One of Alastair Humphreys' suggestions for making your year of microadventure even more fun is to take a friend on their first microadventure. It wasn't too hard to convince Mags to meet up for a sleep out. February galloped by and we procrastinated about our overnighter. It was too cold. We had visitors. It was rainy. Our friends weren’t up for it. We were sick. We didn’t want to do it on a work night. It was going to snow. All in all, we were being a bit feeble. What we needed to do was set a date and stick to it. Mags had acquired an Alpkit bivvy bag for Christmas and was yet to use it. With a bit of encouragement from us and some prodding from her colleagues, she agreed to join us after work one night for her first bivvying adventure. We met up on the country property where she works and slept out (with permission) on the verandah of a beautiful wooden barn. It felt quite luxurious to have a nice dry platform to sleep, cook and eat on - and to have a roof over us when it started raining during the night. It wasn’t exactly a wilderness experience, but we all enjoyed it and it was a good way for our friend to join the world of bivvying microadventures. The sky was lovely and clear at the start of the night, with a bright moon and stars. We saw a satellite go over and listened to owls calling. We didn't see the owls (sad!) but we did find some pellets on the verandah of the barn. I’d bought a £10 fleece sleeping bag liner to beef up my summertime sleeping bag. Although it took a few minutes to get in and adjust myself properly (not a problem when you’re on a dry verandah, probably more annoying if you’re in a field during a rain storm) I’m happy to report that it made a big difference. I was mostly toasty warm. My feet were still cool but not cold enough to stop me sleeping, and my thighs (the other strange problem area I’ve noticed) were fine. We also took our beer can stove for its first outing. It worked . . . at least, it worked when we balanced the pot of water properly! Our friend had a lightweight travel kettle with a removable infuser for loose leaf tea, which was pretty impressive: it’s the tea equivalent of a moka pot. It was a fun night. I think Mags will soon be out in her bivvy bag again! This microadventure cost approximately £3.25 for two of us (petrol, food, fuel and tea). Now that's my idea of budget accommodation. I've been inspired by all the people undertaking the challenge to sleep out at least once every month in 2015. Follow the #microadventure hashtag on Twitter if you're keen to see more! |
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February's microadventure challenge was set by Emily. She chose wildlife spotting. Inspired by Emily’s species-tracking updates, Dan and I thought we’d keep a log of what we’d seen in our courtyard and beyond. As the month progressed, I also started thinking about why we hadn’t seen more wildlife. In our courtyard
Beyond our courtyard
WildwoodA couple of friends who have joined the microadventure challenge invited us on the spur of the moment to visit Wildwood in Kent. Since I hadn’t managed to spot a (live) badger, I thought this was likely to be my best chance of seeing one. We had an interesting but cold afternoon wandering around the park. We saw a sleeping otter, then later on we were lucky enough to watch one up close being fed. They have amazingly powerful little teeth and jaws that can bite clean through a person’s fingers. There were a number of deer species and a couple of elk (they have bizarre looking faces). I enjoyed watching the big, hairy bison - they looked like pleasant creatures (though I wouldn’t like to have one charge at me - they’re massive). Dan was quite taken by the lynx, I was in a flap over the little owl. We saw lots of other animals, including storks, Bennett's wallabies (did you know there are colonies of wallabies living wild in the UK?), Scottish wildcats, harvest mouse, beavers, eagle owls, barn owls, wild boar, wild horses, egrets, ravens (they are so much bigger than crows!) and wolves. We all spent a long time looking at the edible dormice (which are much bigger than I expected and look almost like sugar glider possums), but that’s possibly because they were inside, where it was warmer. Oh, and we saw some snoozing badgers, too: success! I’m always a bit uncomfortable in places like this. The animals aren’t cooped up in concrete boxes for display like in old-fashioned zoos, but they still don’t have a lot of room to move around in. I know that many of them are rescue animals and are better off here (e.g. Wildwood has just raised enough money to rescue two Bulgarian bears), but I didn’t like seeing the wolves pacing around the fence line of their enclosure, or the raven flying from end to end of its little aviary. Where is the wildlife?
