I wouldn’t have too much desire to live in places such as Edinburgh or Glasgow, no disrespect those cities, but they are too large for me.  Deep down I’m a small town/village sort of fellow.  I never realized that until moving to the UK and having spent the last few years in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, this has shown me how quiet life can be in a smallish village.

My own regret after my most recent week in Scotland was that I wasn’t able to get out into the countryside and do more walking around, but what I did manage was superb and gave me a real boost mentally and “spiritually” (in a non-religious way).  One of these days I’ll go and just never come back. 

With some spectacular views like these it’s easy to see why [click to see full sized images]

I think in just a very short time of being there I’ve fallen in love with Ceann Rois (Kinross), it’s just about the perfect size and the views of the surrounding area are, well, spectacular.  From the shores of Loch Lìobhann (Loch Leven), or looking east to Bishop Hill or Benarty Hill to the south, the views are simply awesome. 

A line from a song sung by Celtic Woman, Caledonia (click to see the video) (Sung by Lisa Kelly) really does describe how I feel about Scotland

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you’re calling me,

[The two photos above are from the Isle of Mull, click on them to see full size images]

Since the mid 90’s when I got my first taste of Gaelic I’ve had a fascination with the language.  Thought by many to be a dead or dying language, however it’s been shown to be gaining ground in parts of Scotland with more taking up the language all the time.  Back in the 90’s I’d heard about Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (meaning, the great barn at Ostaig, owing to it’s 1973 start up location),on the Isle of Skye. This was, and still is today, the only college specializing in higher education taught solely in Gaelic.  Anyhow, back in the 90’s I’d ordered some CD’s and Video tapes from the school to try and learn Gaelic at home.  This worked a little, but without any support network and anyone to speak with it all sort of went by the wayside.  When I went to the Isle of Mull back in 2008 my love for the ancient language came back having not only heard some of the locals speaking it, but really but the fact that I could actually remember and understand some of it (very little, but hey better then none at all). 

I’ve recently been looking into taking a distance learning course from SMO.  I’m just waiting to find out when the term will actually start and see about getting signed up for it.  I still have a problem with finding local people to converse with, however I don’t think it will be nearly as hard these days as it was back in the 90’s, especially being this close to the source of the language. 

What will it give me to be able to speak Gaelic?  Likely not that much to be fair, but it will give me another ticked box on my list of things I want to do in my life, not really my “bucket list” as such, but I suppose if it needs a label then that can be used.   Maybe one day I’ll formally write my list of things I want to do and start physically checking stuff off… hmm good idea.   I suppose another thing that learning Gaelic might be give me is a bit of an advantage should I actually manage to pull off move to Scotland and ending up in an area where the language is commonly used.

While up in Scotland I’d attended by first Céilidh and even dressed the part with a hired kilt.  While I didn’t actually muster enough courage to go and try dancing it was still great fun watching it all.

While the tartan wasn’t that of the Clan MacKenzie I think it looked alright, the tartan is that of the Clan Douglas, the kilt hire shop wasn’t able to get my own tartan on the short notice I’d given them.  Oh well, next time.

I’ve been blithering on for too long and it’s bed time.

After checking in we needed to get ourselves over to the kilt shop to get our kilt fitting for the Ceilidh on Saturday night, which was a blast. We didn’t get up and do any dancing however, it really was a couples thing. But was great fun to watch the dancing. Before heading to the party we had a long walk around Perth collecting Geocaches along with the other 1000 or so people attending Mega Scotland 2010… What must the residents of the town have been thinking of all this.

Dinner was quite exciting, it started off by the piping in  of the Haggis followed by the Ode To The Haggis with a slight variation to bring into it a bit about Geocaching. The ‘show’ before dinner was served lasted about 10 mins, very entertaining to say the least.

Gord and I both opted for the Haggis. It was over heard that the Haggis was by all accounts was top quality.  it was Gords’ first time ever having Haggis, I had had it before however I think it was canned so that’s not real Haggis   We both loved it, it was spicier then we’d expected, not hot spicy but just pepper type spicy.

After the Ceilidh it was back to the camp site for more much needed sleep.

