Just after Nikki returned from Ski-ing, we headed for Liverpool to see Jimmy Carr live at the Liverpool Philharmonic.

It was a bit of a faf, as we had to get a replacement bus.

I was really looking forward to it, but he wasnt that good (it wasnt helped by the fact that many of the audiance appeared to have spent the afternoon in the pub).

We left in the interval and had a couple of drinks in Liverpool before returning home.

The following weekend, Nikki and I headed to a Youth Hostel called Ravenstore. I quite like Youth Hostels as they are usualy informal, pretty cheap and located in the best parts of the countryside.

We love the Peak District and it was a chance to catch up with an old friend called Cheryle, who moved down to Birmingham and who we dont see as often as we’d like.

Driving straight from work, we had dinner in a country pub on the way, then met up with everyone in the hostel and had a few drinks.

We met a group (3 generations of a family with some freinds). They were planning their own walk the next day. When we asked where they were going, they were a bit vague.

No matter, we respected their privacy and wished them a good day on the hill the next day.

We met Cheryl through the walking group and loads of other members of the group had come along.

So it was logical, that we’d spend the days out walking (and the evenings drinking good bear and wine and eating pie and mash).

We wander along a section of the Monsal trail.

I’ve walked the Monsal trail previously with my friend Frank and a few times since (they’ve actually opened up the tunnels now, so you can do the original route the railway line would have taken rather than the twisty around one which I personally prefer).

The view from the to of a one time railway bridge.

Brian has chosen a “hybrid” route, and we quickly find ourselves on a section of the Limestone way.

We come to a hill overlooking this Quarry.

There is actually right of way, and we follow a path which goes right through it.

By now it was late afternoon, so we stopped by the Quarry and had lunch.

As we continue along, I see this old air raid shelter. I tried exploring inside it, but it wasn’t very big.

The trail carried on for a few more hours.

We came to a pub.

We’d normally have a drink to finish the walk, then go back to the hostel to get cleaned up before heading out for dinner.

The pub was very busy, so we opted for a early dinner with a couple of pints.

Once back at the hostel, we got cleaned up and it was a chance to catch up with old friends.

I was delighted to find that YHA establishments now stock Moretti beer.

In the morning, we have breakfast.

Chatting with the 3 generation group we’d previously spoken too, it turned out they had gone on a walk led by the “son” who had no map and used a phone.

Suffice to say they’d got lost and spent a lot of time walking along the road. They were using the trip as “prep” for a charity walking along the great wall of China.

We invited them to join us on our walk.

The 2nd day is normally a shorter walk, designed to finish around 2pm. Brian had designed an amazing walk to take in all of the countryside in the vicinity around the hostel.

 

Another mingle of the Limestone way and the Monsal trail with some steep hills and spectacular views.

By 2pm, we’d finished. One of my lasting memories of the trip, was our guests thanking Brian and saying how much they’d enjoyed the walk (and they genuinely looked enthralled).

That’s pretty much how I feel whenever I go walking, and I’m delighted they’ve chosen to join the walking family.

A bit of random stuff now.

With my new “super-kitchen” I’ve started cooking again.

One of the things I love to make is soup.

I think after hillwalking, soup is my favourite way to relax.

On another weekend, we head off to summit Moel Siabod.

Unfortunately, there’s driving rain.

I own waterproofs and if your a walker, you cant be fickle about the weather .

That being said, I refuse to walk for hours in driving rain, so I politely stepped back from the walk (I’d hope the weather would improve on the way there).

Normally, I’d have sat in the car until the 3 other walkers returned, but luckily I was able to relax in the famous Moel Siabod cafe.

I had some lunch and coffee, and later a bottle of wine.

In the 4 hours I was there, I was able to read numerous copies of trail and other outdoor magazines and put plans together for 20 trips over the next 3 years.

So not a complete wast of time. My walking “companions” didn’t get to the top, as with altitude, the rain turned to snow.

Another interesting talk at the Chester Globetrotters the other week.

One I found fascinating, was about Swaziland (the worlds only remaining full Monarchy).

It also featured a Brilliant talk by Kevin (one of the organisers) about a trip around the middle east.

He’d given the talk previously, but I’d missed it, so I was made up to finally see it.

I’ve recently taken over the management of the Globetrotters mailing list.

If you aren’t on it, and want to be, please get in touch and I’ll sort it out (thanks so much to Reggie for recommending mail-chimp which we use to run it).

On the subject of things on at Chester Museum, the Chester Film Society have started to put performances on there.

Additionally, I got a call the other morning from my friend Dave at the walking group. Turns out that evening (also at the Grosvenor Museum) there was a travel talk, put on by the Society of 13.

The Soc13 as I call them (it makes them sound like some sort of black ops outfit, which they clearly aren’t) put on talks and events.

That evening, they were hosting John Pilkington in partnership with the Royal Geographical society. It was the first time I’d been to one of their events. It was very well organised and I even ran into Nikki’s parents who were also there.

The talk, Russia and Europe: what next was absolutely fascinating. He had stood on the hillside from the charge of the light brigade, taken photo’s in Chernobyl and drank Tea in a bombed building.

It’s showing throughout the year at different places, if you get the chance go and see it.

My cycling to work is proceeding well.

I now cycle 3 miles to work from Capenhurst.

On the way back, I now cycle all the way home. At 13 miles per day, I’m coming up on my 300th mile.

My bike locked up at my office in Ellesmere Port.

It still amazes me, that some people just lean their bike against the rack.

I think differently. I grew up in Newton Heath after all. If something isnt locked and you leave it, it might as well be gone already.

When I was 7, mum was taking David and I to school. During the drive there, she said there would be a suprise for us when we get home.

We did everything we could to get mum to tell us, but she was tight lipped.

When she picked us up from school, she made us wait until we got home, and then, there it was. Our black and white tv had gone and in its place was an amazing colour tv.