If declining wildlife, birdlife and biodiversity is something that concerns you, you might also want to get involved with a local conservation group. In the UK you could try: RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, Bat Conservation Trust, BTO, Butterfly Conservation Trust, CPRE, High Weald Landscape Trust, Hawk and Owl Trust, Bumblebee Conservation Trust or Buglife. From our long list of microadventure ideas, we chose "walk along a canal" as our fifth challenge of the year.
This microadventure cost about £25.75 for two of us (petrol, parking, train tickets, lunch, tea and biscuits). We declared our expedition to be a microadventure success! We would not have gone out in such dicey weather if we hadn't had a challenge to pursue. In the end, after the initial excitement, it turned into a beautiful afternoon and we were glad to be out and about. The month is over and the January microadventure stats are in. OK, that was a lie, there are no stats here. But please, curb your disappointment, because here is the round-up of microadventures from our little group! Spend time on top of a hill Our challenge for this month was to spend time on top of a hill. While not everyone managed this (time, life and weather have a habit of getting in the way), here are some hilltop adventures. Nikki, who is a keen runner, went up a few hills in Melbourne, Australia. George also had a personal fitness goal with his hill climb in Hastings, East Sussex. Here’s his story, "Helman's Hill". I live in an awkward spot, neither valley nor hill. In fact, it is halfway up a hole left by the quarrymen who dug through diluvial loam and through white and fawn sandstone to reach the Tilgate Stone that would resurface the roads. Our house was built at the top of the dip in 1870 and my aim this month was to climb up the steep hill to the top of St James Road on a bike without gears (my bike has no gears). I was aided in this by quitting smoking on 3rd January. No more violent coughing and wheezing as I walk up West Hill to the Old Town. Instead, I am breathing free. But that is a big adventure and I am here to talk about my microadventure. So . . . I asked my landlord to unlock the garden shed. I wobbled onto my bike and felt for the peddles. I first travelled down the hill, picking up speed. Into town and along the sea front. When I felt I had my cycle-legs about me, I jumped off the bike. I walked up Queens Road. I wasn't going to have the regulars at Zar Zar Bar laugh their heads off as I struggled past them. I waited until I was at the bottom of my road. Then I mounted the bike again. I set off up the hill, hup, two, three, four, hup two, three, four. I was halfway and it was getting harder. It was too far. Hup, two, hup two. I know it is bad for the bike and I tried to resist, but then I stood up and I used all my strength to push the peddles, hup, two, hup two. I was doing it, I was nearly there. I reached the top. Woo! I leapt off the bike and stood at the top of St James Road trying to get my breath back, desperate for water, desperate for rest. I couldn't have done that in December. Dan and I went up Mount Caburn in East Sussex and made a video. Further to my last post, Dan adds, "It was cold, but we had fun making our little movie and Iron Age hill forts are good for sheltering out of the wind!" We also saw in the year sleeping on top of a hill as part of Alastair Humphrey's year of microadventure challenge! Other microadventures Some of our friends undertook different, but no less exciting, microadventures. Steph and Danni both took part in Ride the Night cycling challenge in Melbourne. You can read Danni’s write-up about it on Girl Parts and Steph’s blog about it at No Award. Emily explored Rottnest Island, Western Australia. She went snorkelling, saw fossils, met quokkas and had a lovely day of it. You can read her post about it on Aquaprofunda. Mags set up a new blog, With Each New Day, where she posted about her outings to Seaton Sluice beach (Northumberland) and Rudyard Kipling's house, Batemans (a National Trust-owned property in East Sussex). Dan and I are attempting a microadventure (or microchallenge) every week. As well as the two listed above, we made a camp stove from a beer can, performed at an open mic night (more of a jam session) at a local pub and went for a walk along a canal (I’ll post about the walk later this month). February challenge: wildlife spotting This month’s microadventure challenge, chosen by Emily, is wildlife spotting. Read Emily’s explanation of the challenge on her blog. I’m excited to hear what everyone gets up to for this one - recording birdsong, trying their hand at wildlife photography or drawing, setting aside an hour in a local park or garden to watch the fauna, learning to identify new insects, going on a special trip or safari, looking out the window . . . there are loads of options. I am personally hoping to see a live badger in the wild. I’ve been hoping to do that since we moved to the UK three years ago and have so far been unsuccessful, so I might need to put a bit more effort into my spotting. But that’s exactly what this challenge is for! Thanks to everyone who took part in the January challenge. You're all welcome to join the February challenge, just leave a comment or get in touch on Twitter so we can include you in the next round-up! On the weekend, I asked Twitter where I could find a map showing all the long distance paths in the UK. Lots of people got in touch with suggestions (thanks everyone!) so I thought I’d collate them here, along with a few other useful maps and resources for longer walks, cycle trips and microadventures.
