Wild Camping Calamity - I Struggled and Made Mistakes

Welcome back everyone to a very soggy Peak District. This is my first camp of 2024. We are pushed for time a little bit as the sunset is just an hour from now. Temperature's five degrees but it's only going to drop to four degrees overnight. I suppose I better pull my finger out and get up this hill. We're going to be in the clouds in a minute. So it's rained pretty much non-stop for the last four days. There's water trickling down all of the paths. I'm expecting it to be much worse up on the tops. That's the steep bit out of the way anyway. It's a bit windy I don't want to get blown off here. There's quite a lot more water up here look. More like streams than paths. That's the sunset and we still haven't reached camp. Let's top it off. Just chucking it down. This is it. Hopefully I can get a decent pitch. So it's not ideal but it's going to have to do. Can't be fussy. Run out of daylight. Right so first job get them poles set up. Everything's harder when your hands are cold. So the tent I've brought with me is the Terranova Voyager. It's an inner pitch first. Which when it's raining can be challenging. Right need to be as quick as I can. Clip it onto the to the bag. I don't want it blown away. It's harder than it looks in the dark. Finally got set up. Let's get out this wind and rain. I'm glad to be out of that lot. Well that didn't go to plan. Timings were way out today. Pitching in the rain and the dark not ideal. Need to get out these wet clothes and get warmed up a bit. That's all the wet clothes off. Santa Claus has been kind again. Got some more of them alpaca socks so they're pretty rubbish for hiking. The wool's a bit rough and it rubs but they are great for keeping your feet warm inside a tent. And Joe's got me some insulated trousers. I think these are a Rab Photon. I've been after something like this for ages and they were a bargain at the Mountain Outfitters Rab Warehouse in Alferton. Pertex shield with Primaloft gold. I'd probably get away without a sleeping bag with these and a down jacket. Won't be trying that tonight though. Chopping it down. Gone for the sea to summit. Comfort light. Thermal rest is just... I'd not be sleeping comfortably on it. Quite a little bit of a backup. So if this is not quite warm enough I've got a small torto length thin closed cell phone mat and I've got one of those... where is it... things. You know every cloud's got a silver lining and all that. That's a bit comfier. Having a little rest. Wrap myself up. I brought the sleeping bag today. Usually I'm a quilt man as you know but this sleeping pad has got little dimples in it. So the sleeping bag from underneath it sort of fills those a little bit. Gives you that little bit of extra insulation whereas you know a quilt you've got no insulation underneath. So considering I pitched the inner in the rain it's bone dry. So over here in the UK we have this idea that you need a tent that pitches either outer first or inner and outer at the same time. You don't have to. These inner pitch ones are much more taut inside so you get less flapping about in the wind. They are a little bit more complicated to pitch especially when your hands are cold and it's dark. The wind's picking up quite a bit. Gusts are around 20 mile an hour according to the forecast. It's been rotten all week and this is my first half chance to get out. Time to get some grub on. Brought Soto Windmaster with me today. Might use this for a while and to be fair it's probably pound for pound for the best canister stove. It does everything. It's got a regulator. It simmers. It's good in the wind. It's about 40-50 quid. I can't remember exactly. Oh I brought this as well. I forgot about that. So this is the MSR Lowdown. So this allows you to get your stove low down. There we go. Although about £50, £40-£50 for this. Just the adapter thing. It is not worth the money. So for dinner I've got a variation of fajitas. Steak fajitas. Variation is I forgot the bloody fajita spice mix. Got everything else so it's just gonna have to be beef with peppers and onions in a tortilla. The only seasoning I've got is a little bit of salt and pepper. It's gonna have to do. I don't know whether it's worth slicing it up or not. That was my original plan. Goes better in a wrap I suppose. Need to be careful. Need to make sure I don't slice my sleeping pad. There we go. All that's missing is a bit of fajita spice. Although I am starving so it's gonna do a job even without the spices. I reckon that's done. First one on go. Look at that. None of that fancy rolling. Although it will fall out the bottom. Even without the spices. Now we're ready for this. So it's quite windy out. It's been a load of rain again. That's a bit of luck. 16 year old in the final. Not a big darts fan but I've been watching a bit of it this year. I enjoyed that. Comfy as one. Great game. So it's 10 to 11. A few gusts of wind and it's starting to howl a little bit as well. I like it when it howls. Yeah it's been a tough one this one. Hasn't quite gone to plan. Found it hard work getting up the hill so that turkey's taking its toll over the Christmas period. I forgot my seasoning for my dinner. The weather's been rotten. Got my timings wrong as well so I've had to pitch up in the dark. So yeah it hasn't quite gone to plan this time but hopefully in the morning it's clear. We get a bit of a sunrise. This wind calms down a little bit as well so even after all that I still enjoyed it once I've been in the tent. Once you're tucked up in in your sleeping