March

Two more nights in the woods....think Tiney is getting a bit fed up with being cold and wet. First night was rainy and warm - appear for an hour at dawn when the temperature dropped really cold for about 30 minutes when I had to pull on all the clothes I'd stripped off at the start of the night. The second night started wet and was just plain cold by about midnight...nice to wake up to clear skys though. Got the camp routine pretty sorted...feed and water dog, get her settled on her bed. Then into sleeping bag and bivvy. Boil some noodles on the jet boil, chuck in a tin of sweetcorn then some sardines and tomatoe sauce...consume then turn in for the night.

Learnt my lesson after some really cold nights in February and then again in March- my old 4 season bag has had its day...just gone out an bought a army surplus arctic sleeping bag...next winter should be warmer and the central zipper makes it easy to get in and out. Its a medium lenght but its only just long enough. Hopefully some bootneck previous owner hasn't washed the insulation to nothing!

February

Here is a pic of my February camp out, the first night was under a tarp (okay, I admit it, I forgot my bivvy bag), but on the second night there was a camp fire and as it looked to stay dry, this is were I slept. Much warmer than the first night and as I kept adding logs over night, in the morning I could put a pot on the embers and boil up a cuppa. Luckierly I had to be up before it started snowing!!

The swandri mosgiel coat and the crusha hat really came into there own.

January

First night in the woods this year...Me in in a Jupiter Bivvy bag, Tiney under a tarp on her dog bed. Had an early start in the morning, so going up to the wood the night before worked out better logistically...had a ly in until 06:30

Enough snow already!

Some of use are getting a little fed up with the snow...!

Paras 10

Well, I completed my first "race" in two years...10 miles carrying 35Ib. Was quite pleased with my 2 hours 15 minutes. This was later than the target 1 hour 50, but for some unknown reason my shins cramped up in the first mile, and it took a couple of miles to get going again. Excellent event, well organised by the Paras. Good friendly atmosphere, challenging course, with some very steep hills. It can be run as a cross county sans bergan, but I think thats kind of missing the point.

I did think it was awfully decent of the Paras to drag the dead sheep out of the water hazard before the event!

Definitely on the calendar for next year.

First Training session for the Para 10

Decided to enter the Para 10 some months ago - it for charity after all. Here is the website if you want to know more. http://www.paras10.com/

Anyway Brian, another runner from the village saw it on my facebook and entered it too. This morning we went out for our first training session. After and hour and three quarters we had covered six and a quarter miles or undulating ground with 35 pound packs. While we need to speed up from 15 minute miles to 11 minute miles and cover an extra 4 miles, all in all, I thought it was not to bad a start.

Lyon

Went to Lyon on business, because of the flights I had to go Sunday. As "microholidays tagged on to business trips" go this was one of the better ones. I was in the centre of Lyon by 16:00 local so had a good few hours wandering about, first along the river then up the slopes to the Basillica. This is the view down the steps to the old town.