How do you plan your microadventures, long walks or cycle trips? This is a UK-centric list and I'm interested to see what resources are available in other parts of the world, too. Almost everything I know about making a stove from a drinks can, I learnt from Tom Allen's video. It’s a must-see if you’re into lightweight camping gear or DIY fun!
This microadventure-related challenge cost approximately £7 (fuel, tea and biscuits for two). Bargain! How is your microadventure challenge going? You've got a couple of days left in January to go on a bivvying adventure and/or spend time on top of a hill. Go on, get out there! How is your microadventuring going? This month’s challenge is to spend time on top of a hill (there's still two weeks to do it, if you want to join in!) and here is our contribution! This challenge gave us the opportunity to climb Mount Caburn (a hill of 146m - not a mountain!) near Lewes. It is quite a distinctive hill, recognisable to anyone familiar with the stretch of the A27 between Brighton and Eastbourne. From the south it looks almost conical, although it is joined to the rest of the Lewes Downs by a ridge to the north. If you look closely at Mount Caburn from the valley or from a vantage point on the South Downs, you can see a ring around the summit - the remains of an Iron Age fort. We’d been meaning to go and have a look at the fort for ages. This time, we were meeting friends in Brighton for dinner, so we thought we’d have a quick picnic lunch at the top of the hill. Where there is a picnic, there should also be cider. Luckily for us, Middle Farm, which houses the national collection of cider and perry, is close by. Instead of the usual article-and-photos combo, we decided to try making a film. I hope you enjoy it! We filmed this entirely on an iPhone, without any tripods or other dooverlackies, and edited it on iMovie. The music is Creative Commons licensed and sourced through Vimeo. It was fun to brush up on my undergrad creative media skills. There are a few things I wish we’d filmed differently (or filmed at all!) and a couple of questionable editing choices, but overall it was an enjoyable and interesting project. What do you think? If you like it I might try to make another one for next month’s microadventure! This microadventure cost £19.70 (for two of us), including food, cider, tea and petrol (although we were on the way to Brighton and would have used that petrol anyway). Please do join in with your own year of microadventure if you are up for it! I'll do a round up of your "spend time on a hill" posts/photos/videos/tweets at the end of the month. What better place to enjoy New Year’s Eve fireworks than the top of a hill? And what better way to make sure you’re on the hill at midnight than sleeping there?
