A Simple Life of Luxury

Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means

Category: Camping

8

Camping / Hiking

West Highland Way Packing List

The backpacking packing list for hiking the West Highland Way focuses on balance between weight and comfort. It includes an Osprey Talon 44 pack, a Nordisk Telemark tent, a Thermarest sleep system, and clothing for various conditions, totaling a base weight of 8.35kg without food and water. The list further details kitchen essentials, hygiene products, a comprehensive first aid and repair kit, electronics for communication and navigation, and additional accessories for convenience and safety on the trail. The aim is meticulous organization and preparedness while maintaining a manageable pack weight.

Pwll Deri YHA and abandoned hilltop buildings 3

Camping / Coast Path / Wales

Wales Coast Path – Porth Gain to Pwll Deri

Coast Path Vital Stats Porth Gain to Pwll Deri Distance: 13.9 miles Elevation Gain Today: 886m Highest Elevation: 110m Time: 4:19:27 Av. Pace: 18:44 mins/mile Calories: 1694 Totals to Date Total Distance: 1028.31 miles Total Time: 197:07:17 Total Elevation Gain: 32394m Total Calories: 99194 Distance to go: 76 miles Morning at Camp I lingered in...

Traeth Llyfn 0

Camping / Coast Path / Wales

Wales Coast Path – Porth Clais to Porth Gain

Coast Path Vital Stats Porth Clais to Porth Gain Distance: 18.32 miles Elevation Gain Today: 1026m Highest Elevation: 110m Time: 6:02:58 Av. Pace: 19:49 mins/mile Calories: 2195 Totals to Date Total Distance: 1014.41 miles Total Time: 192:47:50 Total Elevation Gain: 31508m Total Calories: 97500 Distance to go: 87 miles A New Plan As usual, I...

What a spot! 1

Camping / Hiking / Wales / Weather

The Wild Welsh Wilderness

Having been away for work last week we had a fairly quiet weekend. I did some work in the garden and we headed out to Cross Foxes on Sunday for a Mother’s Day lunch – well, Morgan isn’t here to treat Anna, so I did instead. I of course went along for the meal too....

1

Camping / Hiking / Wales

Another Practice Camp – Best Spot Yet!

Saturday started with a busy day in Aberystwyth for us. We did some shopping, collected my glasses and then test drove a very nice Hyundai Ioniq 6. We hadn’t looked at the Ioniq 6 before but they saif they had some good deals on it and the figures they quoted did sound good so we...

Anti-slip 'Limpet' strips 1

Camping

The Ultimate Cure for a Slippery Sleeping Pad – Simple Modification

I’m calling them my ‘Anti-slip Limpet Strips’. Maybe it’s just me, but I found that the combination of my Thermarest NeoAir XLite NXT sleeping pad and my Nordisk Telemark tent floor created something slipperier than a super-slippery oiled-up eel! It wasn’t a huge problem but it just wouldn’t stay where I put it. If I...

3

Camping / Hiking

The Perfect Backpack – Is it even possible?

The simple answer is no, there can’t be one backpack that is perfect in all situations. A quick jaunt in the hills in the summer calls for something very different to a multi-day hike in the mountains in winter. Volume and carrying capacity alone will dictate that. Similarly the perfect backpack for you might not...

Sunset Camp 1

Camping / Hiking / Surf / Wales

Surf ‘n’ Turf

This may be showing my age, but the University tagline used to be ‘Where the Mountains Meet the Sea’. It’s always nice therefore to have a day where I manage to get in the sea and then head off into the hills. Things have been a little quiet here since we returned from holiday. Anna...

3

Camping

Testing my Tent

As noted in my previous post, I recently purchased a new lightweight tent and constructed a homemade footprint for it. Since buying the tent I’d been dying to try it out, but time and mainly the weather had prevented me from doing so. I’m planning to do some backpacking later in the year – hopefully...

Vestibule 2

Camping

Custom Made Tent Footprint

A tent footprint is just a fancy name for what we always (“back in the day”) called a groundsheet. In essence, it’s a piece of material that goes under your tent and serves two main purposes: Modern tents don’t need this as the base of the tent itself will be waterproof and should be fairly...