Sunday, Aug 1st, we didn’t really know what to do, the weather took a turn for the worse on Sunday after a couple of nice days. We headed to Edinburgh to have a walk about. The weather really went to hell about after 90 mins of us getting there. We’d stopped for Pizza in a nice but hot little Restaurant… Outside were 100′s of people attending the big buskers festival that was going on.

After lunch we’d started to wander the streets to see what we could find.. This is when the contents of the Firth of Fourth stated to drop on the city. We took refuge in a Whiskey shop and even managed a sample of something that Gord bought to take home for a friend. I bought a couple little pocket sized bottles, just enough to fill the nice little MacKenzie key ring flask that I picked up   We had managed to find one geocache in town before heading back to the car and returning to the camp site to attend the ‘Yorkshire Day Away’ Geocache Event being held just about outside of our tent.

Monday, Aug 2, we had to return to Perth to return the kilts. It was an exceptionally lazy day due to the typical Scottish weather. Before leaving the camp site for the day we had attended yet another Geocache Event, ‘Bun and Brew to recover from the post Mega blues’.  nearly everyone from the camp site was there along with the Scottish weather, no one invited that though. 

We decided that since the showers at the camp site were sub par and long queues at time, that we would go swimming instead. We’d gone to the Leisure Centre next to the Mega Scotland venue. We were attracted to it because of the water slides that took you outside of the building, no we didn’t get on them haha.

Finished with the swim it was off to the kilt shop to drop everything off followed by a nice slow drive back to the camp site by the slow country roads. We’d managed to bag another 6 or 7 caches before returning to the site including Gords 500th cache!!!

After a bbq dinner of burgers and having had a chat with another cacher in the camp about a cache that he could find, we all decided to go and blitz the area looking for it. Nothing at all. Even a local dog walking muggle gave us a suggestion of where it should be, but nothing was found. After around an our we had to give up the search out of frustration and failing light, it was after all after 10pm by now.

Tuesday, Aug 3rd. It was time to back up and say good bye to Scotland and lead back south of the boarder again. Stopping for a breakfast just outside of Edinburgh we found a local cache near by. Next stop was the boarder for some photos and a rest and, yup you guessed it, another cache on the boarder.  From there it was on to Hexham. We’d found a tourist info place to get a list of camp sites. Gord liked the sounds of one place, Hadrian’s Wall Camping and Caravan Park.

We opted for using the small tent, we got it set up then went for dinner at a local pub. Excellent food it was too. We went for a small walk along a segment of Hadrian’s Wall. We did about a mile of the wall I suppose. We had to share the path with a lot of cows, that was a bit exciting as some of them weren’t interested in sharing the path and wouldn’t move out of the way.

That brings us to now… It’s time for bed.

Wednesday, Aug 4.  Well, it was and uneventful night in the small tent. There was just a touch of rain during the night was short lived so no bother at all. We were packed up and out of 950 so not bad going really  

We struck off for the ruins at Vindolanda and managed to get the just in time for one of the guided tours of the site. It must really have been impressive in it day. There were apparently some 500 soldiers and 1500 or so civilians in the area of the fort. There are many photos which I’ll get uploaded at some point..

The admission to this site also provides us access to the Roman Army Museum, which will be next on our tour before heading back to Cambridge.

We’d made it back to Cottenham just shortly after 7pm, sat for a few mins then got the car all cleaned out and got the tents out and hung up to dry out.

That’s the end of what was a most excellent adventure to Scotland for my largest Geocaching evening, well OK fine, my FIRST Geocaching event, hopefully not my last either.

We arrived at the camp site about 9pm and had everything set up by about half 9 or so. A quick trip around the camp site to see is about and scope out the facilities, then it was back to meet the neighbours and chill out by their fire.

The sleep was great, I used my new down sleeping bag, it was very warm and comfy. Only problem, on a clear morning the Sun in Scotland shows its face about 4am… Needed my siesta glasses but could be arsed to get out of my bag to get them. Won’t make that mistake tonight thought haha

Saturday: first on the list besides getting showered will be to find food. Then its off to the kilt makers for Gord and I. Then to the actual Mega Scotland event.

I will post more later including some pics I hope.

Cheerio from Scotland

Posted by Wordmobi

First, what did I have before?  I was carrying a Campingaz Bluet Micro Plus Camping Stove, which takes a number of sizes of gas canisters.  The pros to this is fast boil time and nice adjustable flame if you want to simmer or cook for a number of people.  The cons, weight and having to carry canisters that you must take out with you and dispose of when you return.  When empty you can puncture and stomp them flat, but you still have to bring them back.

