The Mini Moss Project » Camping

Yorkshire Dales National Park – Camping

barn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:07:25 +0000

The final camping trip of the summer was to the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 12-15 August. We camped with the Griffiths/Prentons and the Peppes and Kitty (Scotland) and the Hendriks (Amsterdam), so it seemed fairly central. The campsite (Mason’s at Appletreewick) was brilliant – on the river, just a couple of minutes from two pubs, and nowhere near anything else. The rivers were too swollen with all the rain to launch the kayaks, and the weather was a bit showery – but it was dry at most of the important times, including bathtime.

We spent a day driving round the Dales, planning to buy nearly every pub (they are all for sale). We spent another day at Bolton Abbey, especially at the stepping stones, which were an inch or two under water. The last day we Mosses went to Brimham Rocks to relive my childhood memories. The drive back down the A1 with tea at a Little Chef was also a highlight.

Photos on Flickr.

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Norfolk Camping

barn — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:30:36 +0000

We spent the last weekend of July camping in Norfolk. We stayed in the back garden of the Duke pub in Bacton. Nick, Nadege and Noe camped with us, and my Mum & Dad (in their motorhome) and sister (in our tent) stayed on the Saturday night.

Pip, Liz, the girls and I went to Merivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth on Saturday afternoon, which was everything I hoped for!

On the Sunday we spent the morning on Cromer beach where Indie had an early birthday party. Then the Suffolk Mosses returned home and the rest of us searched out some prime kayaking grounds.

We ended up at Blakeney, which is a beautiful little coastal village. Well, it’s not quite coastal – it’s separated from the sea by a mile or so of salt marsh, with a narrow channel connecting the harbour to the sea at high tide. We were there at low tide, but as the kayaks only draw around 6″ I thought we’d be able to make it.

After an hour of wading along the mud, pulling the boats through the 3″ trickle, we gave up waiting for the promised incoming tide, turned round and waded back to the cars. The trip was beautiful, and we met a surprising number of mud-dwelling Norfolk people in the middle of the marsh, but it wasn’t really what we expected.

Monday was spent hiding from the sun in Norwich castle, which is brilliant for kids. Although they’re not allowed in the dungeons or battlements, which limits the enjoyment for not-kids.

All the photos are on Flickr as usual.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Babes in the Wood

barn — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:54:18 +0000

We spent the last weekend of September camping, at an unusual campsite in Sussex. It must be the only Montessori farm-school teaching Christian Science, with a campsite, in the UK.

Inaccessible by car, a tractor took all our stuff into the wooded valley with space for around eight tents. We set up our three tents at one end, just a couple of minutes away by wheelbarrow from the tractor drop-off. There was a fire-pit, a stack of firewood, a composting toilet, and jerry-cans of fresh water delivered each day. There were also more toadstools than I’ve ever seen, including a complete ring of fly agarics.

We spent the evenings by the campfire. On the Saturday we went to the pub (twice) and almost walked to a reservoir. Sunday was swimming day to wash the children.

It was a brilliant weekend and we’ll probably go back, although maybe next time with a bit less stuff.

All my photos here.

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The Great Wilderness – Dundonnell and Fisherfield Forest

barn — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:54:41 +0000

Our second annual Highlands trip was at the end of April 2010, to Dundonnell and Fisherfield Forest, near Ullapool in Wester Ross, the Scottish Highlands.

Gin, Ol, Kitty, Griff and I (Pip was in a play in London so had to stay behind with the Grandparents for support) planned three nights of rough camping and Munro bagging. It didn’t go to plan because Flybe lost my bag on the way up – I didn’t fancy a 4° night in a tent wearing just my jeans and t-shirt – so we spent Friday night and Saturday morning finding a place to crash, and borrowing bits of kit. Anyway, once we’d begged and bought enough stuff that I could survive the weekend, my bag turned up, so we set off just 16 hours late.

The area is known as the Great Wilderness, and the further in you go the more remote it feels. Because we’d started so late, we camped only about five miles in, on the bend of a river under some budding silver birch trees. It was a perfect spot.

Even if it was surrounded by deer corpses – there were three within five meters, and they scattered the whole area, victims of this year’s particularly harsh winter… After setting up the camp, we took a little stroll to some waterfalls a mile or so off.

On the Sunday we had a choice of hills. The most dramatic, An Teallach, was not possible because the rivers were in spate and because the crags are dangerous enough in the summer when they’re not covered in snow. The girl who lent me some waterproofs had a friend who slipped off the path two years ago and fell to her death.

We chose Beinn a’ Chlaidheimh, the northern summit of a long ridged massif of three Munroes. First off, crossing the icy burn. It was a simple climb, with just a little scrambling at the top, and the weather was good throughout. The summit was attained after a few hundred metres along the snowy ridge, then we descended a little and stopped for lunch.

On the trip down we detoured to a waterfall before returning to another camp-fire, another great dinner from Kitty , and drank all the whisky we had left.

On the Monday morning we struck camp and walked out via the Shenavall bothy and the foot of An Teallach. The route was boggy but beautiful. We were back at the car for 2:30 and the airport for 4, and I was in the bath in London by 8pm!

Thanks everyone, I had a great time!. Full photoset is on Flickr here, and there’s a map here.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Last camping in the three-man tent

barn — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:40:17 +0000

Pip, Laurie and I spent our last free weekend before we’re in the drop-zone by going camping as a family of three for the last time. As it was the Tilmanstone Church Fete that weekend we camped outside Folkestone, and my Mum & Dad came in their motor-home as well.

