More Than Just Another Friday Night

The mist creeping across Buttermere

Somehow, despite my incessant pestering and generally being a little twerp, Paul went ahead and committed himself and so last week we finalised the details for our first wild camping trip. The date is set and Friday 14th March (all being well with the weather) will see us spend the night 2500ft above sea level whilst suppressing our whimpers for mummy with White Russians - the drink of choice for the discerning wild camper - don't you know! If its good enough for The Dude, His Dudeness, you know, El Duderino - it's good enough for me!

After all this time of craving the opportunity to go wild camping and spending sleepless nights planning it - I don't think it has quite hit home that we're going yet. The plan as it stands is to leave work and make our way over to Buttermere YHA on Thursday 13th - drop in to The Bridge Hotel for a few swift Buttermere Ales and get some kip ready for the early start the next day. The plan is to head up Red Pike early Friday morning and (having filled up on a good old YHA cooked breakfast and collected our pre-ordered packed lunches) follow the same route Charl and I followed back in February.

I test packed my new Baughaus Antaeus Rucksack tonight - just to er...... well fit the 'BIOFIT' system under load, and I have to admit that for a cheap bag its pretty comfy to carry. I guess I had around 15KG inside it (this is an extreme test weight) and it sat nicely on my hips and walking up and down the stairs felt quite balanced. One more problem solved.

My Stormshield hydration bladder with Microban tastes like how I imagine drinking from a condom might taste. Of course this is just speculation because of course I haven't tried this....honest. I think I'll have to grin and bare it though as I can't see there is much I can do about this and perhaps with time it will wear off?

After a few Black Russians the other night, Paul was introduced to my collection of alcohol stoves. The room was a bit erm....spinny at the time but even so I got the distinct impression that he didn't trust them one bit! Despite whatever plans he has though, I shall be field testing the Nion 2 and the Isofly with Heineken pot setup and I'll try and post some video of my home tests with the stoves, cooking some spaghetti bolognese flavoured Bean Feast - with the aid of the pot cosy, of course. This is most likely what I'll be cooking as my evening meal whilst out wild camping on the 14th as it's filling, healthy and fairly calorific for the weight - provided you're not a 'gram weeney'!

All in all I'm excited and now we just need to get there and hope the weather isn't wet or too windy. I'm sure the dude will adide.