of my knee I think I’ll probably be using two poles then!

Our shared kit list and my personal kit list are now pretty much complete; we just need to buy the kit. Heley still has some way to go organising her clothes etc. It’s all a little heavier than I’d like, although it is possible to save a fair bit.

So far the shared kit is around 9.5 kg. I’ve got 5.5 kg of personal kit, so we are already up to 15 kg before taking into account spare batteries, food or water. Replacing the tent and not taking the water filter would save 1 kg. There are some luxuries that can be cut if we want to save another 1 kg. After that it’s looking a little more difficult to cut without spending money.

You can have a look at some of the kit we’d ideally have over here.

Hitting The Hills: provisional date and pre-trips

Written by on

We’ve finally pencilled in a few dates for when we want to go walking:

  • 16th – 17th July: Go for a walk through Cambridgeshire. This is our first overnight trip, and the first night Heley and I will have shared a tent, so we’ll be finding out what we’re letting ourselves in for.
  • 3rd – 7th August: We’re off to North Wales for a few nights. This will be our main gear test, and where we find out if we can actually walk the sort of distances we’re promising to walk.
  • 25th August: The start of our trek around Scotland. It’s a date that seems to be rapidly approaching.

We’ve got a couple of other important dates noted down. There’s a DC Boxing presentation evening on the 22nd July, Heley will be off on the kickboxing summer camp from 14th-21st August, and around the same time I hope to be in Greece visiting my girlfriend.

Cambridgeshire is one of the flattest counties in England, so it’s going to be difficult to organise many comparable walks to those we are going to experience on the journey. We should be putting a fair few miles under our belts before the 25th August, so if you see two crazy people walking around Cambridgeshire with rucksacks on, it might be us.

Tarps and Leaky Tents

Written by on

Yesterday we tested our The North Face Tadpole 23 tent with a hosepipe. It survived pretty well, apart from at the seams, which were quite happy to let water through into the tent. Not to worry, we still have plenty of time to get things fixed.

Actually, we are looking at two options:

  • Re-sealing the tent.
  • Selling it and buying a new tent.

For a new tent we’re looking at either the MSR Hubba Hubba HP or the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2. The reason for looking at a new tent is that either of the new tents would be over 500 grams lighter and have 2 doors.

The North Face Tadpole is a great little tent. It has slightly more headroom (looking at the measurements) than most tents, it seems robust, and it will be waterproof again soon.

The main problem is that it only has one door. With two of us getting in and out of the tent it may be a bit awkward, particularly in bad weather. The other issue is that being very narrow at one end, it is perhaps a little cosy for two people sharing for three weeks. That said, two of us fitted quite comfortably in there, and we did manage to squeeze a third in for a laugh. It helped that none of us could be described as chunky.

Whether we replace the tent is likely to be a decision we make after testing it in the field. A hosepipe and one sunny afternoon are hardly comparable with wet, windy weather in the Highlands.