I can’t talk but I can walk!
Diana is at a conference in Oakham today, I drove so I could get out somewhere different for a walk. (Well I walked until the rain set in.)
Oakham Castle Gates
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Walking
Backpacking cookware – walking in the cold and rain – and lunch @Alpkit
Time to try out some new backpacking cookware.
Having spent the morning working on Octagon time sheets, spread sheets and presentations, I headed off at lunch time for a walk across the Lincolnshire fields.
A couple of weeks back, I bought an Alpkit MytiPot 900 and thought I would give it a try out today. I packed a homemade ready meal (fresh pasta, homemade Italian tomato sauce with mushrooms), and my lightweight Alpkit cooking gear.
- Kraku stove
- MytiPot 900
- MytiMug 400
- SnapWire spoon
The walk was grey, wet, cold and muddy underfoot but it was away from my laptop. I took my mind off the weather with “The Girl who Played with Fire” audiobook on my iPod.
In a small wood near the village I found a fallen tree that made a good seat for lunch. I boiled the water for my coffee in the titanium mug first, then heated the pasta in the Alpkit MytiPot, stirring it well.
I carried the backpacking cookware in a Finnish gas mask bag
Titanium backpacking cookware is excellent if all you consider is the weight and strength. The problems come with the cost and cooking in a thin walled pot. Alpkit helps with the cost – their prices are lower than other suppliers and they have a comprehensive selection of backpacking cookware.
My top tip if you use your titanium backpacking cookware for more than just boiling water, is stir the food well… very well. The titanium conducts the heat efficiently, but hot spots easily form and then the food burns. I stirred my lunch constantly and moved the pot over the burner and still some food caught. You can see the results below, not a disaster, but if I had stopped stirring things could have gone very badly. If it burns too much is may also spoil the food.
Why did I buy more backpacking cookware?
- Top of the list is that Diana and I are going camping together and I wanted a titanium “kettle” large enough to brew tea for two.
- I want to do more cooking when lightweight camping – rather than just reheating food.
- This size and shape of pot could be used as a bowl to eat out of or for washing up etc.
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Morning walk – Loch Morlich and Glen More
Last day today – Edinburgh for lunch tomorrow and then back to Lincoln. Time for one more walk, early morning at Loch Morlich and Glen More. I took my coffee with me in a flask and a couple of croissants.
It was bright and below zero and despite the mild weather this week the edges of the Loch were frozen.
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Speyside Way
The weather was typically not the type of weather I expect on my winter trip – see this Aviemore walk from a couple of years ago.
click on the above image for a larger version
Not a cloud in the sky
It is a great day – I am walking the Speyside Way and geocaching, looking for a good place for lunch.
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Walking to the summit of Craigellachie
The day started off mild and sunny here, so taking advantage of the sun I headed up Craigellachie – which overlooks Scandinavian Village. It is a fairly straightforward walk, but most of it is up until you reach the “flatish” summit.
I also made a mistake, yesterday was not my coldest day. The summit and approaches were still frozen and icy, add the wind chill from the strong steady wind and it was several degrees below zero. But sunny.
One benefit of a sub-zero summit was that the boggy, muddy path was frozen so no wet and muddy boots on my return.
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Forest Walking Inverdruie
Looking at the weather forecast for the week today looks like to coldest day I will have – it was 1c when I went out at about 11am. It does not look like I will see any snow this trip – except this in Colchester last week.
I headed out to walk in the forest near Inverdruie and to get a geocache that the boys and I walked past last summer.
Here it is
It was easy today to find somewhere quiet to set up for lunch.
I wrote this whilst watching the Falcons playing Green Bay in the NFC Championship game – the Falcons and Matt Ryan have controlled the first half. I have my iPod hooked into the TV with the Apple HDMI adaptor, I also packed a 1m HDMI cable. Glad I am not at last week’s Hapimag Bowness timeshare as the wifi there was nearly nonexistent. I could not use my NFL Game Pass live there, I had to avoid the scores and downloaded the games offsite on better wifi. The wifi here at Scandinavian Village is great.
Here comes the second half.
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