With the Easter holidays coming up i decided to go backpacking & wildcamping in the Peak District, i had arranged to leave my car at the campsite & it also gave me opportunity to try everything out to make sure i hadn’t forgotten anything (which was highly likely).

So of i set up out of the campsite towards Stanage edge, the pack weight felt pretty good (considering I’d not scrimped on weight saving) and with the aid of trekking poles i felt pretty comfortable.

I made my way towards Fairholmes visitor center to have some lunch (they have huge cakes 😀) and from there i made my way towards a secret camp spot told to me by some good Twitter friends 👍.

After dodging a few bogs i got to the top of the last hill where i knew i had to head west, so i looked at my compass, west is that way, really that doesn’t look right i thought so i headed in what i thought was the right direction, it wasn’t so i had to do some course correction but after a while i found the place i had been looking for, it was still early when I arrived (about 4pm) so i set about filtering water then just chilling for a couple of hours before pitching the tent & getting my tea on.

Tea was a blaband Indian chicken stew meal & i have to agree with social media reports they are pretty good.

After tea i explored the area for a short time before retiring to my tent to read for a short while all the time forgetting i had a load of videos on a flash drive in my wallet (d’oh)

After a pretty good night’s sleep (only disturbed by the rain just after midnight) i awoke about 6 & wondered why it was still dark, so i looked outside & i was encompassed in mist.

So after my navigational discretion the day before i decided to try a different route out by following a path that followed the river, the path does have quite a steep drop at one side & would look pretty good in clear weather, however in this weather it was hard to make out the river below.

On the plus side this path did avoid the bogs i encountered on the previous day, (the only thing I’ve got to do in the future is find a better way to rejoin the main path) so after plenty of walking i made it back to the campsite around 2ish set up the tent to dry before nodding off in the van for a short while 😴

Conclusion

What went well

• Evernew spirit burner in a custom cone windshield boiled water in no time at all in my alpkit pot
• Gordon the Gorilla Rucksack fitted all my stuff in and carried really well
• Tent Hilleberg enan is easy & quick to pitch & has a large porch for my gear

What didn’t go so well

• Me believing i knew better than my compass
• Me moving too much during the night & getting tangled in the sleeping bag & my mat moving about
• Trying to dry socks on top of my pot resulting in melted socks

All in all it was a excellent trip & i look forward to more in the future.