I cant describe the elation as we flicked through the channels and all the programs I normaly watch seemed to jump into life in colour.

We washed our hands and faces and then had tea (dinner if your from the South) and then we sat together and watched my first colour film, The Magnificent Seven.

Chez Jules in Chester have an event on upstairs in their restaurant, where you have dinner and watch a classic film

So there, all those years later, Nikki and I went to see Mag7 once again. What a fantastic experience, which I’d definitely recommend.

Our 2nd weekend away in March was to Snowdonia.

Picked up at 5pm from work and we set off.

Since the clocks had gone back, it was nice to be driving in daylight.

We returned to my favourite place in Snowdonia, Llanberis, once again staying at the Youth Hostel there.

We cooked some dinner, opened a bottle of wine and settled in for the evening.

In the morning, we head into the town to meet our friends from the Chester and District Walking Group.

Our meeting point was the legendary Pete’s Eat’s where they sell food in large portions and pint mugs of tea.

Our goal for the day, was a circuit over and back around a mountain called Moel Elio, which we’d nicknamed the Elephants back (more about that later).

We’d walked it previously, which is always the preferred way to lead a walk.

You can see the hill was quite steep.

After a couple of hours walking, were at the top, and you can see all the way to the top.

It was quite windy, so we found a spot behind a wall and had lunch.

Dropping back and circling around, you can see Moel Elio from the side and why we call it the Elephants back.

Back into town for a drink and a chat with our friends. From here, they all head home and Nikki and I return to the Youth Hostel.

A sit down and a bottle of Moretti beer, then off for a shower and get cleaned up.

We had a dinner booking at the Peak Restaurant.

I really like it there, as they sell “normal” food like beef and ale pie, but in a fine dining style (and Nikki really likes the wine there).

Some chocolate cake to wash it down, a few more drinks and then off to bed (it had been a long day, but we had more adventures planned for the following day).

Up early and we drive out of Llanberis, towards Snowdon.

Parking near the Vaynol arms pub, we set off with Nikki taking the lead.

Elidir Fawr was our goal.

But this wasn’t a hill walk in the normal sense.

It’s one of the Snowdon 3000’s and its a brutal 1:2 gradient over heath (there’s no path to speak off, and frequently involves scrambling).

After an agonising walk, we get to the top.

Therese a sort of “birds” nest of rocks which is appreciated as its very windy.

The spot is said to feature the best overall view of Snowdon.

Looking towards Snowdonia.

We met up with a fell runner who had jogged over from Llanberis (it had only taken him an hour).

The view in the other direction was incredible.

As we head back down the hill, we pass the reservoir that feeds Snowdonia’s famous power station “hidden” inside a mountain.

At the bottom we have a drink the Vaynol Arms before heading home.

Traffic is terrible on way home, so we stop in Llandudno and have fish and chips.

While there, I see the Grand hotel on the sea front, a place a used to see frequently on caravan holidays in my youth.

Just like the Snake Pass Inn, I’ve always promised myself that I’d go back there and so I’ve added it to my mind-map for this year (along with completing all the Snowdon 3000’s).

I’m pretty switched on about stuff, and I’m on a lot of mailing lists for deals on travel, hotels, theatre and stuff like that.

One of my key information tools on my adventure journey is that I work in an office with some Millennials.

They literally know everything that’s going on. My friend Matt mentioned that Virgin were doing a seat sale and why didn’t I have a look and see if there was anything that suited me.

As usual, it was cheap going there one day, and expensive coming back the next. But, I found I could travel from Chester to London at 7:30am and come home again 6:10pm for £20 return trip.

I booked it 10 mins later and Nikki and I began planning our fast track trip to London.

We prepared our own breakfast and made our way to the train (Chester station is only 5 minutes from my house).

Just to the left of this picture, you can see a lone head. Its Nikki, this was our Jeremy Corbyn moment…

We had an entire carriage to ourselves, and I took this shot as I was returning after getting coffee’s

We used the 3 star system that has served me well in trip all over the world and made a list of place to see.

I knew all too well that things can end up taking longer than you intend and this can have a knock on effect for the next and subsequent places you want to visit.

So, strict discipline to the clock throughout the day.

 

Other important thing was getting around. I much prefer to wander on foot while exploring, but to see everything we’d need to travel almost exclusively on the London Underground.

We emerge from the Tower of London tube-station.

It was a lot cheaper to book things online and print your own tickets.

It also meant you could just walk straight in, without queuing which was ace.

Once inside, we see a talk by one of the Beefeater’s.

A beefeater must have served in her Majesty’s forces for 22 years before applying to work at the Tower. It must be pretty cool, as they get to live there as well.

With limited time, head off on our own.

The Crown Jewels are obviously a must see sight, and known for their enormous queue’s.

We’d factored this into our plans and put it first on our list.

No photographs can be taken inside, but I thought they were quite splendid, regardless on your thoughts about the Monarchy.

Unsure of the protocol when speaking to the Guards, I asked if it would be ok to photograph him. He remained completely motionless.

I said “I’m going to presume its ok” then took the shot and said “Thank you”.

I can only imagine the 10’s of thousands of pictures he appears in, in photo albums all around the world.

Another section of Tower, is the fusiliers museum, a regiment who are based here (there were video’s of men training for the 2nd world war in the grounds).

Inside, it had 2 Victoria Crosses, and this Napoleonic Eagle, captured in the Peninsula war (which I heard was the inspiration for similar events in the book/tv series Sharp).

There was some stuff about a steel boot and how it had helped to stop desent in the regiment.

I couldn’t imagine what they meant, until a read it. Basicaly a shirker had an injury to his leg, which he claimed would not heal.

They made a steal boot that was locked and would completely enclose the leg. And sure enough a week later, it had healed (and he got 50 lashes).

The white tower is an incredibly beautiful building.

