{"id":3826,"date":"2015-05-14T16:03:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T16:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=3826"},"modified":"2015-05-22T15:25:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:25:06","slug":"my-wild-camping-hiking-microadventure-plans-for-the-rest-of-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2015\/05\/my-wild-camping-hiking-microadventure-plans-for-the-rest-of-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"My wild camping, hiking, microadventuring plans for the rest of 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015,<\/p>\n

Oh my, are we almost half way through the year already! I can’t believe it, where on earth did all that time go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before I know it we’ll be turning our clocks forward\/backwards\/whatever and heading into darkness again, let’s all panic!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, maybe I won’t panic (yet) and instead write up a list of what I really must do by the end of 2015 in terms of adventures close to home<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a01) Explore the ‘lonely hills’ of High Leicestershire<\/strong>
\nLeicestershire isn’t far from my fenland home and feels like uncharted, undiscovered territory. The Iron Age hillfort at Burrough Hill<\/a> is 660\u00a0ft above sea level, a veritable mountain!<\/p>\n

\"Hillside
Hillside pasture above Stathern, Leicestershire.
\u00a9 Kate Jewell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2) A night hike on the Norfolk coast<\/strong>
\nThe idea is to start at point X as the sun sets and 6 hours later arrive at seaside resort Y as the sun comes up.\u00a0 That sounds like an ADVENTURE to me!<\/p>\n

\"norfolk-coast\"<\/a>
The Norfolk coast near Happisburgh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3) A very early morning hike on the river Little Ouse<\/strong>
\nThe Little Ouse<\/a> runs through Thetford Forest in north Suffolk. I’ve walked the riverside trail<\/a> a number of times and it is gorgeous.<\/p>\n

The idea is to arrive at the Little Ouse an hour before sunrise and follow the trail eastwards, though the forest, as the sun rises.\u00a0 On a clear sunny morning it will be a joy.<\/p>\n

\"the
River Little Ouse at Santon Downham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4) Hike the the Boudicca Way (Norwich to Diss)<\/strong>
\nThe Boudicca Way<\/a> is a footpath running 36 miles between Norwich and Diss.\u00a0 36 miles is a bit much for one day so we’ll camp out in a nice looking wood I’ve spotted along the way.<\/p>\n

\"Boudicca
Boudicca Way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5) A wild camp spent gazing at the stars and the moon from the banks of The Wash<\/strong>
\nFew people venture out to this remote part of the Lincolnshire wilderness<\/a> between King’s Lynn and Boston.<\/p>\n

I doubt its ever featured in the ‘Rough Guide to FAB PLACES TO WATCH STARS!’.\u00a0 Well that’s fine with me.\u00a0 I have feeling the night sky will be fantastic, no light pollution in this obscure corner of the east coast.<\/p>\n

\"Wide
Wide open skies on The Wash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6) A 5 to 9 after-work wild camp in the Chiltern Hills<\/strong>
\nLeave work, tube from King’s Cross to Chesham, hike to the Chilterns Hills, camp in a wood, food, wine, sleep, coffee, cake, tube from Chesham to King’s Cross, walk to work.\u00a0 Yeah!<\/p>\n

\"Ivinghoe
Ivinghoe Beacon seen from The Ridgeway
\u00a9 by Pointillist and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7) Wild camp at least once with my dog, Smithy the Cairn Terrier<\/strong>
\nThis really has to be done! I think he’ll enjoy it, I know I’ll be glad of the company. Only drawback is he might stay-up barking at things…or maybe he’ll just sleep the night away?<\/p>\n

Only one way to find out.<\/p>\n

\"smithy
“All I want to know is will there be snacks?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8) Three days hiking in the high Pyrenees in July<\/strong><\/p>\n

So this one is not close to home but a boy has to strike out every now and again and it certainly counts as an adventure.<\/p>\n

The idea is to spend three nights at a refuge in the high, high Pyrenees, just south of Luchon<\/a>.\u00a0 The days will be spent hiking the peaks and the nights getting by with my crapola French. Though my decent(ish) Spanish will no doubt come in handy.<\/p>\n

I really, really want to stand with one foot in France and one in Spain, small things like that please me.<\/p>\n

Oh, and a bear, I want to see a bear.<\/p>\n

\"Le-refuge-de-Venasque\"
Le refuge de Venasque
Photo borrowed from the website of the refuge<\/a>, hope they don’t mind!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there you go, that’s my list and I don’t feel so panicky now. Hopefully I’ll do all these, maybe I won’t, a few of them are heavily dependent on good weather, we’ll have to see.<\/p>\n

What about YOU?<\/h2>\n

Are you in a panic?\u00a0 If not, why?\u00a0 What’s on your list? Tell us your plans!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh my, are we almost half way through the year already! I can’t believe it, where on earth did all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,124,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3826"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3919,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions\/3919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}