Microadventuring, mini tours etc

Thinking of doing a micro adventure -Bristol, bath, cheddar, Glastonbury, Blackdown Hills then over to friends at crediton. Any good camping spots (wild or otherwise) in the Blackdown Hills? Can't find much info online

This is incredible. Sounds like a great adventure.

Got some friends who've just done it from Morecambe to Brid over 3 days. Bivvied near Settle, night in the YHA at York, good time had by all.

I'm planning on doing a loop around southern Ireland in a couple of weeks, visiting the fam - the plan is ferry to Rosslare and cycle Wexford > Kilkenny > Wicklow mountains > Dublin > down the coast to Rosslare again. Has anyone got any tips for that part of the world? I've only driven around there a bit.

If it's still there, Powers the Pot campsite above Clonmell is worth a stay for the old pub of the same name that is on site.

Edit - realise you might not be headed that way tho!

There is a campsite next to the Holman Clavel Inn called Holy Bush Park it is a bit of a caravan / touring set up but may serve your needs. The Exmouth Exodus route provides a good route from Bath to the Blackdowns and could easily include Glastonbury. You could ignore Blagdon hill and use Corfe hill instead to get up onto the Blackdowns. There would be plenty of wild camping in the woods at the top of either Blagdon hill or Corfe hill

Excellent, thanks a lot. Yeah I've seen the exmouth exodus route - v helpful.

Just a quick write up of a micro-adventure from a couple of weeks back. My mate and I had been looking to fit another trip in whilst the weather was good and I'd long had my eye on the Chilterns. I'm a regular traveller down the M40 back to Oxford and love when you drop down through the big cut-out just past Stokenchurch and get the view over the Aylesbury Plain, so fancied staying somewhere up on that ridge.

We chose a Thursday night that worked for us both and put it in the diary. Luckily, the weather was stunning, we both got out of work a bit early and were on a train to High Wycombe at 4.30. On the bikes at 5 we had a nice ~15 miles mostly uphill out of town and into the Chilterns. Some lovely lanes took us to Stokenchurch where we stopped for a pint then picked up fish and chips. Another 2 miles and we were in a little nature reserve that looked like it had an easy path out to the ridge to get the view over the plain for the sunset and I hoped would have some good spots for a discrete bivvy. We later learnt that the car-park for this reserve is a notorious dogging spot in the area and whilst there were some potentially fruity types in cars when we arrived we weren't troubled on our bit of the hill!

We took our bikes carefully up the path to the reserve itself and found a stunning spot to sit and eat fish and chips overlooking the sun setting across the Aylesbury/Oxfordshire plain. Absolutely stunning. After a quick scout around the area we settled on the shelter of a big old beech tree which hid us from any potential dog walkers/doggers and settled down with a little fire and some lovely single malt. Asleep by 11, up at 6 for a cup of tea from the trangia and a look at the sunrise before heading off and picking up the Oxford Tube bus from Lewknor Turn at 7am. I was back at my desk by 9am smelling slightly of wood-smoke!

Really pleased with my alpkit numo and hunka, seriously comfortable night's sleep.

Some pictures, excuse the hisptergram editing, my friend took better pics this time...

High Wycombe / Hazlemere is my old stomping ground, the view from West Wycombe is spectacular. Looks like a great trip, I'll come next time! :)

If you know of any good wildcamping spots hit me up - keen to get an autumnal trip in before the weather really turns! So easy from London...

Here's a mini adventure report (tl;dr: the R115 from Laragh to Dublin is the best road, Rail and Sail is super cheap):

I had a great three days in Ireland a couple of weeks ago - just caught the end of the warm weather. I went via Rail and Sail from Paddington > Swansea > Fishguard > Rosslare, arriving in Rosslare at 630am and immediately started riding, on very little sleep! The Rail and Sail cost £40 each way, booked a day in advance, and though it's a slog it was the cheapest way to get a bike to Eire. You have to watch out for reservations on the trains. I didn't need to make a reservation for the ferry, and they didn't charge me although the website suggested that there would be a tenner surcharge.

The roads immediately around Rosslare aren't so nice, but once you get as far West as New Ross it becomes more picturesque with rolling hills. The R700 from New Ross to Thomastown via Inistioge is a really nice section.

I stayed with my cousins in Callan, near Kilkenny, and set off for Glendalough on the second day, but when I'd got as far as Kilnock in County Carlow, my front hub cracked and I had to get a lift to a train station. Via a pub.