It has has stood in the grounds of the Tower of London for 900 years.

Inside it had loads of old suits of armour and swords, which frankly I found a bit dull.

It’s said that if the Ravens ever leave the tower, it will crumble and fall.

There are always 6 Ravens, and they have a spare just in case.

I had read that their wings are clipped so they cant fly away. I was surprised to find that they were in cages anyway, I presume this was to protect the general public as they can be quite viscous.

We got up onto the battlements and walked all the way around.

There was an interesting sign about the Duke of Wellington.

I hadn’t realised, that for a period of time, Wellington had actually been Prime Minister.

On one occasion in the house, during a debate, he took issue at something his debating opponent had said, and challenged him to a duel !.

But this is tourism after all.

As we wander along I offer to buy Nikki a gift and crown her as my Queen.

She comments that she would like to “crown” me, but in an entirely different way.

She eventually declines my kind offer and says she wants to be sick !.

Tower bridge, frequently confused with London Bridge is somewhere very special.

Its an iconic symbol of my country and so you might be surprised to hear that I’ve never walked across it.

We could see enormous queues for the Tower bridge tour (originally built by the Victorians it was steam powered until 1987).

Everything is running to schedule, so when we reach the opposite bank, we take some time to wander along the bank of the Thames.

Its getting on for 1pm, so we stop for dinner at a traditional London pub called the Mudlark.

Nikki has fish and chips and I have Pie and mash.

Washed down with a few drinks, we are suitably re-energised and continue on our way.

I took this picture back across the river (it reminded me of the sort of think you see in Lucky Man).

It features famous London buildings like the Walkie Talkie and the Gherkin.

I can only imagine how much extra it costs to make a building that isn’t the normal square shape.

Only 10 days earlier a terrorist atrocity had resulted in 5 deaths, including a Police officer.

We were passing by on our way to see another popular attraction.

A sobering moment, but democracy and freedom come at a cost.

The classic statue of Winston Churchill gives a hint of where were going next.

Outside, people are queuing for upto 2 hours, to get inside and see the Cabinet rooms.

If they’d just taken 5 minutes to book online, they could have walked straight in as we did.

The cabinet war rooms, has many rooms setup roughly as they would have been during the 2nd world war, when the war effort was co-ordinated from here.

In many ways similar to Bletchley park. This room, was Churchill’s telephone room, which gave him a secure, direct line to Roosevelt, the American president.

The venue also has a museum dedicated to Winston Churchill.

To be honest, I’m quite well read on Churchill, so I’d seen/read most of it before and there wasn’t anything in the museum that really jumped out at me.

Instead, this replica of 10 Downing streets door, which features some comments he made on becoming prime minister.

The thing I really came to see.

OK, a minor moan. Just like Bletchley park and similar venues, they have rooms with some old wallpaper, and old desk and some other stuff, and say its a re-creation of Alan Turings desk, re-creation of Churchill’s bedroom etc.

But its not really is it ?

However, at the end of the 2nd world war, the door to the Map Room was locked and it remained exactly as it was until it was re-opened decades later.

It was here, that war was fought. Completely authentic and you could feel history as you looked at it.

It didn’t take long for me to see everything I wanted to at the Cabinet rooms, and we were once again above ground.

As I said earlier, freedom and democracy aren’t free.

After wandering through St James Park, I made a point of visiting the National Police Memorial, to pay my respects to PC Palmer who had been killed in the recent attack.

This isn’t a political site, and I wont get into the one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter thing.

What I will say, is that a man got up that morning, kissed his wife, hugged his son and then went out to work, not knowing he’d never return.

It doesn’t feel like we’ve seen much, but its getting towards the end of the day.

As we walk towards Trafalgar square, you can see the sky. The weather was amazing, all day.

Our final trip is the National Gallery.

Some of the most amazing paintings in the world hang here, and its free to visit.

But its also quite modern and contemporary, apparently there’s a picture of the Smith’s in here somewhere.

Knowing we had limited time, I looked on their website, and they said if you only have an hour, these are the 30 must see pictures.

Nikki and I managed to see 20 + of them.

And then, the best bit.

The Fighting Temeraire as featured in the James Bond film Skyfall where Bond and the new ‘Q’ meet for the first time.

Well, a fab day complete, we head back to Euston station (I wasn’t looking forward to it, they have an awful pub and Macdonalds and not much else…).

But I was wrong. The pub has closed down and a load of new places have opened.

We get a beer and a glass of wine at Gino’s Italian. Quiet and relaxing, the perfect end to an amazing day.

A bottle of wine on the train home and then dinner at Artichoke in Chester.

Can’t wait for the next £10 deal, I’ll keep “monitoring” the millennials, stay tuned.

It’s ironic to be frustrated by the difficult decision of where to go for the years “big trip”.

After much deliberation, its Namibia.

The cost of visiting Namibia is extremely expensive (and that’s comparing it to places like Cuba and Myanmar (Burma) which weren’t 50p either!).

However it has some incredible sites like the one above, of entire ships left in the desert of the skeleton coast.

It also features extensively in Wilbur Smith’s novel the Burning Shore. Sadly, I wont get to meet any real San bushmen but it isn’t a bushcraft course after all (Nikki wouldn’t be going if it was) and we get to meet  other indigenous tribes.

As some of you know, we go away for the whole of Christmas and New Year every alternative year (and why not, when else can you get 9 or 10 consecutive days off for an investment of 3 days holiday).

This time, we’ve decided to visit Sicily. It’s our usual format, where we visit 4 destinations for 2 nights each (although what those are has yet to be researched on the big computer on a wet Sunday mentioned later 🙂

Valentines came around again, and the usual juxtaposition of the flowers being delivered to me and then me bringing them home and giving them to Nikki.

As usual, I cooked, although this year I moved away from Jamie Oliver Sea-bass, and instead made a fusion mix of Chinese starters and a Thai main (green curry).