The way forward for most people is to use something that burns Alcohol (the more pure the better, 91%+ or at worse rubbing alcohol, but that’s dirty when it burns and makes a mess of your pots), denatured alcohol, Heet (gasoline antifreeze) or to use Methylated spirits.   I’ve settled on Meths as it’s easy to buy from hardware stores and camping shops. 

So, what can you use as a stove?  Well, there’s 100’s of possible options.  I’ve selected a Penny Stove / Pepsi Can Stove / Coke Can Stove, whatever name you want call it.  I’ve also decided to try the Super Cat stove.

There are pros and cons to these types of stoves as well.  

Pro:  Really accessible fuel – Efficient burning of the fuel to weight ratio

Con: Messy if it tips over – No flame control (really) – Wind really effects the performance

There are many more pros and cons for these, but for me these are most appropriate.  Others will argue about altitude, temps outside, etc, etc.

So what cooking kit have I decided to take solo hiking / wild camping?

Above is a Snow Peak – Trek 700 Titanium cup in it’s mesh bag.  This is great cut, big and light weight.  The lid hangs on the side of the cup and has a slot in it for draining water out of the cup, for example if you were making pasta.

Lets have a look inside the cup.

Inside the cup I have .. (left to right) tin foil for a wind screen, Swedish Firesteel, Super Cat Stove, empty tin to use as base or to extinguish the stove (never blow out an alcohol stove), the purple bottle has 150ml of Methylated Spirits, right of that is the lid of a sweets tin, that can be used as a base for the stove or as a priming pan for the penny stove.    The second photo above you can see the pot on top of the stove with the foil screen in place.

Here we have the 3 stoves I’ll likely carry with me (well, not at the same time).  The first photo from left to right .. the penny stove I bought from nikki.ikkin on Ebay, then one that I made myself and finally the Super Cat stove.

One problem with the penny stove is you need to use a pot stand for these (something else to carry, not that it has to be much).  I’ve not actually made a pot stand yet that will fit my Snow Peak 700.   The the penny stove from Ebay arrived I tried it out at home using a stand from my Compressed Hexamine Stove and just a normal pot from the kitchen, a rather heavy based pot as well.  The stove brought 500ml of cold tap water to a rolling boil in 6 mins, not bad at all. 

The Super Cat on the other hand IS the pot stand as well.  The penny stove I made myself (first ever attempt) does work and reasonably well too I think, but it is a bit bigger (taller) then the one I bought.  The height of the chamber does seem to have an effect on performance of these devices, also, the holes I made are too big, this is also a noticeable difference in it’s performance.  These stove really are pretty easy to make, took me about 10 mins to make it, minus the drying time for the sealing compound I used.

The Super Cat build time is much less, took me like 3 – 4 mins including the time to open the tin, dispose of the cat food inside, clean and punch the 32 holes in the tin with a paper punch.   This brought 500ml of cold tap water to a boil in about 8 mins using the Snow Peak 700, slower then the penny stove but I think over all it used less fuel.

These photos just give you a look down inside of the cup once it’s all loaded up.  In there is the foil screen folded up inside the Super Cat Stove, which is inside the empty tin you saw in another photo, that and the fuel bottle are inside the a ziplock bag to keep the fuel from spilling into my cup.  You can also see the firesteel used to light the stove.  At the bottom of the photo you can see a tube, that contains 8 reusable cloths – Wemmi Wipes (down near the bottom of the page), these just take a couple tea spoons of water to expand them from the small tablets they come as.

Now, I just need to get a chance to get out hiking to actually try out the stove(s) and make a brew on the trail.  I’ll blog again once I’ve had a chance to try them out in the wild.  The Campingaz stove I know works well as I’ve used it a few times already, but these are new to me.

I’d love to hear your comments and experiences with these types of stoves, including tips and tricks for using them.

