In this weekly blog episode: On having small adventures, seeing the Aurora in the UK, a tour of the Triumph factory, National Walking Month, Overherd powdered oat milk, and some book reviews.
May seems to be a month of small adventures. I spent a few days in the Test Valley earlier this month, and am just back from a long weekend in Cumbria visiting a friend and doing some walking. It’s also (still) National Walking Month, so I am enjoying the challenge of seeing where my daily walks take me – a small adventure a day in some ways. And with all that fun and adventure in my life, I’m feeling motivated and happy, but very tired indeed!
I’m going to save my Cumbria trip report for my next weekly blog episode. When I say I am ‘just back’, I really am. It’s late Monday evening as I put the finishing touches to this weekly blog episode together; I arrived at home a couple of hours ago, and decided to prioritise a soak in the bath and eating dinner before getting on with anything else. Bathing and eating are way more important than unpacking and doing laundry. The chores can wait until tomorrow.
Instead, let me go back and fill in some of the gaps from the last week or two…
The majority of this weekly blog was actually written sat in my friend’s garden in Cumbria overlooking the western-most fells of the Lake District National Park. I think that makes it the first outdoor-written blog of the year – hooray for the sunshine showing up for a change!
Aurora in the UK
I’ll start here – because I can’t write this weekly blog episode without mentioning the fact that I saw the Northern Lights this week. Did you see the Aurora?! Or were you blissfully tucked up in bed?
My story of seeing the Northern Lights goes something like: ‘when you get a phone call in the middle of the night telling you to wake up and go outside, you do as you are told…’.
I’d gone to bed at a normal time on Friday night. I’d seen the Aurora forecast but didn’t believe the hype enough to stay up. However, at around 11.30pm, my phone rang… My husband, who was at home in Gloucestershire (I was in Cumbria), told me to get up and go outside because I wouldn’t want to miss the sight.
Bleary eyed, I opened the bedroom window, and sat and watch the Northern Lights dance across the night sky. It was an incredible display which made me say ‘wow’ over and over again. The colours – bright green, purple and pink – were easily visible to the naked eye, and moved around in a beautiful dance.
It was like a portal to another universe had opened up and I could see right into it. A beautiful and unexpected bucket list tick, and one that will take some beating.
It really was a pretty special way to spend One Hour Outside (nearly…), and felt like a proper small adventure, even if in reality I was just sat with my legs hanging out of the window in my pyjamas.
Taking my BMW to Triumph
A couple of weekends ago my husband and I rode over to the Triumph Factory in Hinckley to meet a friend. The visitor’s centre makes for an excellent midway meeting point for us; there is decent café (with good cake!) and a free museum. And it’s okay, BMWs are welcome… good job, as all three of us ride GS’s.
It was another opportunity to continue getting used to riding my new F750GS. On this occasion the weather added some fun to it by pouring with rain. Which meant I could at least try ‘rain’ mode for the first time. This tempers the throttle a little, softens the suspension, and dials back the ABS, to help prevent any rain-soaked roads from causing traction issues. Or at least that’s how I understand it. I’ve never had such electronic gadgetry, so it was interesting to see what difference it makes. I liked it, it seems a sensible mode to utilise.
We met to discuss plans for this summer’s motorcycle road trip; a two-week road trip which will – hopefully – involve riding to Italy and seeing some mountains.
We’ve already got LeShuttle booked to get us to and from France (we much prefer the train to the ferry, it keeps going up in price but is well worth it for the speed of access to mainland Europe), plus a hotel for the first night. Other than that, and a bunch of ‘nice-riding-roads’ marked on our map, we are intending to work things out as we go along. That way we can go where the mood (and weather) takes us.
Triumph Factory Tour
As we were finishing up lunch, thinking about whether we should take camping gear or stick to hotels and guest houses, one of the Triumph Factory tour guides walked through the café asking if anyone was there for his 1.30pm tour. We jokingly said we would be if he had space for us…
Fifteen-minutes later and we had our hi-vis vests and headphones on, and were heading into the factory to have a look around. I mean, when the opportunity presents itself, why not?! It’s not the first time I’ve done the tour. I did it back in early 2010 – but the factory looks quite different now.
We were lead through goods in and out, the design shop with its 3D printers, the machine shop where the crank cases are made, the paint shop (including both spray and pinstripe painting), the constantly moving production line, and the road test area. It was a Saturday afternoon so there were no bikes being built like the last time I visited, but that had its benefits as we were able to get closer to the different areas than we would have done mid-week.