bag it doesn't matter what's going on out there. Right I shall see you in the morning. Well it's rained pretty much all night. I've not looked outside yet. Didn't open the door. I just hope it's not foggy. I've opened my sleeping bag up so it's like a quilt again. I just move around too much for a bag and this pad, although it's a bit noisier than the Therm-a-Rest, it's more comfortable. Still haven't slept well though. Right let's have a little look, have a little look-see outside. Oh wow I wasn't expecting that this morning. Absolutely beautiful. Well impressed with the tent. Okay it was hard work putting it up in the dark but solid as a rock. I did clip some of my guy lines on so it doesn't come with a guy line there. Not sure why that would be but easy fix and then I put two on just to stop it twisting both ways. There's the start of the show. All that effort yesterday was worthwhile. When I looked at the Met Office app and it said that there was fog I feared the worst. Managed to find the only puddle free spot. Cold but I don't want to miss this. Happy New Year. Good start to 2024. There's a lovely little sheltered spot down here. Could probably get a bivvy around here. Oh it's much better out in that wind. Yeah you could definitely get a bivvy there. Let's get kettle on. I am ready for a cuppa. What about that for a view? Have some of that. Buy myself a coffee at McDonald's. Pop in and load up on free UHT milks. Someone's going to tell me that I should take the bag out first. Each to their own. My tea. I must admit at one point yesterday I thought this was a bad idea. I struggled getting up the hill. You know that little bit of extra turkey from Christmas. The weather was shocking. I was late. I just wondered whether it was worth it on this occasion but it's that sunrise. Absolutely mint and I wouldn't have seen that from here unless I did the the hard work yesterday. The tent was brilliant. Lots of space in it. Kept me dry and it's really sturdy. This has been I think it's 40 years old the Voyager design. I know they've changed a few of the materials and that since the original ones but the basic concept of the three poles crossing over the way it all sets up is exactly the same as it was 40 years ago. It was nice to have the sleeping bag to start off with when it was a little bit cold just to proper wrap myself up in it but after a while I remembered why I like quilts. I had to unzip it and I just like that freedom. But you don't need a quilt. Sleeping bag. Just unzip it. It acts as both. I've got to say this is definitely more comfortable than my Thermarest but if you move around a lot it does make a bit of noise so heavy earplugs or don't move. I didn't get to show you much of this last night. Filming in the dark. Hard work sometimes. Not sure that I needed to bring this low down thing. It does give your stove a more stable base and a lower center of gravity but I don't think it's worth the extra weight or the extra expense. Me personally anyway. I've got it so I'll bring it sometimes but yeah this probably weighs the same as the stove. This is actually quite sturdy anyway. Yeah so if you've got a decent base like a table or one of those little clip-on legs at the bottom. Anyway a couple of grams then the rain's back. I can have a better look at my trousers now. I've got zips the full length of the leg either side so you can get them on easily over the top of your boots. Zip at the front little press studs as well. Yeah really like these and there's belt loops as well so there's no elasticated but there's no adjustment on it. If you drop lucky you get some real bargains there. I've still got some good light. Tent's about empty. I was plenty warm enough last night so it was only four degrees though so I'd expect a sleeping pad to keep me warm. I definitely think having the extra guy lines helped last night. I think this is a four season tent this. I would have thought it would have had a few more on although the geodesic kind of shape that really helps. So the fly's got little eyelets as well so you just have to like shove them underneath the poles once you've got the inner in. A little bit of condensation on the inner look. Not a lot though considering what the conditions are like I'm impressed with that. Much easier when there's no wind. Gonna have a minute and soak up these colours. Perfect morning. So I came in on this path which is quite small and it was boggy on the way in. Normally coming this way it's much more defined. We'll see what the terrain's like but this was a lovely spot. Let's have a quick wander around. Might just be able to make out Ladybower. Snake Road down there and then the Great Ridge. Should see a lot more of that on the way down. So this is the spot. Did me proud last night. It's not perfectly even but the sleeping pad took up all the bumps. Let's see what the walk back down brings us. It's normally the route up that gets most of the action but the conditions were nowhere near as good as this. Proper dropped on lucky this morning. It has been a toss for four days solid and now I've had some rain. That's stunning. I love it when you get that low cloud and the haze in between the layers of the hills. Don't struggle for water this week. All that water does make some of the paths a bit ropey though. Kind of a little bit chilly but this looks the perfect spot to wrap things up. Look at these views. It's got it all. The Great Ridge. Weird and wonderful rock formations. Does it get any better than this? I'm calling it. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.