Get Up Go Outside - Everyday Adventures 19

Making the Most of Dry Trails and Long Weekends

Ahhh, England has been bathed in a mini heatwave, and the countryside trails have opened up once again.
The area surrounding my village is notoriously muddy for most of the year—so much so that even wellies struggle to make walking the trails bearable. This usually means I have to drive elsewhere to spend time outdoors, more often than not, meaning I don’t bother.

The good news is, it’s around this time of year when the sun finally manages to stay out long enough to bake the mud dry. In turn, this reveals a whole world of wildness for me to go and play in again just as nature is doing her work to make everywhere so beautiful.

---

A New Running Buddy

We’ve been experimenting with letting Betty off her lead when it’s clear there aren’t any other dogs around, and with that has come the chance to gain a new running buddy. She’s been joining me once a week for a couple of miles. The search for places remote enough for her to be safely off-lead has led us to discover some interesting local spots we weren’t aware of before.

---

Van Life in the Peak District

Multiple bank holidays in the space of a few weeks have been filled with van trips to the Peak District. Being firmly in the heart of the Midlands, it takes over two hours in any direction to reach a beach (our usual getaway), so the Peak District is our nearest option for a quick weekend escape.

We’ve probably neglected it a bit in the past, as there didn’t seem to be much to do with a dog other than go walking. But I’m slowly bringing Faye around to hiking, and we’ve been building up distance by tackling some of the shorter routes in Ben Giles’ 40 Peak District Walks book.

Each trip has included at least one night in the van, and the novelty never wears off. There’s something that feels so natural about waking up and being outdoors almost instantly. Birdsong surely wasn’t meant to be missed by weekend lie-ins.

Over two separate weekends, our explorations took us to Mam Tor (on a wet, overcast evening to avoid the crowds), Minninglow Embankment, Thor’s Cave, Ilam Hall, Grindsbrook, and Hathersage Stepping Stones.

When I find myself with free time that isn’t spent outdoors, I usually end up reading or watching other people spend their time outside. Here are a few things that have taken my interest recently:

• Beau Miles is back with a new short film, Bad River III. Only this time he’s not exploring the oldest river in the world by kayak, but by foot. He run’s 100km along the dried up river bed, only drinking from the river itself, whilst reflecting on the impact every human has on the health of the river.

• Ordnance Survey has a series of guides and blogs for beginners to learn map reading. Ideal if your just getting into hiking!

• Check out Sketchplanation’s Fun Scale. Which type of fun is your preference? A few Type 3’s come to my mind!

  

Ever wandered what it would be like to live a nomadic lifestyle?

Charlotte Bradman’s The Happy Nomad is a story of the authors disconnect with society and the expectations to work all your life just to afford the live. She is open and brutally honest in her reflections of how she lost everything and in turn found herself.

This book is as much about breaking away from the autonomy of life as much as it is a first hand experience of living in a van, as the writer searches for happiness.

---

Thanks for reading Everyday Adventures. The next instalment will be coming in a few week’s time, so if you enjoyed reading this then please consider subscribing for free. In the meantime I’ve got a favour to ask! If you enjoy these newsletter then could you please send the link to a couple of friends of family members you think might also enjoy it… It’ll help share Everyday Adventures with more people!

This newsletter and all my blogs are free. If you would like to further support my work however, then you can by me a coffee for my next Everyday Adventure!

---