Crinkle Crags and Bowfell Walk

Crinkle Crags and Bowfell is not just one of my favourite Lakeland walks, It’s one of my favourite walks anywhere. It’s been a long while since I’d done it so was pleased that I got to pop across and re visit it especially after a day of exploring Coniston, testing a Landrover Defender with a mate and researching the excellent local hostelries (The Black Bull for it’s beer and the Sun Inn for it’s beer and food although not the service). Last time I went up Crinkle Crags and Bowfell I was laden with camping gear, It was early evening in September and I sat and watched the sun go down from the summit of Bowfell before descending down to Angle Tarn to pitch my tent ready to head over to the Langdale Pikes the following day. This time...

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Weekend walk in photos

On Sunday we decided to make the most of the lovely weather and did a version of the Roseberry Topping walk, but parked up at Hutton Village, went up to Highcliff Nab then across the Moor to New Row before wandering along the road to the cafe at Kildale, after a toastie and an ice cold beer we then headed up the hill to Captain Cook’s Monument before walking to Gribdale Gate followed by Roseberry Topping and then back down to Hutton Village. Anyway, here are the pics (click to make them bigger), there’s a few more on Flickr too. Mythos in the Yorkshire Sun Captain cook's monument and roseberry topping Highcliff nab View from near highcliff nab Deforestation near highcliff nab Moorland View Captain Cook's...

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Just In: Aladdin Bento Lunch Box

I had been looking at these in Go Outdoors a couple of weeks ago and thinking that they would be handy for livening up lunchtimes and great for picnics so when I was offered one to test I gladly said yes. The Aladdin Bento Box comes in a range of colours and sizes (this one’s blue and the 950ml version) and is a  fully insulated, microwavable lunch box and like it’s Japanese inspiration contains dividers to keep your food separate. The available 950ml space is separated into a 600ml compartment and a 350ml compartment, this means not only can you separate wet and dry food you can also take both hot and cold food with you. It also an inner divider so that you can divide the bigger of the tubs up say one bit for rice, the other for...

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Tracklogs mapping software

This is a review I wrote a while back on a well known outdoors forum (and the pics are from the Tracklogs website), to be honest not much has changed apart from a slight increase in price (so i’ve changed those), I still love the software, all It needs now is an IPhone App. It’s another long one so best grab a cuppa or a pint if you are going to read it all. 1) Ordering. This couldnt be easier, log onto their website, select the maps you want from a huge selection, they do all the usual OS Maps and scales along with arial photography and something called site centred mapping which allows you to pay for an area around a particular postcode or location. I went for some of the Standard OS 1:25K maps that came in at £29.95 Each including delivery. I...

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Walking Weekend In Wales

I was going to do this post in parts but decided I would never get round to doing them all so here’s an account of or Walking weekend in Wales, it’s a bit long so go and grab your self a cuppa and choccy biscuit and settle in. After our beery trip to Chester and a day having a wander round Llangollen, which was a really pretty place and had a couple of great pubs along with an old house, steam railway and horse drawn canal boats, we decided to head off for a couple of days in the tent and to climb a couple of mountains (you can read about the beers here) We called in at Betsw y Coed for a cuppa and a quick look in the shops before heading for Tryfan, a mountain that’s been on my tick list for a very long time, mainly due to the photos of people...

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Just in: Therm-a-Rest ProLite Plus

Today saw the arrival of a Therm-a-Rest Pro Lite Plus camping mat from Go Outdoors for test I’ll be completely honest a couple of years ago I wasn’t all that impressed with Go outdoors, their range seemed to be aiming at the bargain basement end of things with a lack of higher end gear and their camping equipment was lacking a few essentials. But i’m more than happy to report the last 18 months has seen them stocking some absolutely fantastic gear, with a great mix of budget gear and top end gear from the likes of Rab, North Face and Montane. All at great prices and in a good range of colours and sizes. One of the things my local store seems to stock a good range of is camping mats everything from foam roll mats that cost a couple of quid all...

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