5 Picturesque Towns and Villages in the Peak District
The Peak District National Park is known for its vast expanses of moorland and iconic gritstone edges. However, it also has a number of charming little towns and villages well worth the visit. Have you visited all of these picturesque places already? Read on for ideas for your next visit to the Peak District.
Essential Gear List for Successful Wild Camping and Backpacking
What to pack for a successful wild camping or backpacking trip? The chances are that you have already found out that people get very passionate about their camping gear. The materials, weight, size, brands – everything goes. There are people out there that have made camping into an art form! If you are not quite at that point yet – and just want to build a good basic gear list for wild camping – this post is for you! I will go through my wild camping gear list and the items I would not camp without. My kit is by no means the lightest or the most technical – but…
Staycation 2021 – Best National Parks to Visit in the UK
The UK is full of wonderful wild places! From the Scottish Highlands to the Cornish seaside. There is a rich variety of stunning landscapes around the country. And the best part is that many of the unique landscapes are represented by a variety of National Parks. Here is a list of the 5 best National Parks to visit in the UK in 2021. With tips for things to see and do to help inspire your staycation!
Easy Munros to Climb in Scotland
What are Scotland’s easiest munros to climb? Scotland has 282 munros, or hills above 914m/3000ft. Attempting to climb all of them is a surprisingly addictive sport known as munro bagging. This list collects together 9 easy munros for you to get started with!
From the Wall to the Wild – How to Start Bouldering Outdoors
Climbing has seen a huge boom in popularity over the recent years, with indoor bouldering gyms popping up in cities all over the world. What at one point was an esoteric pastime of a small minority, is now a popular and undeniably mainstream sport to be featured in the next two Olympic games. With so many new people getting into bouldering through indoor climbing walls – the transition to outdoor climbing is becoming more and more difficult. This article will walk through the most common questions people have about how to start bouldering outdoors.
Compass Corner: Lesson 6 – How to Use Compass Bearings
Welcome to the first lesson in the second part of the Compass Corner navigation series! The next five lessons will focus on intermediate navigation skills. During these lessons, we will cover subjects like; using time and distance as navigation aids, contour interpretation and contouring, as well as using the landscape to aid us with navigation. This includes how to handrail, aim off and choose catchment features. However, today’s lesson will answer the questions: how to use a compass bearing and what is magnetic variation? I covered the basics of compass use, and how to take a bearing, in the last lesson. Now, we will take a more in-depth look at…
Compass Corner: Lesson 5 – How to Use a Compass
In this lesson, I will cover the basics of compass use for navigation. Knowing how to use a compass accurately is crucial for more advanced navigation techniques. It also becomes very important when navigating complex terrain or in poor visibility. Read on for a complete introduction on what is a compass, and how to use it. Followed by an easy step-by-step guide on how to take a bearing. If you have a specific question or aspect of navigating, that you’d like to learn more about, feel free to drop me a message or a comment – and I’d be happy to answer it in a future lesson!
Compass Corner: Lesson 4 – How Create a Great Navigation Strategy
All the term ‘navigation skills’ really means, is the ability to look at a map, plan a route and follow it. A good navigator will break these bigger tasks into smaller objectives. They will then create a solid strategy for how to approach these objectives methodically and work through them. Creating a good navigation strategy comes down to the 4 Ds of Navigation. Most commonly, these stand for distance, direction, description and duration. Read on for how to use these to create a navigation strategy which allows you to confidently navigate anywhere in the world.
10 Reasons to Visit Scotland in the Winter
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Against popular beliefs, Scotland is a great place to visit in the winter! From snowy hikes on its beautiful mountains, to quiet roads and romantic getaways in the Highlands, there is so much to see and experience during the offseason. Read on for my list of 10 ultimate reasons why you should travel to Scotland in the winter!
Compass Corner: Lesson 3 – Orientating Your Map to the Ground
Orientating a map to the ground is a key skill and an important building block for developing your navigation skills. Orientating a map can be done using a compass and matching the map north with the compass north. However, this lesson will focus on how to orient your map without the help of a compass. This is important and will help you learn how to identify and match features on the map and the ground. Orientating a map means simply to line up the features on the map with those on the terrain in front of you. When doing this the map north will always match with the north on…