This microadventure cost £14.90 (for two of us), including petrol, food and drinks. Like the idea of sleeping outside every month this year? Join in with Alastair Humphreys' year of microadventure! Love the idea of microadventuring, but not 100% sold on camping? Join our alternative year of microadventure! Inspired by Alastair Humphreys, my partner and I are aiming to make 2015 a year of microadventure. We challenge you to join us! What is a microadventure? While many people think of “adventure” as a big-budget, multi-week trek across an icy desert, up enormous mountains, over continents or through dense jungles (to me it seems rooted in an unsavoury history of empire expansion and colonialism), a “microadventure” is an out-of-the-ordinary activity that happens in a sliver of the time, on a much smaller budget, much closer to home. Like this! The cynic in me says that “microadventure” is simply a clever rebranding of what used to be called “outdoor activities” and “overnight trips”. The idealist in me is totally won over by the idea that adventure is a state of mind, and you can have one even when you don’t have much time, money or experience. What a great idea! How long is a microadventure? The most widely marketed microadventure, pitched to city dwellers and workers as a “5 to 9” break between office hours, runs as shown in the video above:
We are going to attempt Alastair Humphreys' "My Year of Microadventure" challenge of camping out once a month, but we’re also aiming to have a microadventure every week - and the length of those adventures will vary quite a bit. It might include having a picnic, spending an evening of wildlife spotting, performing in public, doing a multi-day walk, making something or going on an overnight break somewhere new. How much does a microadventure cost? The cheapest microadventures are free because they use only what you have to hand. Head out your door and walk (or scoot, ride, jog, cycle) somewhere new: done. However, most microadventures have a cost attached to them, mainly in the form of transport, food and kit. Over the year, I’ll be documenting how much everything costs, to see whether it is actually as cheap and cheerful as the microadventure proselytisers say. A Journey on the Tube from Alastair Humphreys on Vimeo. I challenge YOU to a year of microadventure Yes, you! Here are three options.
Microadventure inspiration Need some ideas to kick start your year of microadventure? I am here to help!
January challenge: spend time on top of a hill I hope you've got this far and you're excited to do stuff! If you'd like to join us for a year of (more accessible) microadventure, this is your first challenge: spend time on top of a hill. You can hike or cycle for miles into the bush, highlands or backcountry to get there. Or you can take public transport. Or you can drive. You can sleep overnight and cook on a camp stove; or you can take some chips, feed the seagulls and enjoy the sunset. You can go alone; or you can take friends or family. You can fly a kite. You can swim in a tarn. You can meditate. The point is: it doesn't matter how you get there, how long you spend, or what you do at the top (as long as you're not damaging the environment/yourself/others) - just get out there! Remember to share your pics, links, experiences in the comments. So, are you in?! Why? Why not? Leave a comment and we'll get started. Here's to a year of microadventure! On Saturday, we met a stranger from the internet and spent the night . . . sleeping on the beach for the winter solstice! Here's the story. Before
During
After I thought, “I’ve made it sound like I’m the kind of person who’d just go and do something like this.” Which is funny, because a few days ago I had a long list of worries about the outing. I wasn’t sure if these were normal worries. I mean, everyone is a bit concerned about the weather, being cold and not sleeping, but do they anticipate being ridiculed for bringing the wrong kind of stove? Do they worry that they’ll wee on their feet when they go to the toilet in the night or that the person they’re meeting will judge them for being pathetic and underprepared and soft? (Note my lack of concern about meeting a total stranger and going somewhere remote and out of sight to spend the night with them!) But I addressed my worries: It’s likely you will be uncomfortable and you won’t sleep well. Is that really your biggest concern? Yes? And would that be a truly terrible disaster? No. You have permission to not be the toughest cookie in the microadventure jar - you can go home if it all gets too much. If you don’t get along with Q, you never have to see her again. And if you’re underprepared, well, you have to start somewhere. Yes, you’re inexperienced - that’s the point. You want to “step outside your comfort zone” and try something new! If you really, truly hate it, you can sell the bivvy bags: you might be poorer in money but you’ll be richer in experience. But from the moment we walked into the restaurant and said hello to Q, I wasn’t worried at all. I just did it. And now, having done it, I am the kind of person that would sleep in a bivvy bag on the beach on the longest night of the year. I guess that’s the thing about “comfort zones”. In most cases, we don’t step outside them - they simply expand with our experiences. And the thing about being “the kind of person who does that stuff” is that you usually don’t have to look, sound or dress in a particular way to become that kind of person - you just need to do the stuff. A big thank you to Q and to Alastair for helping us make this happen. The winter solstice microadventure challenge is running until bedtime on Sunday 4 January. Are you up for it? This microadventure cost £120 for two. It sounds expensive, but that includes two bivvy bags (£60), an inflatable pillow (£6.50) and a head torch (£10), which are obviously once-only purchases. It also includes dinner, snacks, breakfast, second breakfast, hot chocolates and petrol use. |
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