mycountryside.org.uk - exploring and enjoying the British countryside

Do contact lenses freeze? That was the first thing I thought as I checked the evening’s weather forecast. Why my first concern of spending a night in a hammock in a wood in subzero temperatures was my contact lenses rather than, say, my inadequate sleeping bag, I have no idea! It was New Year’s Eve when, after chatting to a friend about his outdoor plans for the new year, I had agreed to join him at the local bushcraft meet a few weeks later. Perhaps thanks to the festive ale I was consuming, I had also apparantly (my recollection is a little vague) agreed to leave my tent at home and borrow one of his hammocks.  After last year’s 1000 mile challenge, I had decided that 2012 was going to be about experiencing the outdoors (rather than clocking up mileage) – so why not spend a night in a hammock in a wood?!…

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Before I start thinking too much about 2012 (yes I know I am running a week behind!), it is probably right to look back on 2011. Throughout 2011 I attempted a personal challenge to walk 1000 miles – the challenge was an excuse to get outdoors more and, with trips to Snowdonia, Dartmoor, Peak District, Brecon Beacons, Cotswolds and South Downs, as well as plenty of hikes in my local area, it certainly succeeded. I completed just under 900 miles (more details on that on my other blog: http://www.sequencenevershortened.com/2012/01/01/i-walked-500-miles-but-i-didnt-quite-walk-500-more/) and here are some of the best bits:

A 17 mile hike through the farmland and woodland of Northamptonshire (and Buckinghamshire) just North West of Olney – via Ravenstone, Weston Underwood, Yardley Hastings and Yardley Chase

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A few years ago, before Offa’s Dyke – Alex and I were walking part of the Nantlle Ridge in Snowdonia. Alex was recording the route using Sports Tracker (I think), and I was using ViewRanger - what was surprising was the fairly large difference in calculated distance and height gain / loss.

This morning, I was reminded of this as I was mulling over…

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The first proper head torch I bought was the Petzl MYO XP (I am excluding the cheap chain store head torches I went through that have poor performance and terrible battery life). My (former) neighbour, @documentally, had got himself a Petzl MYO RXP (his first look video is quite amusing) and, whilst the programming element seemed largely pointless, it seemed a good torch.

The MYO XP offers up to 150 lumens (in boost mode – shining up to 97 meters), has three lighting levels, a flashing mode, a diffuser and I found battery life to be good. It does however have some drawbacks – it weights in at 170g (including batteries), it is quite expensive (mine cost £58.50), the buttons are very fiddly (I really struggle to switch it on in a dark tent) and light gets reflected straight into your eyes when the diffuser is up (I never noticed this until @groovy_nut pointed it out – now it is like having the sun burning directly into my eyes. She has a fix involving matt black enamel paint).

The Petzl TIKKINA on the other hand is £19.99, offers a maximum of 23 lumens (shining up to 23 meters), weighs 80g (including 3 AAA batteries) and has two lighting levels (maximum and economic). The torch has a big push button switch – you press it once for maximum beam, a second time for economic beam, and a third time to switch it off. It comes in a variety of garish colours – french rose, electric blue, lime green and orange. I was initially not very fond of lime green (the colour of mine) – but having a bright colour certainly makes it easier to find in my pack than my dark ‘ninja black’ MYO XP.

But with 6.5 times less brightness, is the TIKKINA going to be any use? There is only one way to find out!…

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As a prelude to my post on head torches (and the Petzl Tikkina in particular), I asked @ukjeeper, a regular night time countryside walker (and Social Hiker), to write a post on walking at night, why he enjoys it, and any hints and tips  he has. Here is what he has to say:…

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Back in September, I spent five days wandering around Snowdonia (my first ‘holiday’ for over a year!) with the dog. Here is a quick run through of the trip!…

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I love waterfalls. There is something so soothing and peaceful about the constant motion of water partnered with the natural splendour of water surging downwards. I also love forests. My ‘happy place’ would almost certainly be a waterfall in a forest (although I am yet to find a real world location that suits), so I was very excited when, back in May, I came across this waterfall walk on Surfnslide featuring several spectacular waterfalls. I added it to my ever-growing collection of routes in Evernote*, so I had it handy when I was planning this Brecon Beacons trip.…

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For my holiday in Snowdonia a few weeks ago, I had intended to put the Powermonkey Extreme through it’s paces to see if I could keep my phone running (starting with two full batteries and the extreme full charged) for the full trip. Unfortunately things did not quite go to plan – primarily the complete lack of sunshine which meant the solar panel was never used, so the results are incomplete and I want to run some more tests but here are the results:…

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There has been a lot of discussion recently amongst bloggers about kit reviews, particularly when kit has been provided free of charge to review. As I do kit reviews I thought I would take this opportunity to put forward my opinion.…

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