It was different in other ways too. Since the tragic departure of Tom from Corks Out, we’ve sort of fallen out of love with the place. So for the first time, the wine was sourced (as an experiment) from Waitrose. It was really nice, and I plan to attend a wine tasting there soon.

Chester has also benefited from the opening of a new wine bar in town. Veeno has been a fixture of Liverpool for a while and they have opened a place in Chester right near the town hall, in what used to be a pasty shop.

We really like it there.

But back to valentines.

This year, in addition to valentines day celebrations, we’d decided to go away for a weekend together.

Some years ago, My brother David, Mac, Cazzie and Lee all drove out on a Saturday afternoon to Snake pass (Mac was the only one of us who could drive at the time and we got there in a Ford Escort he’d borrowed from his mum).

We stopped on the pass at a hotel and bar called the Snake Pass Inn.

The weather was amazing and the ramblers bar was full. People were sitting in the car park drinking and talking and the atmosphere was excellent.

In the main hotel, families with men in shirt and tie, were settling down to Sunday lunch.

For no reason I can remember, we went down through the forest next to the river and played football. A day I’ll never forget.

So with so many happy memories for me, it seemed an ideal venue for our weekend away.

Well times have changed a bit. The place is a bit run down, doesn’t have such well to do clientèle and has been up for sale for 4 years.

Worse, the previous management had walked out 4 days before we arrived.

I was a bit concerned at first but then thought better of it. Its a traditional coaching house in the middle of nowhere and we were happy to be there just relaxing.

A stand in manager was on site with various volunteers and some Dunkirk spirit.

We had something nice to eat and some reasonable wine.

During the daytime, the plan was obviously to do some walking (there are a dozen excelent routes right outside the front door).

At this time of year, as a walker you plan for everything, but this view through the window at breakfast was still a shock.

No matter, we got ready and set off.

A good route would take us up the valley and back down to one of our favourite places in the Peak District, Hayfield.

If we timed it right, we could get there, have fish and chips from the chippy and trot back.

Better still, if time was on our side we could do a quick side route on the way back to Kinder Downfall (a famous waterfall in the area).

The temperature was freezing.

Because of the snow, it was very difficult times to work out where the path went so sometimes we were just smashing through bogs, which left our feet very wet.

Logistics weren’t on our side, and it didn’t look like we’d make Hayfield and back before dark (and from the picture above, you can see this wasn’t somewhere you wanted to be at nightfall).

However, the view of the countryside was fantastic and we were in high spirits, so we headed for Kinder Downfall.

Weather conditions worsened (ice had frozen onto my hat and waterproof jacket).

We decided to turn back, and do it again in the summer.

Overall, a fab day out and this time, Steak for dinner.

After a fun evening in the bar with a roaring fire, we headed for bed exhausted.

Our room was a bit cold, so I “shored up” our quilt with a combination of down and fleece jackets.

In the morning another fab breakfast (one great thing about hill walking, if your out for the day, you can eat a full English without any feelings of guilt as you’ll burn of all of that and more).

A shorter route today, as we’ll be heading home in the afternoon.

We head down through the forest this time. This was the place on a sunny day all those years ago, that I actually played football without complaining I was so happy.

There’s still snow everywhere and wandering further we come to this bridge and cross the river.

We wander along the valley in the other direction. I remember my brother saying years ago, that the place looked like Canada.

We’d already checked out of the hotel, but we popped back in to change our wet clothes and had coffee before setting off.

I saw this amazing board, which had pictures of the pass frequently blocked by snow. In this picture, there were 15 feet snow drifts which had been cleared with multiple snow ploughs.

That was after people in the pub had been stranded for several days, drank the bar dry and at one point had to burn furniture to keep warm.

It’s time to head home and once again, the pass is blocked due to snow and we have to drive the long way back.

I also notice that they now have a new sign 🙂

Thing is, this place might not be what it once was, but the only difference now, is that less people seem to go there.

You can change that if you want.

The only reason I have money and time to do the adventures I do, is because I’m pretty organised.

This Merino wool jumper from Rohan is perfect in just about every way a jumper can be.

With one exception. It just looks awful on me.

So last week I put it on ebay and sold it.

Interestingly, I now have some money to spend on adventures and dont have this guilt thing of not wearing it hanging over me.

On the subject of organisation and ideas. My idea factory.

Goals for the year are always listed (and reviewed) in brief in my mind map.

Activities are organised in my week/weekend planner (email me if your thinking of doing something similar or have a similar system, I’d love to discuss it).

The essential 3rd process is the brainstorming, where the ideas actually come from. I call this my idea factory, and I thought I’d explain how I do it in case its useful to someone.

Venue: A proper pub. An empty house is too quiet for my thought process and a well run pub won’t have noisy idiots or anything like that.

Equipment: Relevant magazines and books and my notebook and pen (I normally use my space pen, but on this occasion had this one from advanced bionics).

I can use my phone to check dates in my calendar but no other purpose. Remember that this is just the capture process, and research that comes from it will be done on a wet Sunday on a powerful computer with 2 enormous monitors). Oh, and finaly a pint of Moretti, Asahi, Peroni or Budvar.

From here, I’ll normally get about 20 ideas, which may vary from 2 weeks in Cuba to cooking a particular meal.

Typically, of the 20, 2 will be infeasible, 4 will be put on the mindmap for the following year.

The remaining 14 will be fully researched and then completed (with enthusiasm)  as quickly as possibly.

One idea I had recently was losing a significant amount of weight for 2 ambitious walking trips I’m intending to do later this year (Hadrians wall, 20 miles + per day and Mount Toubkal in Morocco a 4000m peak.

There’s loads of information out there about losing weight, but in its essence it creating a calorific deficit (or taking more calories out, than you put in).

