Hiking adventures, close to home.
This would be my first walk on Exmoor proper since all the way back in February, when I helped someone explore the National Park for the very first time and led them to the highest point in all of Somerset.
That is excluding a walk I did more recently along the coast path because, although it does cross Exmoor, I consider it to be more of a ‘coastal’ scene that anywhere close to the heart of the moorland.
We’re officially in to November as I began to write this. October was a bit of a blur in my memory… The occasional dry day submerged beneath the rushing images of many-a downpour.
From here, it is a long way until we’re back in the seasons of T-shirt weather. I do struggle with the darkness, drop in temperature and reduced sunlight. I’d love to go away and spend a weekend camping but, for me personally, it isn’t the right time of year…
Instead, I’m thinking about the occasional wild camp as a way of getting out there and attempting to ’embrace’ the long winter nights! Continue reading “Winter Wild Camping?”
This was it. Some two years after I started officially walking the Severn Way, I was due to complete my personal journey from Bristol to Tewkesbury.
I left my car outside of the village hall in Apperley and set off walking in search of the River Severn.
It feels like only last week that I was writing about August, with thoughts of the summer waving goodbye for another year. October has arrived very suddenly. I’ve had quite a busy month, as you’ll see below.
For each of the two previous days spent walking around South Dorset, I’d looked on across the sea to the Isle of Portland. Curious. Anticipating this overdue opportunity to explore its coastline for myself.
I had everything planned for this walk a couple of years ago and I was able to drive to the Chesil Beach car park – alongside the causeway linking Portland with Weymouth and the mainland – without the need for GPS.
I’d awoken from my first night of camping to the scent of ‘sewage’ that seemed to be localised around my tent. I had absently pitched very-close-to a drain cover on the previous afternoon… With other campers likely to depart (fingers crossed) on this Sunday, I decided that I would attempt to move my tent after completing this walk.
I recently spent some time in Dorset, with three nights of camping and four days for walking around that. It was my first visit to the coastal part of the county since Easter 2016. When in Dorset, what else is one to do but walk another stretch of the South West Coast Path?