On May 1st I managed to get a few hours to get out alone and go walking.  I’d planned a 3.5mi walk but it turned out to be a 5.5 mile walk.  What a great place to go walking.  There were two separate wooded area’s.  Once was Archers Wood

About this wood

Parts of Archer’s Wood are believed to be remnants of the original British wildwood, a ditch and bank in the northern section is a scheduled ancient monument and, true to its name the wood was a sanctuary for highwaymen. Even today you look to the north and imagine a 14th century Cistercian monastic grange that once stood there. Flat and easy to access, the site is dominated by oak, ash and field maple and served by a figure-of-eight network of rides so it’s great for gentle walks. Be sure to stroll along the main ride to spot the rare and beautiful wild service tree – and look out for foxes, woodpeckers and nuthatches.

The other was Aversley Wood, both just outside of Sawtry, Cambridgeshire.

About this wood

A woodland gem in England’s least-wooded county, expansive, impressive Aversley Wood is well worth the steep trek (sometimes boggy in winter) required to reach it. Believed to date back to the Ice Age, it is one of Cambridgeshire’s largest ancient woodland sites and a full tour is not for the faint-hearted – but very rewarding, with impressive fenland views.

You can see the full route of the walk with notes along the way by going to www.stepwhere.com.  I’ve been using this site for storing and planning my recent walks.  You can see all my public walks by going to my user name, M1XZG.  The process I’ve been doing with the site is planning the walk online and loading the track onto my GPS, then, when I’m out walking I record the actual track I walk and upload that to www.stepwhere.com. 

To see some photos from the walk of the woods you can CLICK HERE for my www.flickr.com gallery.  Here are a couple of the photos.

If you get out walking why not share your routes?   Also, why not check out www.walkingforum.co.uk – it’s a fantastic site for all manner of walking discussions.

A detailed account of the walk …

I started by parking in the small lot that services a large open park and allotment area off St Judith’s Lane.  Walking out of the car park I turned right and followed the road to a “T” junction, 1.6 km (1 mi)  This is where you can enter Archers Wood.  Just inside the wood is a map, I had a quick study of the map and planned my route sort of through the wood.  I figured I’d walk the outside route around the wood.  The paths were mostly dry and in very good condition.  There was one detour put in place due to some flooding of the path but that was it for any sort of problems.  The wood is mostly on an incline and that was at the lowest end of the wood.  The rest of the wood was very dry with only a few muddy spots from the recent rains.  Through out the wood there are very nice benches placed in excellent locations providing nice views through cuttings or paths in the wood.  I didn’t find any wildlife except birds while walking through this wood, however there was plenty of evidence of small game by the number of rabbit runs.  If it weren’t for the din of A1(M) very close by this would be a perfect place to come and reflect on life and enjoy the quiet.

Exiting the wood by the same gate I entered by, I turned left and continued to follow St Judith’s Lane for just about 1 km (0.6 mi), just past a large farm on the right side of the road you’ll find the Public Path sign.  Follow the path for 1.7 km (1 mi) and that will bring you to one of the entrances to the Aversley Wood.   About 260m before the entrance is a park bench.  This is where I’d stopped to break out my stove and kettle and make a cup of tea and some lunch.  After about a 30min break or so I packed up and headed into the wood.  This was another spectacular wooded area.  The paths were well maintained and very wide with ample chances to sit on benches and reflect and enjoy the quiet.  Because of the geography of this wood there was pretty no noise from the outside world at all.  The only thing to be heard was the rustling of  leafs and the birds.  Again, I didn’t see any wildlife but it’s clear it exists from all of the small game runs.  I did see what I think might be badger tracks, I meant to take a snap of them to check it out but meh, forgot   After quite some time walking around the wood I finally left via the North Eastern most corner with a gentle ascent up a hill then down the other side right back to the park where I started off.  

The total distance was 8.9km (5.6mi).  The weather really couldn’t have been more perfect, it was sunny but a little cool so it made walking not too hot.  Sitting idle you could feel the cold after a while, but it was very nice. 

I’m looking forward to future walk and hope to plan for a number of them to be through wooded areas like these.

I started with THIS recipe, with a couple of modifications.  Firstly I cut everything half.  The thought of destroying that much raw ingredients didn’t sit well with me, plus it might well have required a super heavy duty rubbish bin liner to dispose of it, let alone whatever the damage to the environment it would do haha

So, my mixture went like this:

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 pinches salt
• water, at room temperature

Plus I added some raisins to add to the sweetness and flavour.  The kids loved them, and I thought they were pretty good too.  Didn’t even bother with adding butter or anything to them, they were soft and moist enough without the butter.

