What I Carry.

To night I'm going to show you what I will have to carry with me when I go for my walk next week. I've numbered each item to make them easy to identify, you may need to click the picture and enlarge it to see the numbers more clearly though.

1 Rucksack

2 Sleeping bag - this is my down filled bag, I have a fleece one which is a bit lighter and would probably be good enough for this time of year but last week we had some quite cool nights so I thought I wouldn't risk it as there is nothing worse than lying awake because you're cold.

3 This is my sleeping mat, again it is the heavier of the two that I have but by far the more comfortable so I will suffer the extra weight.

4 Is my home made Yew walking pole. I do have a proper alloy walking pole but don't find it as nice to work with.

5 Is my tent.

6 Are the tent poles in their bag and wrapped in some plastic. I have this plastic sheet to put under the ground sheet of the tent just as a precaution really as the ground sheet on light weight tents aren't very thick.

7 Is just a little pouch with headache pills and bandaids and things that I might need but usually don't - as long as I take the pouch.

8 Three spare gas canisters for the stove.

9 Are my waterproofs, coat, trousers, gaiters, and gore-tex inner boots which I shouldn't need if my new boots do what it says on the tin. I'm not taking a chance on that though as wet feet are very bad and wet socks even worse when you have no way of drying them. With this set up I've crossed rivers that have been knee deep and still kept everything dry so I know it works.

10 Is enough food for the week, that includes the green pouch below the packets with the number 10 on it.

11 Maps and guide books.

12 Cooker and its carrying bag. I just use a basic camping Gaz cooker. There are probably better these days but it still works and has not let me down or anything in all the years I've had it plus I still have four new gas canisters so why swap it yet.

13 Is the pan for boiling water, thats the only cooking I will do, a blue plastic mug, a plastic bottle with powered tea or chocolate, not decided which yet. I don't carry milk so whatever I take will have to be ready to go by just adding water. There is also a yellow plastic bowl in the picture but I don't think I need that as you can eat the food straight from the pouch.

14 Water carriers, a plastic water bottle which I will carry full during the day to drink from and a water bag that will only be used in camp unless the weather is hot and I need to carry more water during the day in which case I will put a drop in the bag, you have to be careful how you pack it though as it could easily puncture.

The only other things that I will carry that aren't in the picture is a wallet with some beer money, my new satnav, camera and mobile phone. At that (With the plastic water bottle full) the pack weighs in at 40 pounds, I know the army carries more but I'm not on a route march so I don't want to go any higher than that if I can help it. With the lighter mat and sleeping bag I could probably have kept it down to around 36 pounds. My new boots are over a pound lighter than my old ones and its said that a pound on the foot is epual to on the back so I reckon at that rate I will be jogging the Pennine Way.

A Key Feature Overlooked.

There isn't much to report at the moment, or perhaps the truth is there is as much as usual to report but I'm not really in a reporting frame of mind.

One thing I do want to add that I should have done in my last post and that is to show my new PDA keyboard closed up. Such was my frame of mind at the time I clear forgot to show you its key feature which is its ability to fold up and be compact enough to slip in to your pocket or handbag which ever takes your fancy. As you can see from the picture below, when folded its small enough to fit in to the palm of your hand.

...and for those of you who weren't paying attention the first time here is a picture of it unfolder with PDA in place. The beauty of it is that there is nothing gimiky about it either, the keypad is nice to use and I can quite believe what Woody Wilbury says about Adam Hart-Davies writing his books on one. I've not attempted to write a book on mine but I've written emails and often use it to send a text message instead of using my phone keypad. For that sort of thing though you need to have your PDA connected by bluetooth to your cell phone.

Last night we booked two nights bed and breakfast in Dufton which is where I will meet up with Vicki in the middle of my walk. I think I now have everything I need for my walk. I've been testing my new boots and they seem fine. I've been using them on dog walking duties and I wore them all day at work last mowing day and there was no problems at all but I didn't expect any as I never had any trouble even with heavy leather walking boots, they fit well and feel nice to wear.

Thanks For My Presents & Best Wishes.

Hello everyone, Thanks Blackswamp_Girl, Lois and Merle for your best wishes. Not sure if I was being melancholy or what last night, just saying it the way it felt really. I didn't write the poem by the way, I just put it in the right place at the right time.

Anyway as you will see below I got some really nice presents for my birthday, this first one, a hand held Garmin satnav to take with me on my walks, this is from Vicki, I think she just wants to make sure I can find my way home! She also bought me a few other things too
This next present is from Fallon and is a portable keyboard for my PDA. It all works cordlessly you just sit the PDA on the stand at the back and it connects itself, no wires or anything which is very handy.

Below is a picture of what its like with the PDA in place. She didn't buy the PDA, I've had that a while now. She did buy me a bottle of whisky as well though.

Below is a picture of some new walking boots, my parents and sisters family have helped pay for those as a birthday present. I needed some new ones for my walk as my old leather ones were starting to wear out.

This next present is from Jo and David, its a very nice set which has already been put to good use at work, the pruners will be in more or less daily use and are very sharp so I had better watch my hand for sure!
I also got some cards from various people so thanks also for those and the email from Vicki's mum which was a nice surprise.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB

Today Bob is twenty one and some - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!