So, first thing, is recording and measuring. My friend Julie recommended a website/app combination called Nutracheck. Using it, I work out a plan of how many calories I can eat per day, and ideally how many calories I should burn in exercise. Plan is to lose 10% of my bodyweight by the 8th of May (or the weight of 1.5 old style Dell 15 inch monitors for those that remember them).

The next thing is exercise.

I absolutely love walking, but it just doesn’t burn calories fast enough around work in the winter.

I’m really into cycling at the moment, so instead of getting 2 trains to work, I get on the first one with my bike and then cycle to the office (3.2 miles) and do the reverse at the end of the day.

So far, everything is going to plan and I’ve lost 8 pounds.

People have asked me how I’m making it work so well, and the honest answer is something I read by Tony Robbins. The key is to make things real to you (ie find something personal that you connect with).

When I see a chocolate bar and feel like eating it, will the idea that I’ll feel better in myself or increase my concentration by eating more vegetables motivate me to stop ?

Off course not. What will actually focus and motivate me ?.

1. When I cycle home, I get home 45min earlier than I would if I got 2 trains. That’s almost 4 hours a week, and I can do a lot with that time.
2. I have a box in my wardrobe with some of my favourite clothes I can no longer wear. When I hit goal weight I’ll be able to wear any of them I like.

Just to prove that adventure is everywhere, as part of my weight loss plan, I try to go for a walk at lunchtime 3 days out of 5.

The other day I spotted this fox near some railways lines.

If you look on the top right of the screen, you may see a countdown timer and a few people have asked me what its for.

Well, if you have a normal job in the UK, there will be 141 days in the typical year when you can go out in pursuit of adventure if you want to.

I dont think I’ve ever done all 141 but I constantly strive to do as many as I can. I also list all my planned adventures on a whiteboard next to my bathroom at home (its the first room I walk into each day).

The countdown is too my next adventure and updated each time its completed.

This weekend I’m going to see Alan Carr, walking up Moel Siabod, cycling 16 miles, going wine tasting and eating at a Brazilian steak house.

The following weekend were off walking in the Peak District staying at Ravenstore Youth Hostel (my first visit).

Its organised by my old friend Cheryl from CDWG who now lives in Birmingham and did something similar on a trip to Ironbridge a few years ago.

Near and far the search for adventure continues…

OK, when I say dark times, I’m not getting all “Lord of the Rings”. I’m meaning simply that its January and February when most small animals are resting in the warm and “developed” species like ours are able to carry on working productively.

So, not much adventure to report, to be honest. I’ve spent several weekends and evenings, prepping the house, taking clutter to the charity shop and generally getting organised.

As it says in Don’t sweat the small stuff, on the day you die there will be things to do in your in tray.

That’s fine, but I want to use most of this years free time to go adventuring, and its easier to do that, if you dont have something nagging in the back of your head, that a cupboard needs clearing out or a pension fund needs transferring.

As part of my routine, I checked over all my equipment, oiled and sharpened penknives, checked the contents of first aid kits and just as important, check the stitching and suchlike on rucsascks and boots.

Once that was done, Nikki and I spent several weekends brainstorming this years adventures, culminating in a 2 day “hot house” session last weekend.

We’ve booked more than 8 weekends away in the UK, 4 days to do Hadrians wall, 5 days in Portsmouth and overseas trips to Morocco, Sicily and Namibia.,

On top of that, we’ve arranged to go and see multiple talks, comedians, trips to the theatre and films for the times in between when we cant get away.,

I still expect to do even more than this, but it’s a framework to get started.

Our next planned adventure, is a trip to the Snake Pass in for valentines weekend and 2 days of walking in the Peak District.

I first visited there some years ago with Lee, Mac, Caz and my brother David. I remember we played football down by a stream, then we all had Coke in the pub (I mean Coca Cola, none of us drank then, and the only hard drugs I saw in my youth were on the tv).

Inside they had black and white pictures from the 70’s when the pass was snowed in, and everyone was stranded in the pub for several days (apparently, they had to break up chairs and tables for the fire, to keep warm).

Well, all these years later I’m going back, and I’m really looking forward to it.

It’s also that time of year again, when my friend Tony comes around and ends up standing in front of a cream coloured wall in my house.

He sought my help on another adventure trip, this time to India and Nepal, and on top of other assistance, we had to get him a visa so it involved emailing pictures to the embassy.

From everyone here at johnsunter.com, we wish Tony and his friend a good time on their trip, which should give them plenty of chance to practice swearing.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been helping out a friend at work called Matt, with an adventure trip to Morocco.

After various conversations, it got me to thinking. Are there 10 useful adventure “tools” that cover most of the spectrum of adventure from a cultural weekend in Rome, the lake district in winter, to the Namibian desert.

Purely to assist discussion, I’ve picked my 10. Please remember that this is not meant to replace specialist equipment like a first aid kit.

1. Waterproof Jacket

Getting wet is not nice (and remember even if its not raining, a waterproof will stop cold wind, which a jumper probably wont).

I prefer a really light one that you can fold down to the size of a tennis ball.

Get one that extends to the upper thighs and is a nice colour (a waterproof is very usefull in the hills, but a stylish waterproof can be worn in the hills and for traipsing around New York, in the rain.

2. Headtorch

The usefulness of a torch, doesn’t need to be explained here, and in mountain environments can be the difference between life and death.

A torch, is just a torch, but a headtorch can be worn on the head for hands free work or produced from a pocket and held in the hand to find dropped keys on a walk back from the pub.

I’ve always preferred the Petzle brand and ht’s that run on 3 AAA batteries you can get almost anywhere in the world.

3. Orange bivvi bag

An orange bivvi bag should be taken on every walk. At the very least it can be laid out on the ground and used to sit on while eating sandwiches.

In an emergency, it can be used as a waterproof/windproof shelter and its reckoned for their weight they have saved more lives than rescue helicopters.