The tour cost us £28 each, which is certainly not cheap, but it was a fascinating and well-guided look around a motorcycle factory. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed on the factory floor, they don’t want us giving away all their secrets!
The National Three Peaks by Motorbike?
I did have a potentially silly future adventure idea that would combine motorcycling and walking. Nothing too crazy, but big enough to require thought and logistical planning. And an awful lot of fitness training.
The National Three Peaks by Motorbike would be a week-long trip taking in the three highest mountains in Great Britain – Ben Nevis in Scotland (1,345m), Scafell Pike in England (978m), and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) in Wales (1,085m). I’m talking about hiking up them and riding between them (and from and to home, naturally). Sounds like fun, right?!
I’m not interested in squeezing everything into 24-hours. I’m afraid I don’t believe that to be at all sensible, given the potential for putting myself and others on the roads at risk due to riding overtired. But with alternating riding and hiking days, it could make a really special week of outdoor adventure. Combining two of my favourite ways to spend time outside in this way, with that added sense of challenge, has really excited my inner adventurer.
I had a look and it turns out this (of course) isn’t a new idea. The famous adventurer Aldo Kane did it, sponsored by BMW (a nice short adventure film to watch when you’ve finished this article). I would be much, much slower, of course.
It’s just an idea, but one I’ve voiced a couple of times in the last month, to reasonable reaction. Maybe it’s something I’ll give some more thought over the coming weeks and months, with a view to making it happen in 2025. I guess we’ll see.
Week Two of National Walking Month
In the interests of continuing to show how National Walking Month has motivated me to get out for a short walk every day in May, this section offers a rundown of where I walked over the last week. This means you’re getting a bit of a preview of my small adventure in Cumbria, too.
If you’re not sure what National Walking Month is, read weekly blog episode 151 for more about what Living Streets want to achieve by talking about walking for a whole month.
Tuesday 7 May: Lunchtime Walk in the Mud
I was working somewhere different to normal on Tuesday and so took the opportunity to go for a lunchtime walk around some fields close by. Walks like these are what National Walking Month – and One Hour Outside – are all about. Going for a short walk from wherever you happen to be, is proven to calm stressed minds, boost energy and motivation, and set you up for the rest of the day. It’s a shame it was so muddy, as my suede Vans were just not up to that challenge, but it was nice anyhow.
Wednesday 8 May: Part-Commute
Knowing I’d be spending five-hours driving north in the afternoon (and maybe more…), so I made the time to park a bit further away from the office than I might normally, to make sure I had at least two short walks. I often do this when I know the rest of the day is busy, because I have no choice but to walk to and from the office. I was also sure to park as far away from the door to the motorway services as I could, so I got a bit of a leg stretch there, too. Anyone else do this?!
Thursday 9 May: Bluebells and Lakes
My trip to Cumbria fitted in perfectly with this year’s bluebell bloom at Rannerdale. We parked up at Cinderdale Common and walked a little over half-a-mile to see this quite spectacular sight, before turning around and heading back. With the gorse also in flower, and a backdrop of gnarly-looking Lakeland fells, the sight was nothing short of spectacular.
We then headed up the road slightly and walked the four-mile loop around Buttermere. It was a very pretty walk with a huge amount of satisfaction for little effort, thanks to it being reasonably flat and easy going. The views were big, the woodland beautifully moss-covered, and the water calm. Oh, and the cave was dark and damp! I really like Buttermere, and this walk was a demonstration that you can have excellent hiking in Cumbria without breaking a sweat or testing your endurance. The perfect National Walking Month example.
Friday 10 May: A Coledale Round
Friday was a big walk day – big in my book, anyway. A friend and I did a version of the Coledale Round. Starting at Braithwaite, we hiked up Sleet How to Grisedale Pike (what a hard slog that was, I nearly didn’t make it to the top!), down to the waterfalls at Coledale Hause, up Eel Crag to Crag Hill, over to Sail, down the famous zigzag path and over High Moss, and up and over Barrow before heading back to Braithwaite. Nine miles, six hours, four Wainwrights, and 3,700 feet of ascent (and descent!). But only one trig pillar (on Crag Hill)!
Saturday 11 May: Drigg Beach
When I arranged to visit my friend I asked for a hill, woodland, a lake, and a beach… Saturday was beach day! We walked for five glorious and leisurely miles along a very quiet and calm Drigg Beach, which sits between the Esk estuary at Ravenglass, and Seascale. It is a vast and remote beach with dunes which are a designated SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). After only a ten-minute walk from the parking area, we had the place to ourselves – perfect.