I'm thinking tonight that I need to find some new friends cos I'm sitting here at home alone on my birthday drinking from a bottle with no label, I don't even know if I'm going to get drunk! All I'm sure about is that its clear with a fizz. Three cheers for Tommy thats all I can say - okay so he's like the rest of them and not speaking but at least he tries...

So what have you done to change your ways....
the tightness in your chest....
the fear that you will die....
it is a few years ago now....your friends have long forgotten your fears...
and your solitude has returned....the loneliness of the single bed
the meals for one....
nights of searching....and drinking scotch alone
have returned


so what have you done
to change your ways
to live your life
have you made a move
to leave behind the life you ran away from
or have you nurtured
that which you know best
lonely nights
in a cyber world
bottle of scotch
with just one glass

Daily Stages.

Hello everyone, I haven't posted for a while, mostly because I've been busy planning my walk which is due to start on the 5th July and finish on the 20th. I got my pitch lists (places along the way where I can pitch my tent) from the backpackers club so I think I now have all the daily stages planned out. The longest day being 21 miles (3 days from the end) and the shortest and last day just 8 miles, all the rest being somewhere in between but mosly around 16 miles which will be okay. Vicki is coming to join me on the weekend in the middle of the walk and I will have the Sunday off and we will go round and visit a few places and have dinner out and what have you. I've given my gear a quick check over to make sure everything is that and working that I will be taking with me, I have it packed in my rucksack and so far it weighs in at 35lbs or 16kgs. It would be nice if I could keep it at that but there are a few things still to be added. That weight includes a weeks food plus a bottle of water so the more I eat the lighter it will become.

Can Anyone Help?

Hello everyone, today I have a bit of a different post to make. Last Saturday I went walking in the hills of the Peak District National Park which is near where I live. Whilst out on the high moors above the Derwent Reservoirs I came across a memory card that is full of someone photo's. I realise this is a tall order but I would like to return the pictures to the owner unfortunately the only clues I have are in the first picture below. There are several pictures of this guy and in this particular picture I can make out 'Montrail Ultra Running Team' written across the front of his top. I've Googled 'Montrail Ultra Running Team' and visited a few of the links but they haven't really been a lot of help although on one site I found a picture of a guy by the name of Steve Reifenstuhl who sort of looks similar to the guy in the picture also his surname could resemble the one on the wrist band the guy in the picture is wearing but that could just be wishful thinking on my part. Anyway if anyone knows this guy or has any ideas how I might get in touch with him, or even put me on to somene who can help it would be great to hear from you, either leave me a comment or email me, my address is in my profile.

Does anyone recognise either of these two people?

(Click the pics for a better look).

Bob.

Gardena Aquazoom 350/T

Of late Tommy has been sulking quite a bit and I didn't know why until I got Matron's comment to my last post and then I realised that he was feeling like he was missing out with Tippy having all these good idea's on gardening tips and getting all the praise. It reminded me how just before I had to delete all those blog posts Tom was doing his own little bit by road testing various gardening tools and items so that if it came with a star rating from 'Tommy's Trusty Tools' you would have an idea what you were getting. Anyway as I say we didn't get very far with it at the time so to keep him happy I am going to start it up again now. The first item he wants to tell you about is a sprinkler.

We got it one day last year, Tommy insisted on taking a trip to the garden centre – he just loves that place y’know. He isn’t actually allowed inside, I’m not sure why as he is way better behaved than the kids which ARE allowed in. Anyway he told me what to get so I nipped in and got it for him. As you will see below it’s a really nice Gardena sprinkler, it even has a timer so he can set how long he wants it to run for then he doesn’t have to leave off half way through the motor racing to switch it off or anything – is that cool or what?

Look at this! Its a Gardena Aquazoom 350/T

This is the timer control, you can set it to run all the time or anywhere from 5 minutes to 120 minutes. As Bob says this is very handy to save you having to get up and turn it off when watching the racing or if you prefer you can put it on before going to bed and it will stop itself and as you know the night time is the best time for watering. One thing I will point out though and that is it can only turn itself off and not on. The control is easy and simple to use, you just turn it one way for on all the time and the other way goes on to the timer, the further you turn it this way the longer it stays on.

The bottom control allows you to control the flow of water from off to full on this is good because it saves you having to go back and forth to turn it off when you have to move it and you can also regulate how much water goes on, Bob likes this as it saves him getting wet when he tries to moved it still switched on, I think it's boring though and spoils my fun. It is a very good and useful idea though.

The top control regulates how much ground is watered length ways, this control is easy to use even with the sprinkler working which is good as you can easily fine tune it to put water just where you need it and so not waste any.

This control sets how wide you want it to water, there is one at each end of the sprinkler bar and all it does is turn the knozzles outwards so widening the area covered. Again its very easy to use and can be done so with the sprinkler running.

All controls are in orange, it seems well made out of plastic, only having had it one season I can't say how durable it is but Gardena seem to have a good name. It wasn't cheap at £49.95 but for what you get I think it's okay and it puts the water where you want it so if you're on a meter you will save there. There are smaller versions also one like this but without a timer which are obviously cheaper so if you already have a water timer you could get one of these instead.

Bob & Tom.