4. Swiss Army Knife

For some adventure environments more specific tools like parangs or sharp fixed blade knives for skinning are better.

The Swiss Army Knife (the one above, isn’t an original Victorinox by the way, but the picture is good) is a do everything tool from opening parcels to repairing spectacles and sharpening pencils.

Large blade, small blade, tin/bottle opener and screwdrivers are generic across the range.

My preferred additional functions are saw, scissors, tweezers and awl. Some newer ones have replaced the corkscrew with a cross head, avoid this at all costs, as a Philips can be improvised much more easily than a corkscrew.

Make a small lanyard from paracord, so you don’t drop it in cold weather. Should be regularly oiled and sharpened, and obviously when travelling on a plane needs to be stowed in the hold.

5. Whistle

I’ve worn one of these around my neck on adventures for the best part of 30 years.

On a recent talk by Ray Mears he said you should buy several whistles and put one in the pocket of every jacket you might wear while adventuring outdoors.

I quite like the lifeventure whistle, its a fiver but if your ever in trouble, you’ll be glad you spent the money.

The six bursts for emergency and 3 bursts reply (for those that remember it) has been superseded and its important to know the difference.

3 short bursts on the whistle every 60 seconds means I need to be rescued.

6. Lighter

If you’ve every carved a firebow and made fire from friction, you’ll know how rewarding it is…

… and how completely impractical it is for normal life. Stick by the axim of survival school and always make fire (if you need to make one) by the simplest means.

4 for £1 represents the best value in outdoor equipment I think I know off.

If you staying in bothy’s or shelters or something like that, might be worth taking some tea lights as well.

7. Mobile phone in a waterpoof bag

In a bar with wifi, get messages home, confirm flights, check emails, post pictures to friends.

On a boring flight, games like chess and interesting fiction and films to keep you going.

When exploring a new location, maps, travel podcasts and lists of places to see if you haven’t had time to buy a guidebook.

Acts as a backup camera and can save weight as a substitute walkman (a personal stereo to those born in the last 10 years).

Using a mobile in emergency’s has saved lives before and almost certainly will do again.

I have heard daft story’s where people went hill walking and left a map and compass behind, relied on the GPS on the phone (which didn’t work) and then relied on the phone to contact mountain rescue when they got into difficulty (which also didn’t work). Keep one handy, but NEVER really on it exclusively as your emergency plan.

Always keep in a waterproof bag and have a power monkey in your kit if on a long trip.

8. Money belt

Nothing inspires me more than watching Ray Mears walk into a forest and build shelters, light fires and all sorts of stuff like that using just his skills.

However, in most of the world that I occupy, money is pretty essential too (especially when your in countries where people earn a dollar a day – they don’t have a surplus to feed you if you’ve lost YOUR money.

For that reason, I really like the lifeventure money belt. It’s a brilliant belt in its own right and unlike leather, isn’t affected by getting wet, insects or direct sunlight.

It’s plastic so it won’t set off metal detectors in airports and has an internal zip compartment to store cash (best folded lengthways into thirds).

9. Paracord

Hundreds of uses, and in emergency’s you can use the inner core for fishing line and for sewing.

Always worth learning important knots and practising re-tying them (which can speed up a long train journey).

10. Cereal Bars

If something goes wrong and you miss your breakfast or you find yourself somewhere exotic and there’s nothing that you want to eat…

… or if your sat in a snowhole and you need emergency food.

Cereal bars. They rock.

The End

What do you think, are there some things you’d include/remove or some things I’ve listed you think are just plain daft.

Either way, give me a shout, and let’s hone this list to perfection.

Near and far, the search for adventure continues…

If any of the stuff you read on this website clicks, then get a piece of paper now and write down 10 adventures (no matter how small, but be as ambitious as you can) you will do in 2017.

In your search for adventure you may find the following groups and resources usefull. It was, after all, Isaac Newton who said “If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

You don’t have to learn everything by mistakes and re-inventing the wheel, most people I’ve met on my adventure journey willingly gave their time and assistance.

The Chester and District Walking Group.

The Chester Globetrotters.

The Walking World website.

The Youth Hostel Association.

I’ve got loads of stuff I’m planning in the next few weeks, and the format of the website is going to change slightly as an experiment.

Instead of putting up pictures and words about places I’ve been and things I’ve done, I’m going to write articles about how to plan a trip, what to take and stuff like that (thanks to Matt at work for this suggestion and best wishes with his Trans-Europe and Morocco trips).

Happy New Year from everyone here at johnsunter.com near and far, the search for adventure continues…

Well, the last 8 weeks of 2016 were mad busy with holidays and trips and stuff going on at work.

Back down to earth now and a catchup on johnsunter.com – quite a lot here, but I’ve tried to let the pictures do the talking and keep my rambling to a minimum (well, verbal rambling that is).

Above are some of the fantastic presents I received for Christmas.

The new Ray Mears book, Out on the Land, a small keg of Budvar lager and 4 mugs which Nikki bought me, with pictures of me in a sort of seven ages of man/four ages of John Sunter format.

For no reason in particular, my old mate Ganders (who’s “proper” name is Andrew Ganley) mentioned a tv show from the 70’s we both remembered called Shoestring.

In it, a former computer programmer has a change of life and becomes a detective for a local radio station (and he’s nicknamed the private ear).

I commented that throughout the series, he was treated with mystique and awe for his super intellectual skills on account of him previously being a computer programmer.

Funny, I’ve worked in various fields of IT for 25 years, and nobody “down the pub” has ever treated me that way 🙁

Well, the first hit of my adventure episodes was a meet up with my old friend Sarah.

I’ve always been grateful to Sarah, who I first met at the Chester Globetrotters. After my first visit there, a few of us went for a drink and she told me about a pretty smart walking group.

That was the CDWG where I’ve done more than 100 walks, I’m on the committee, have made loads of really good friends and I met Nikki there.

