Gone away

I'm now away on holiday for two weeks from 23 June so no point in visiting this blog for the time being. This is not a hiking holiday; there has to be some give and take in married life! It won't be at all bad though - two weeks meandering in a 22 year old VW camper, one week in Norfolk and the second week in Cornwall.

Lakes weekend 8-10 June

Had a great weekend based around Grasmere. Just need to get a brief posting up to acknowledge that. Good to meet other like-minded bloggers and would be keen to do something similar again. Someone mentioned the Brecon Beacons.

Walks done

Just for the record, these are the multi-day hikes I've done:
Pennine Way
Cumbria Way
Cotswold Way
Oxfordshire Way
Peddars Way/North Norfolk Coast Path
South West Coast Path - Minehead to Sidmouth (Sidmouth to Poole left to do)
Wainwright's Coast to Coast
Camino de Santiago (last 200km from Villafranca del Bierzo)
Siena to Rome - the last part of the Via Francigena taking two weeks
So many more to do. These are some that come to mind that I would really like to do:
Pennine Way & Coast to Coast again.
North of England Way (Ravenglass to Scarborough)
West Highland Way
Southern Upland Way
Cape Wrath Trail
Lands End to John o'Groats

Food for thought

An experiment for next weekend in the Lakes. I most definitely am not a vegetarian and like at least a bit of meat with a camp meal. Peperamis are OK - they keep until opened but you can eat just so many. Beef jerky in sealed packs is alright. However, today I went to my local butcher and bought a chunk of smoked dry-cured bacon. He says smoked will keep longer than unsmoked and should be OK in a backpack for a week or so. In his shop, it isn't kept in a fridge; he says the cool atmosphere in the shop suits it well. A bit of this chopped up in a pasta or rice meal should be pretty good. I might also try frying some up for breakfast on the Trangia.

Ordnance Survey maps

Have taken delivery this week of OL7 The English Lakes South-eastern area in readiness for a long weekend next weekend backpacking and wildcamping with a few others (they know who they are). OS maps are just superb; you know you can trust your life to them and it's usually one's own navigation skills that let the side down. The map came from the Backpackers Club, a great advantage of membership being maps and books at reduced prices and a by return service.
It brought to mind problems when walking abroad. I was thinking of Germany and Italy in particular when, armed with local maps, on each occasion I was following a route which I knew to be right when I came across a house built where the path should be and no sign of a path or a diversion of one which meant retracing steps. This just wouldn't happen over here. I think the Ordnance Survey should offer their services abroad. So many of the "foreign" maps are just a joke.