Check out blog postings over at Dean Read dot net. Here is the video of their Ennerdale Wainwrights video.

I don’t have a plan as to when I’ll do it, but I’m thinking mid-late summer.  Need to plan to do some day walks first and get an idea on what I’m in for.  The other “problem” is also finding someone to do these with.  It would be pretty foolish to attempt this sort of thing alone with the lack of experience.  So, I need for another nutter up for some fun too   If that’s you, lets chat, drop me a comment.

I’ve finally got the photos posted on Flickr now. The easiest way to see them all is by going to the Camping 2009 Collection.  You can see we had a great time

While we were away I was blogging using my Nokia N97 phone with the use of Wordmobi (WordPress Blogging Tool) and QuickOffice 6.  Entering text into Wordmobi is fine but there’s no spell check available in the tool.  So, the process I used was to write up the posting content in QuickOffice and saved as a Word Document.  Once it was complete and spell checked I’d copy the text and paste it into Wordmobi.  This then allowed me to post direct to the blog and add the tags and whatever I wanted.  All in all this process was very good and worked well for me.  I had my laptop with me including my datacard and power source but never once turned it on during the week we were away.  I was able to do everything I needed to using my phone.  Other apps I used were the Facebook App that came installed on the phone and my favorite Twitter App – Gravity.  I would have been online using Nimbuzz, but for some reason I just couldn’t get authenticated, but it worked fine from home, not sure what happened there.

I’ve received a lot of positive comments from people via various paths about my blog postings while away.  Thanks for the comments and thanks for reading them too!

I really must try to blog more often… perhaps with the new found process using my phone I will feel more like it.  Since moving from Windows to Linux full time on my laptop it’s not as convienent to use my one beloved Windows too, Windows Live Writer … truely a great application for blogging on WordPress sites.

Thank again for following our holiday and reading the site.

It was a bit of an early day again today, Lisa woke us by filling her sleeping bag again, rather then getting up to use the bucket we’d put out for just such cases. Oh well, hung everything out to dry on a line for the day.

Today we spent the day in Southwold. parked up at on end of the town and only paid £3.80 for all day parking, brilliant for a tourist trap really. First stop in town was the Pier. This was not like most piers in the UK… It had an arcade but was small and clean, but the pier lacked the usual tat and flashing lights and head pounding noises. It was very clean and tidy with shops selling decent looking products.

After that we headed into town and walked about 2 miles around the streets and looking in shops. We needed to get the girls some swimsuits or shorts so they could play in the surf. Once the new shorts were acquired it was time for food. This proved to be the most difficult task of the day… First it was 1425hrs when we started the quest for food. The first pub stopped serving at 1400, the next place stopped at 1430 (missed it by that much (insert any number of corresponding scene from “Get Smart”)), finally found a place. The timing was perfect, I was preparing to beat several sea gulls to death for a meal.

Fed and watered it was time to get wet. We headed down to the beach. Its a very long and fairly well maintained and clean. It was very windy down on the beach and as a result we all ended up getting several layers of skin sand blasted off haha and people pay big money for that sort of treatment, fools. We spent just over an hour at the water I suppose. The girls had a great time and got well soaked and cold… Warm water my ass but they had fun blue lips and sand in places it shouldn’t be haha

Time to head back to camp, but first a stop at a Tesco first for a few more supplies. Dinner was bbq pork chops, boiled carrots and potatoes and a tossed salad.

Right now as I type this Yuki is in giving the girls a showered to get the sea, sand and stink off them

Next will be a short sit around the neighbours camp fire with them and roast some marshmallows and make some chocolate banana’s in the fire… Then bed time again. We were going to see about staying Friday night too but decided to pack it in tomorrow… The weather is suppose to turn tomorrow night and no point temping fate We’ve had a good run this week, no point pushing our luck.

Its been a great week away. We’ve had some great times and some not so great but all in all it was positive. Being home in my own bed tomorrow night will be very nice indeed. Cleaning all the camping gear wont be much fun but it needs to be done I guess. The gear will be packed away for another year (or in the recent case, two years as we didn’t get out at all last year).