I’m known locally as a flash bastard, so we met up in the cafe in Asda in Ellesmere port, near where I work.

She brought here lovely daughter Eva, who was actually born on Christmas eve.

At work the company committed to match any contributions made by employee’s to specific charity’s so I volunteered as charity champion for the Woodland Trust.

Our main income stream was people wearing Christmas pullovers and paying £2 each time they did (hence this billy can I setup in reception with little pictures of jumpers on it).

I raised a respectable £139 which I’m quite pleased with, and I’d like to thank my many colleagues at work for their contribution.

At work on the Friday before Christmas.

Everyone was in a festive mood, and we ordered Pizza for lunch.

Because of the way the days fell, I was able to have 2 Christmas eves.

The first one, on Friday evening, was some “me” time, where I had a buffet of food which Nikki described earlier as a “heart attack in a bag”.

I also had Call of Duty ready to play, all sorts of appalling music that I really like and my train set.

I finished the evening with a medley of my favourite opening scenes from James Bond and Mission Impossible.

All washed down with a nice Rioja.

Next day its Saturday. Up early and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

I wander into town, meet up with Nikki, do some shopping then some nice wine in Corks Out and dinner at Urbano 32.

Back to Nikki’s house and we spend Christmas eve with Fi and Jed and their lovely daughter Amy.

In the morning its Christmas day and we go out for a walk.

Nikki’s sister and sisters husband Vic are staying over so we head for Wepre woods.

I gave them both a present I thought they’d like.

The previous day, I’d bought some para-cord (as though I dont have enough lying around the house) and 2, Fox 40 howler whistles.

I made them up with 2 double fisherman knots, so they had 1 each and could wear them around their necks for emergency’s.

Not expensive gifts, but I hope really useful.

Where did I get the idea ?

As you can see in this picture from my youth (sent to me by Nadiah, thanks Nard) , I got into the habit of wearing a whistle around my neck for emergency’s some years ago.

Back at Nikki’s house everything is getting ready for Christmas dinner (and some silly nonsense about opening presents in the late afternoon rather than first thing in the morning, but Nikki’s house, Nikki’s rules).

Another tradition of Nikki’s parents is to watch the Queens speech. I must confess that I have never previously watched it from begining to end but I was able to do so this time as I set the tv up for them to watch it.

I’d also bought a DVD about Spitfires for Nikki’s dad to watch (he is fascinated by aeroplanes, was in the RAF and used to design them at British Aerospace). He seemed to enjoy it and then we all watched Frozen which I’d heard loads of good things about from Amy.

Years ago, I did several courses in Bushcraft and survival. Lots of people have asked me about this, but pictures done really capture it.

I got a DVD by Jonny Crocket from Survival School, where he demonstrates how to light a fire, put up a hamock and stuff like that.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it and then it was time for dinner.

We sit down, and here you can see my “emergency chair” of Peter Kay fame.

A lovely relaxing evening with ace food including Yorkshire puds and some nice wine.

Off to bed, another Christmas day over.

Not wanting to waste the holidays, we woke on Boxing day, bid our farewells to Lyn and Vic and then headed for Llandegla Forest to do a walk we’d seen on the walking world website.

The sun shining through these trees was spectacular.

Later we stopped by some picnic tables for lunch next to a lake.

Here Nikki poses with the rucksack I bought her as a Christmas gift (it’s an Osprey Talon 33, far and away the best rucksack in its class in my opinion).

The following day we’d planned to meet up with my friend Frank (he’d travelled from Thailand for a surprise visit to see his parents). Due to some train nonsense, we weren’t able to meet up.

We went walking again, and in the evening, met up with my old mate JK off Borneo and Morocco fame 🙂

In this picture, I’m not being ignorant. I have a new camera with an amazing feature. Instead of a timer for group shots, you set the camera up and then run an app on your phone that shows you what the camera can see. When your ready, you press a button on the phone and the camera takes the shot.

Only thing is, you need to remember to look at the camera.

I spent some time before Christmas practising my cooking.

Here, my interpretation of Singapore Noodles.

I bought some of these “mini chip pan’s” that are popular in a lot of pubs now, for serving chips in.

Three programs I was really looking forward to were Dr Who, Jonathan Creek and Sherlock.

I really enjoyed Jonathan Creek. Not the best episode, but a return to form considering some of the rubbish they were putting out about 2 years ago.

I think I’ve completely gone off Dr Who, considering how much I used to enjoy it and I think Sherlock is terrible (John Watson’s wife as some sort of super spy/commando never worked and still didn’t this time).

MAGALUF

Another plan before Christmas was to have a bit of a winter break in Magaluf.

I’d booked 2 days off on the Friday and Monday, flights & accommodation booked and I’m raring to go.

So, after rushing around all that week to get things ready (going away, the week before Christmas was never going to be easy) I find myself sitting in my living room waiting to be picked up and taken to the airport.

The time ticks by and I’m starting to get nervous. Then, I’m wondering if were going to make it and finally I get a text saying my friend had woken up with his alarm and then fallen back asleep.

We’d missed our flight and our trip was cancelled. I was fuming.

So I did what I normally do when I’m in a bad mood (which interestingly is the same thing I do when I’m in a good one)…

… I went for a walk.

As I wandered through Dukes Drive in Chester I remembered 2009, the darkest time in my life.

A year of unemployment, each day I did my job search, had a cup of tea and went for a walk here.

Once you leave the path, you can wander for hours in the forest.

I sat down and started to think. There were 4 people who were with me constantly in 2009. Not all of them are around now, but I’ll always be massively grateful for their assistance.

Back then, just having enough money for something to eat and worrying about losing my house were all that occupied my mind so sitting there in the forest, with sound financial support and a day off work really put things into perspective.

My failed airport pickup was one of those 4 poeple. I decided there was plenty to spare in the emotional bank account and no need to go overdrawn.