We had a very English weekend – here’s our checklist!

Sitting in a tent in the rain
Scampi and chips in a pub
Sandy beach and sandcastles in the sun
Half a mile of thick mud between the end of the sand and the start of the sea
Church fete
Live jazz
Punch and Judy
Losing at tug o’ war
Barbecuing after the weather’s gone cold
Rowing boats
Blackberry picking (from rowing boats, extra points)
A picnic
A steam train ride
A miniature railway ride
A miniature steam train ride (extra points)
Climbing a lighthouse
A shingle beach in the drizzle
A cream tea on top of the White Cliffs of Dover, overlooking France.

The full gallery is here.

The Rough Bounds Of Knoydart

barn — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:18:12 +0000

Over May Bank Holiday, I walked around the Rough Bounds of Knoydart in the Western Highlands, with Ginny, Griff, Kitty and Swetty. The Knoydart Peninsula is the most isolated part of mainland Britain, and is only accessible by either driving 21 miles down Britain’s longest dead-end road then walking in for two days, or by open boat from Mallaig. It was a great trip, although it would have been better if I had managed to catch the train Gin & I were booked on – that would have saved an emergency £270 train fare before we’d even left London!

We chose the former, and left the car at Kinlochhourn on the Friday morning. We walked a wet seven miles (rain and rivers) down the shore of Loch Hourn, and slept in the bothy at Barrisdale that night because the weather was coming in and we’d arrived early enough to get a few bunks.

The day ended with a stunning rainbow spanning the loch.

The next day, the weather was even worse so we changed our plans and walked over the Mam Barrisdale pass to the tiny settlement of Inverie, rather than climbing Ladhar Bheinn. At 400m on the pass the wind was so string we could hardly stand, so it was the right decision. Also, Inverie has a pub (not just any pub, Britain’s remotest pub, and a pretty good one at that), which we were in by 2pm.

We camped on the bivouac site, on the beach with possibly the least shelter on the whole coast. I worked out why in the night – the ground was sandy, and the torrential overnight rain drained away – the rest of the land was peaty and a total bog.

We got up at six the next morning. Not only had the rain had stopped, but the sky was clearish and there was a light coat of snow on the tops. We climbed to the ridge of the corrie and spent the next five or so hours alternating between rain, freezing hail and long warm sunny patches. We could see the next few weathers as they queued up over Skye to approach in turn. The ridge went up and down a fair bit, and there was a little scrambling, but after lunch we got to the main body of Ladharr Bheinn and half an hour later we summited at 1010m.

The descent was much quicker as we bombed straight down the steep boggy shoulder and back to the pub for dinner. We camped again that night, then caught the 8:30 ferry to Mallaig. It was a freezing open boat and the 45 minute crossing drenched everybody in sea spray. After a breakfast where we had numb hands and couldn’t hold our forks properly, Griff and Kitty set off on the four-hour trip to fetch the first car. The rest of us caught the train (one of the top train journeys in the world, and a Harry Potter location) to Fort William to meet them, and drive back to Edinburgh for urgent shower facilities. I was back in work by Tuesday afternoon, exactly five days after I’d left.

The full picture gallery is here. If you’ve got Google Earth the KMZs are here and here.

Ben and Fran’s wedding – 16th August 2008

barn — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:44:12 +0000

Ben amd Fran became the Orsons on 16th August 2008 in Swansea.

We camped in the Gower – they don’t make websites like this any more – with Andy, Beulah and Aiofe. It rained a lot. We took the babies to the wedding too, the girls got on great.

Afterwards at midnight back at the campsite I took some light-painting photos – see this post for more details…

The full gallery is here.

The whole summer in one post

barn — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:53:18 +0000

Err, sorry, we’ve been a bit busy.

Anyway, here’s the whole summer (now officially over – I needed bike lights on the way home from work tonight) presented for your convenience in a single post.

We’ve been to three weddings – Mark & Tania’s, Ben & Fran’s, and Dom & Asia’s.

We’ve been camping in the New Forest, with the dive club to Dorset and Plymouth, with my Mum & Dad in France and with Andy & Beulah to Ben & Fran’s wedding in Swansea.

We’ve rented cottages for weeks in the Summer Isles and Snowdonia.

We went to Tilmanstone Church Fete and swam in Lord Pender’s swimming pool. We attended Sally’s garden party where Laurie directed proceedings from the pool, flounced about and helped Jo play the trumpet.

We visited Pip’s Granny a few times and were visited by lots of babies.

I discovered how to take light-painting photos after Ben and Fran’s wedding.

The left-hand tent contains Andy, Beulah and Aiofe. The right-hand tent contains Laurie. It is midnight and that’s the moon not the stars. I’m using my phone screen to paint each one. and The middle one says Mr & Mrs Orson.

See the other summer photos in the album here.

Camping in Dorset

barn — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:22:07 +0000

We took our new tent, our not so new daughter and a lot of other clobber to join the Dive Club camping down near Lyme Regis. It was a lovely long weekend and weather mostly bad just at night. Dad and Ginny and our star blog checker Helen came with us. Barn did some diving and we played on beaches.

In the evening we bathed Laurie like this

Lots of fun.

The rest of the photos are here.