Sunday 12 May: Liza Beck Waterfalls
I spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning walking from Crummock Water up to and along Liza Beck, which sits in the gully between Whiteside and Grassmore. My friend, who’d recommended the route, promised beautiful waterfalls with fairy pools good for a paddle or maybe even a full dip. It was gorgeous – wild and green and rocky, surrounded by craggy mountains. The path along the beck was a bit scrambly in places, but it was easy enough, and I thoroughly enjoyed a sit down and a cup of tea next to the rushing water. This is the same beck I filled up with water in on Friday, up at the foot of Sand Hill and Eel Crag.
Oh, and this was also a two-walk day. We did a beautiful loop taking in Burnbank Fell and Loweswater. I’ll save the second one for the next episode when I will talk more about small adventure in Cumbria.
Monday 13 May: Walla Crag
Wanting to squeeze one more small adventure before hitting the motorway, I went for a Monday morning hike before leaving Cumbria. I parked up in Keswick and walked a loop starting along Derwent Water to Friar’s Crag, Calfclose Bay, up to Ashness Bridge, over Falcon Crag, to Walla Crag, then down to Castlerigg, and up onto the viewpoint at Castlehead Wood before returning to Keswick. The 6.5-mile loop was another one of those Lake District hikes which had a very high-satisfaction rating without being to much of a drain on the energy reserves. It used easy-to-navigate paths with an ascent that I could feel but didn’t hurt, and provided me with fantastic views and even a sense of wildness. I’ll definitely share this route in a future adventure journal post, as I think it ticked all the boxes.
Food Review: Overherd Powdered Oat Milk
Powdered milk is a tea-lover’s friend on hiking, camping, and long road trips. I’ve often celebrated the virtues of this very handy milk-product, but with an important caveat – skimmed milk powder, the stuff that’s readily available from the supermarket, is just not that nice. Functional, yes, but not tasty.
A couple of months ago, Overherd sent me a bag of their oat milk powder, a just add water vegan oat milk drink good for your morning granola, adding to hot drinks, for use in baking, as a base for smoothies, or to sip as is. Until recently I’ve only been making it up at home, but on my first camp of the year last weekend, I gave it a proper test in the field – literally.
Oat milk in cartons is already 90% water, so buying a powdered version and adding water at home makes a lot of sense. This has less packing, is much lighter, takes less fuel to transport, and creates less food waste than the liquid version. It’s not been sweetened and there are no flavours added. Oh, and it’s been fortified with calcium and vitamin B12.
I’m really impressed. I added a teaspoon of the powder to my mug with my teabag and poured over boiling water from my Jetboil. Powdered milk doesn’t cool the water down like liquid milk, so I always add it first so that it has best chance of dissolving (no-one likes lumpy tea!). I needn’t have worried, as the very fine powder dissolves very easily, and Overherd gives me a very tea-looking cuppa.
Perfect for Small Adventures
I think I’m sold. Overherd powdered oat milk made me an excellent cup of tea, mixed well into my morning porridge, and made my sachet of instant hot chocolate (the stuff made with water) taste way better. It might even mean I can take my favourite granola camping, as I can mix up some oat milk to go on it.
As well as being a practical choice – it’s lightweight, doesn’t need a fridge, and doesn’t take up much space – it tastes good. Much nicer than skimmed milk powder. While I shall stick to my milkman-delivered glass bottles for at home, this is what I’ll be using for small adventures from now.
It is, as you might expect, more expensive than powdered skimmed milk to buy. The pink resealable packet shown contains 400g of powder and makes up four litres of oat milk – and has a very long shelf life (just don’t get it damp). This packet costs £6.99 (there’s also one twice the size for not quite double the cost), compared to £3.20 for the 340g skimmed milk version from Tesco. But as with a lot of things, you must choose where to spend your money. If powdered oat milk tastes better, dissolves better, and makes a creamier milk – which Overherd does – then it’s worth it.
Of course, I wouldn’t normally take the whole packet camping, that was for the photos… next time I will decant some into a little pot or tiny freezer bag.
Guidebook Review: Paddle Boarding Wales Cymru, Lisa Drewe
Lisa Drewe is one of my fellow OS Champions. Over the last couple of years, we have bonded over being ‘a little older’ in the small adventure space, despite only having met two or three times. Lisa kindly sent me a copy of her new book, Paddle Boarding Wales Cymru, and I am only too pleased to share it with you.
In Paddle Boarding Wales Cymru, as the name suggests, Lisa provides 100 suggestions of places to go paddling – in rivers, canals, lakes, estuaries and on the coast. And while Lisa’s watercraft of choice is a paddleboard, the advice and guidance – and routes – are also useful for leisure kayakers like me.