I decide that in my whole life, considering the number of adventures I’ve been on, it’s only the 2nd time I’ve missed a plane which is good stats. Within an hour, without a word, he’s put all the money lost into my bank.

With 4 days to myself I get loads of stuff done in the house and a chance to really relax at home.

BARMOUTH

Barmouth is a place I’d heard fantastic things about, and in summer its impossible to find a parking space there, let alone accommodation.

So, it’s winter and I’ve put on a walk in the CDWG program and off we go.

My first sight of the place is this car park, which is a bit of a let down but I keep an open mind.

Another walking world route, we meet Brian at the station, and get the train.

From here, we wander along the coast and then inland back towards Barmouth.

As we reach the bridge back into town, we meet up with Sue who has driven over to meet us.

Sue and Brian were the first 2 friends I made at the walking group, so along with Nikki, it makes for a pretty smart day.

We find a nice tea shop, and have Tea and cakes.

After Sue and Brian leave, Nikki and I go for a long walk along the beach, get some chips from the chippy and then find a nice pub.

From here, we head to Kings hostel where were staying for the night.

A superbly run establishment, and our room is like a cabin in the woods.

Next morning we’re up and drive down the country lane to our next walk (we find out that the path running from the hostel in the other directions goes to Cadre Idris – I make a mental note, that info will be good for next summer).

Arriving at Penmaenpool bridge we set off on the Mawddach trail to Dolgellau as featured in Julia Bradbury’s railway walks series.

After about 90 minutes, we arrived at Dolgellau, have some coffee, see a bit of the town and then walk back to the car and head for home.

Another fab weekend over.

WALKING GROUP CHRISTMAS WEEKEND

My sixth walking group Christmas do, and this year it was at Grassmere in the lake district.

I selected the first days walk to a place called Sargent Man. For practical purposes I let Brian lead the walk as he’s far and away the best navigator in our group after several years in the army.

Nice to be up in some real mountains and as you can see from the picture above, there was snow on the tops.

We stayed at Grassmere YHA, and in the evening had dinner together in our Christmas jumpers.

The following day we decided to walk to Ambleside along the coffin route (in years gone by, Grassmere had a church, but no graveyard so once the service was complete, a coffin would be carried across the foothills to Ambleside to be buried).

Throughout the weekend, although cold, the weather was perfect.

NEW YEAR IN AMBLESIDE

Final trip of the year, and were back in Ambleside.

It was my 5th weekend in the lakes this year and we drove their straight from work.

Just time to check in, go out for something to eat and then a few drinks around the town.

The hotel we stayed in did a continental breakfast. That would normally be fine, but for a day in the winter mountains, a full English was needed.

From here we headed up to Red Screes.

Although the weather looked fab it was actually really cold and the wind was howling.

So cold in fact, that I struggled to put my gloves on.

Back off the hills, its now New Years eve. We had a dinner reservation later that evening at the Thai Restaurant, Jintana.

We wandered around the shops, and Nikki bought me a smart new Rohan Jumper (a Microgrid Stowaway, for those interested).

We had time for a few drinks in Fino. They have Morreti beer on draft and a dizzying array of red wines. No wonder its our favourite watering whole in the town.

Once again, a spectacular meal at Jintana, then back to Fino where we count down the New Year.

The first walk of the New Year.

We head out across Loughrigg fell towards Elterwater (no specific route, just walking in the general direction following various paths).

At Elterwater, we have a drink in the Britannia pub. Hilarious scenes inside, where 17 people are queuing in 1 line to be served and some lunatic is ordering food, reading aloud from an ipad.

Had our drinks outside, wished everyone happy New Year and then headed off.

While there, we completed an official walk from Pub Walks in the lakes, so I was able to get a member of staff to sign the appropriate page in my book and then I circled the pub in the chapter heading.

I had the same book some years ago, but I’ve bought a new one now and I’m determined to do all the pubs in the book (there are 25 in total, in the 1 year I’ve been doing it, I’ve completed 9 pubs. I’m pretty good with lists 🙂

We carry on to Great Langdale, then circle around and walk back to Ambleside (Italian for dinner at Zeffreli’s this time).

Following day, we check out of our hotel.

Some things been bugging me. I’d been on the Rohan website before the trip and had a look at some of the items in the sale. I’d dismissed a £30 red jumper as I thought the colour was awfull.

When I’d seen one inthe show a few days earlier in the flesh, I really liked it, but they didn’t have one in my size.

They were good enough to find one for me in Keswick, but it would need to be picked up.

So off we drove to Keswick, where unfortunately, it was too early in the morning to go to the Old Keswikien chippy.

Once our purchase complete, we head for Whinlatter forest for the days walking.

There are mountain bike tracks there, but lots of good walking country as well.

Inside the forest, you can see it stretches for miles.

After about 5 hours of walking, we’ve also seen several hills in the distance, which we’ve earmarked for future trips (Keswick was the first place I ever visited in the lake district and after Ambleside its my favourite.

As we drive home, I reflect on 2016 and what a fantastic year its been. I can only hope that 2017 will be half as good.

Unfortunately, me trying desperately to get organised for Christmas has meant no recent update to johnsunter.com

Sorry about that.

Off now to the Rohan shop to take advantage of the sale, then I’ll be planning loads of interesting adventures for next year.

I’m back in work for 3 days, then off to the Lake District for 4 days to do some more mountains and get my pub walks book signed 🙂

Most of you know that 2009 was the darkest time I can remember.

Each year since then I’ve tried to make gradual and sensible life improvements. This year has surpassed all of my plans and expectations.

Most of you reading this have helped to make it possible, so thanks so much for that and see/hear from, you in the New Year for more adventures.

Finally, if you aren’t doing much for New Year, make a point of watching the Accountant. We went to see it last night, its fantastic.

Happy New Year, the search for adventure continues…