The girls are all in bed now and I’m just finishing off this posting and having a cup of hazelnut hot chocolate, yummy. Then check some emails and off to bed myself. Time sure does fly these past few days… 10pm comes ever so quickly. Normally I’m struggling to stay awake at home this time of night, but not out here… All the fresh air is going to be sadly misses when we get back home…

Right, enough of this babbling, time to close the post, finish my hot chocolate, count some stars and then to bed.

Night all!!!

Oh yeah, once we are back I will be uploading heaps of photos… Got about 400 or 500 to sift though and see what’s useful and get them uploaded.

Posted by Wordmobi

Then it was up about 8am or so to get cleaned up, fed and packed up. Breakfast was some left over sausages and a hamburger and some scrambled eggs that were collected by the owners the day before, YUMMY!! By 1115 we’d cleared the camp site and were on the way back to Diss for the laundrette, thankfully it was open.

We arrived at the new site, the Orchard (IP13 0SJ). I assume at one time it was, there are still a couple apple trees around, not eating apples though. While Yuki and I got busy setting up camp the kids went off to play, they quickly acquired their new victims … Err found a couple of kids to befriend that are both sisters and only 6 months difference from our girls. Turns out they just down from north of Peterborough and arrived an hour or so ahead of us, very nice couple they are.

We didn’t feel much like cooking tonight so headed into a town called Woodbridge. We found a very nice pub called The Seal. The bar keep turns out to have schooled at Queen’s Uni in Kingston so had a bit of a chat about that.

Back to the camp site… We finished setting up the tent and all. Then it was over to visit with the folks we’d met earlier. The girls had gone go to theirs and were “helping” with the fire and roasting of marshmallows. stood around for about 90 mins chatting then it was time for the “glow stick shower”. Every Wed and Sat nights after dark they assemble all the kids/teens near the shop and after a very loud count down from 10 they hurled about 100 of the thin flexible glow sticks into the air from a couple different directions. All that can be said about what happened next is… WOW… The kids had a blast collecting what they could. After that was done they handed out the joiners for the glow sticks.

That brings me to the present… 2230hrs and I’m wiped… Again. Blogging this not from my chair under the stars but from bed. Our neighbours have also just returned, not overly concerned the others could be sleeping but never mind.

Time to post this and sign off for the night… No ideas yet for tomorrow… Likely head to Southwold to the beach or something.

Sorry for taking so long to post this tonight tata from Suffolk!

Posted by Wordmobi

We decided to spend the day back in Diss. Its and old town with narrow streets and loads of little shops. A lot of charity shops too. Yuki had loads of fun looking through the shops and got some great deals on some nice clothes.

Part of the reason for spending the day there was to get to a laundrette. Lucky the town had one… Unluckily it was shut today only for “essential maintenance”, just our luck. The day was another scorcher, reaching 27 according to the car. After some shopping, walking and the best part of an hour at the new park just off The Mere (pronounced “mirror” from what I can work out), that is a lake stocked with fish and ducks, and according the signage, an over abundance of Blue-Green Algae and contact with the water should be avoided. Nice.

We then turned our attention to food… Struck out at the first two places (excessive delay and filth). Finally found food at the Morrison’s, it wasn’t bad at all to fair. Then was to shopping for some supplies including more ice for the cooler. The next time we go camping I will get dry ice, will last a week easily in the cooler. We also needed to find a place to get some gas for the camp stove, found that and headed back to camp.

On return to the camp site we found two new families had arrived with their kids, mostly about Lisa’s and Emma’s ages so that was good. Brings the kid count to about 10 or so I suppose. The girls had a blast with their new friends. 9pm came ever so fast tonight. The girls are all in bed now sound asleep, the quickest so far.

Tomorrow its time to pack up and move on to a new site. We’d like to stay here another couple days rather then move but we’ve already paid a deposit at the new place. Besides, its always nice to other things too.

I’m just sitting outside writing this, enjoying the stars and trying to enjoy the quiet but the voices of other campers are on the wind. Its alright though, its still relaxing.

For the interest of those that care… I have been writing these blog posts in Quickoffice on my Nokia N97, this .lets me edit easily plus has a spell checker in it too, good init? Hehe Then I copy and paste my ramblings into Mobiword and publish to the blog. There is a bit of fiddle with the process but all in all it works well. Quickoffice, I think, is an essential app for the phone. It comes pre-installed on the device but the trial is short and its an old version.