For each location, you get a description, complete with some beautiful photography, along with quick-reference information on parking, the launch, access requirements, pitstops, directions, offshore wind, and any special points to note.
It’s a really nice guidebook containing heaps of information, more than just the places to paddle. The photography is also gorgeous – showing Wales off at its best. It would make a great gift for someone you know who’s just bought a paddle board or kayak, or who you think should be getting more use out of one they’ve got sat in the shed!
Hopefully, the bank holiday weekend at the end of the month will allow me the opportunity for another small adventure, and this time of the kayaking variety. It is about time I took my Aquaplanet boat to Wales, and so reckon route 108 along the River Wye should be my first put-in over the border.
That’s Entertainment
Given I’ve spent a bit of time in the car over the last couple of weeks, I’ve raced through some audiobooks – and they are all worth recommending. I’ve got one novel all about trees, and a couple of adventure-based autobiographies for you.
Audiobook: The Overstory, Richard Powers
The Overstory ended up in my to-read pile thanks to a recommendation from a friend. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2019, it is the story of nine characters brought together by a passionate love for trees, each summoned in different ways by the natural world.
The books starts with a series of individual and apparently unrelated tales, told chapter by chapter. These gradually come together until we find they are all (of course) intrinsically linked and intertwined. With more than a little undertone of ‘save the trees and we save the world’, the novel pulls on the environmental heart strings.
I particularly enjoyed Patricia Westerwood as a character, a scientist who discovers how trees communicate. I looked her up, because I felt there must be some truth to the science, and discovered she is likely based on Dr Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia. Westerwood’s life and work provide the background context for the goings-on in the novel, which helps keep the rest of the vignettes on track – as well as providing the book with a conclusion of sorts.
This is a long listen (22 hours), and narration is a bit clunky (there are some mispronunciations which grated a little), but it was worth it. I happily pass on my friend’s recommendation.
Audible | Amazon | Waterstones
Audiobook: Wayfarer, Phoebe Smith
I listened to Wayfarer by Phoebe Smith because it is a book about a real person who has made a life from having adventures and writing about them. Editor of Wanderlust for seven years, writer for the Guardian and Conde Nest (amongst others), author of several books including Britain’s Best Small Hills and Extreme Sleeps, Phoebe is someone I admire – she inspires me.
Wayfarer is Phoebe’s memoir, in which she talks about how walking old pilgrim paths lead her to both lose herself and find herself. This is an incredibly real and honest autobiography, including descriptions of personal trauma, relationships, and the rest.
Despite having a religious backdrop – stories of pilgrim trails, finding sanctuary in churches, learning about the saints, and sharing the tales of those who are employed in related vocations – this is not a book about religion. Rather, it’s about how ancient traditions can help with the ups and downs of modern life, and how nature and place can heal past wounds.
I admit that having met Phoebe a couple of times over the years, I had no idea of what was going on in her life away from the surface. It just goes to show you never know what is going on behind the scenes. Even when someone writes for a living.
Audible | Amazon | Waterstones
Audiobook: In My Stride, Helen Skelton
I mentioned after hearing her speak at last year’s National Outdoor Expo, that I really admire Helen Skelton’s attitude towards life. I listened to her recently published audiobook In My Stride, on my drive up to Cumbria last week, and I enjoyed hearing more about her adventures. Although these are not small adventures like mine.
She has so many stories to tell: She has paddled the length of the Amazon, run an 80mile ultra in the desert of Namibia, cycled and kite-skied to the South Pole, and walked a high-wire between the pillars of Battersea Power Station (and so on…). Skelton explains how the challenges worked, who was involved, how she trained. All the while she explains how she subscribes to the ‘how hard can it be’ school of adventuring; agreeing to something and then going all in to make it happen.
Helen Skelton is the real deal, and this book is about her life as well as the adventures. It’s interesting to learn more about the person behind the face on television. At one point she says ‘I am not an adventurer, I am a broadcaster who does adventures’, and I appreciate that distinction. Helen clearly understands the team (and budget) that supports her exploits. But even with that, it is her who actually does each challenge – her body, her mind.
Maybe I need to be a bit more Helen Skelton and sign up to the ‘how hard can it be’ school of thought a bit more?!
Audible | Amazon | Waterstones
See You Next Time…
I would really love to hear about the small adventures you are having this month. Have you been marking National Walking Month with some exploring on foot? Aiming to get One Hour Outside each day? Making the most of the weekends? Let me know in the comments below.
See you next time.
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