I went straight to Dublin (the advantages of having a big Irish family!) and got sorted out by David at Joe Daly Cycles (where Stephen Roche started out, and where my uncle has been getting his bikes since the 50s) with a new cheapo front wheel at mad bargainzz prices. By then, I'd lost my hostel booking at Glendalough, so I did a day ride out from Dublin without my pannier, up over Glencullen and Enniskerry to Glendalough and back over Sallygap and the old military road. 10/10 would ride again, but only south > north - it's too steep the other way.

It's really some of the most spectacular mountain scenery that I've been in, and it's great to be on one road that's 40km long without having to think about directions. There was a fierce headwind on the way out, which was mostly a tailwind on the way back, and the last descent from the mountains back into the city is brilliant and newly surfaced.

Then a couple of days in Dublin on foot and the Rail and Sail Dublin > Holyhead > Chester > London. A good little trip despite the mechanical interruption...

Photos to follow.

(tl;dr: Rail and Sail is super cheap)

Excellent knowledge, cheers!

I did the rail sail to Ireland last year and also really liked it. It's not great getting out of the Harbour in Dublin, but still nicer than riding across one half of London as I often do.

I went up to Sally Gap from Dublin with two loaded panniers, it was tough, but not so bad and ultimately pretty rewarding in the evening sun :)

Yeah the best part is that it doesn't get much more expensive if you book late. I think if you book on the day it goes up to £47, and I booked on the Sunday for Monday evening travel at the base price. I phoned the rail companies and booked the cycle reservations just before I paid for the rail and sail ticket, to be sure of getting the bike there and back.

@pastry_bot just after I got down from the mountain into the outskirts of the city it started pelting down with rain - I don't think I would have been able to descend with my shitty SRAM rim brakes if it had started raining twenty minutes earlier, especially fully loaded...

looks great, really have to go on a tour myself

and great subforum/feed

Planning on going for a little multi-day expedition in south wales next week. For packing size, I'd prefer to take my summer bag, synthetic liner and maybe even bivi bag, as all three together pack down to smaller than my winter bag. Also ordered a Neoair xlite (there's a promo at Go Outdoors atm that takes it to £100) Am I going to freeze to death? I'm thinking that the liner will add about 5c to the warmth, is that right?

5c sounds hopeful, but if you have down jacket and hat I'm sure you'd be fine with that. YMMV etc, but we're not getting much below 0 at the moment and I wouldn't be rolling out the winter bag for that.

Thanks, I think I may pop by Uniqlo too, to get some thermal long Johns.

I just got a 400x5000mm roll of reflectix for making pot cozy if anyone wants a bit happy to share.

A silk liner will add fuck all, seriously.

For thermals the absolute best are polypropylene but they don't seem to be sold in the UK bizarrely. Helly Hansen do polypropylene base layers but they are quite thin, which might be perfect for small pack size. In terms of warmth, weight, and pack size, merino and polyester are about the same, in my opinion.

3mm closed-cell foam under yer puffy mat will add a lot of warmth, if you can find a sensible way of carrying it (assume you are on a bike).

I got a liner last month when I was in France after a few nights of waking up at 4am cold, slept through the night with the liner, so I'd say it definitely does do something for me at least.

Hmm perhaps our liners are different. Mine packs up into a pouch the size of an egg; the fabric's so thin I think the difference is negligible compared to half a dozen other factors e.g.
A few degrees warmer air temperature
A sunnier day so more latent heat in ground
The ground drying out
Less wind
Eating a fattier dinner (a big chunk of salami or one-serve pack of butter will keep you warm all night for very little packing weight/size)
Sunburn
Getting used to sleeping outside over the duration of a trip

Sorry, I try not to get too geeky about these things, but they do all make a difference in my experience.

If you want a smaller pack size have you tried a down quilt instead of a bag? I have an Alpkit Cloud Cover that has kept me warm enough on a couple of snowy butter-fuelled nights. Bit late for this trip but you are welcome to try it, in exchange for a bit of reflectix.

Mine is more like 2 eggs so maybe its a bit of a heavier weight liner. Thanks for the offer, but I have the alpkit pipe dream 250 which I suspect will be as warm. You're welcome to the reflectix though.

Whilst on quilts, I've just bought 2 costco down quilts which were £12 pounds each. Plan is to double stuff one with the feathers from the other, then sew a footbox. Might be a less expensive option to try a quilt than alpkit cloud cover.

^ yep that sounds all right, the Alpkit stuff seems to be getting a bit spendy these days too... I think my quilt was 45 quid but they're twice that now. Post some pictures when you're done!

Spotter I would love a bit of reflectix but I live oop north. I'll cover your postage, if you've got the time to post it - PM me.