Right enough babbling for the night, there are stars and bats to be watched tonight.

Good night world!

Posted by Wordmobi

Morning started early at 7 when Lisa woke up first. She needed the loo… It was chilly but by 8am it was getting hot and drove us out of the tent. We had a bacon and egg breaky, then it was to into the town of Diss for a few bits from Morrison’s. After that it was to the zoo.

It’s quite a large zoo for such an out of the way place. Will have loads of pics when we get back or get wifi connection somewhere. the kids had a ball at the zoo, we stayed about 5 hours…we’re all fully knackered. Could do with a nap but doubt that will happen.

Back at the camp site… Yuki and Lisa slept. I caught up on twitter, email and some facebooking plus watching Emma… She had no interest in sleeping. I hope that will work for us later at bed time…

Dinner is done, bbq hamburgers, boiled carrots and salad. The kids had a heck of an appetite tonight. Between all the walking at the zoo and the running around at the camp site with the other kids. All three of my girls are now in bed and trying to get to sleep. I’ve decided to sit out under the stars and read a magazine and finish off this blog posting.

It’s been another very full day. Sleeping tonight I hope will be easier then it was last night. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow. I think we are going to head back to Diss and check out the town and the shops. What little we saw today when going to the store it looked like it would be worth another look around.

Well, I think that’s about it for me tonight. Gonna finish my hot chocolate and get inside the tent and snuggle down. The clear skies tonight means it will be colder then it was last night.

Good night from Brickyard Farms.

Posted by Wordmobi

Lisa and Emma immediately found the horses in the fields to go and see plus a swing set to play on as well. I was a bit worried for a while, there were no other kids around. Then, a family came trooping back into camp. They’d been out to the Banham Zoo. It’s about 1/2 mile down the road. Anyhow, Lisa and Emma quickly became acquainted with Hanna, 7yrs old. They spent the next 3 or so hours playing all sorts of games and running around the farm.

The camp site itself is a small family run business. It’s run the brother of our neighbour, very nice folks. They popped around to check on us and see how we were settling in. Quite layed back, they haven’t asked for money as yet. The site is, as I mentioned, small. Only about 6 or so pitches, most with electric. We didn’t bother with that, I’d brought the 120amp battery with us. More then enough power for the week to run a laptop if needed and charge the phones. I brought a 12v florescent lamp as well but likely won’t need it.

The kids are knackered. They’ve had a busy afternoon that’s for sure. Tomorrow we’ll be walking to the zoo and checking out the animals and whatever else they have there.

Well that’s about it from here tonight I think. the big people are knackered too and ready for bed now as well.

Watch this space for the day 2 report. I won’t be posting pics on the blog, but check on facebook, flickr and mobypictures and of course Twitter.com/m1xzg for updates.

Btw, this is all from my phone, there are likely spelling errors, I will fix them later. Don’t think I have a spell check on here.

Posted by Wordmobi

I’ve been looking at some camp sites and one that has stuck out as looking like a fun place to go (for the kids too) …

River Dart Country Park – http://www.riverdart.co.uk/ Check out the pics of the place on the site.

Also found this place http://www.woodovis.com/cmx/content/view/2/4/ seems all right. Will have to check them out more.

I’d really like a MSR Whisperlite but they aren’t cheap, however, they are very versatile.. best you read about them on the manufactures website (click the link back there).  At some point I’ll likely get one of these, but not right now. 

For now I’ll have a go with this Hexamine stove.    This the very same one I have picked up for £4.00

To night I decided to do some timing experiments to see how long it takes to boil water in both my crusader cup and a small aluminium kettle.  The Crusader cup took 6m20sec to bring 1L of water to a boil and the Hexamine cube held the boil for 3 minutes.  Might want it to boil longer if you were sterilizing water, but just pop another cube of Hexamine and it would be good for another 9 mins of burn time.  The kettle, which has a lid, only took 4m30sec and the same 9 min burn time on the cube so that means 4m30sec of the water being held at a boil.

A couple of pics and a couple of videos can be seen below.. click to enlarge or see the videos.

Well, now just have to try it out in anger one day in the field