Solo wild camping uk. Helvellyn via Striding Edge, Swirral Edge and Lake District wild camping.

Good morning everyone, thanks for joining me. Today I'm in sunny Cumbria. It's the first time I've been to the lakes and it's not rained so I'm chuffed to bits, fingers crossed it holds out. I'm not quite sure what the plan is for today. I originally planned on heading towards Crumwick Water and Buttermere but because the weather's so fine I thought I'd have to tackle Striding Edge. So I've come up to Helvellyn, half the way up, in front of me there is Helvellyn and Striding Edge. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to height so I need to have perfect weather to have a go at So the plan is to get up to Helvellyn, up Striding Edge, down to the side of Swirrell Edge, back down into Glendening and then I've bought my kit so I'm going to have a bivvy camp and I still might head up to Crumwick Water. So as you've probably seen from the views already, stunning day, stunning part of the world, so now let's tackle Helvellyn. So just when you think you've gone up about as high as you can you come across that beast. So that's my first real view of Striding Edge, Helvellyn in the centre, Red Tarn, might have a dip in there later, Swirrell Edge on the way down and I think that's Catstickham, that summit there, but I'll probably come down that path. So we've reached the start of Striding Edge, I'm starting to have my doubts, that bit there looks a bit hairy. I'm going to try and calm myself down with some magic mushrooms, I'm going to have a drink, have five minutes and then I'm going to tackle it. Definitely worse places to stop and have a break. Right it's a bit congested but I'm going for it. Yeah at least it's not too bad if I fall, need two lanes don't they? Right so I'm out of my comfort zone a little bit but we're going for it. I have a sense of impending doom. So that's that bit done, oh shit, this is where I've got to drink. I'm doing it one-handed at the moment because I'm holding a GoPro, to be fair it is perfect conditions for this today and I'm never going to get better than this so I may as well go for it. I'm absolutely loving it. So I imagine this is really slippy when wet. These Solomon boots are doing a brilliant job. Oh shit, okay, that bit there doesn't look quite so appetising but we'll go for it. Bit of a slip, there's a plaque somewhere around here I think. There's somebody, wasn't that clever? Definitely got heavy wits about you. Whoa, we're jumping, we're jumping on cliff tops. Probably not the brightest idea Paul, but it's the worst that can happen. I don't think that one's quite as easy. Let's go down this bit. Rocks are falling out my hands, when you're feeling on top of the world. Apparently I walk funny anyway, so you won't tell if I've shit myself. So when you look back, it's not bad, I'm impressed. I'm pushing myself. There is a path down below if you're not quite comfortable with the top, so you can always drop down, you can still bring the kids. I've seen people with small dogs so it should be quite straightforward. Really is an exciting way to get to the top of a mountain. So we've done a good bit, Shrine and Edge, and Buzzing. There's Ullswater over there, looks like a puddle now though compared to Red Tarn. And there's the summit of Helvella, so we've got that bit of a scramble there to go yet. This looks like the last bit of the hard stuff. The odd jump required. Oops, I need three hands or one of those chest straps. Holding the GoPro is not a good idea, this bit's quite challenging. Relax a bit now for a second, obviously you can't take your eye off the ball. That bit there, don't fancy that. It is not for me. I'm doing it, I've done it. It wasn't easy though, that last drop was a bit hairy actually, didn't like that so much. We've still got to go up here to get to the summit of Helvella. So just when you think you've got to an easy bit, you've got that in front of you. So you can see them little dots, people trying to clamber their way across the edge. As you can see, see for miles, you can see some crazy fella flying in one of those, I don't know what it's called, can't remember. You can see all the lakes in the distance I think. All right, now I'm going to head down the swirl edge to make our way back to the car. So this doesn't look much easier than Striding Edge, quite steep and challenging, see how it goes. This is harder going down than that one over there. Plane sailing now I think. We've got Red Tarn and there's Striding Edge. Really enjoyed crossing that today. All right, better head off down that path. I need somewhere to pitch the bivvy tonight. I think I'm going to head towards Buttermere or Crummock Water, no idea where but we'll find somewhere. So I really enjoyed climbing Half Allen but I wasn't going to camp up there. My original plan was to come and camp over at Buttermere or Crummock Water but I had to do Striding Edge. So anyway, I've driven over and brought the bivvy back because the weather's nice. I'm going to find somewhere to pitch up. I don't particularly fancy climbing too high though so it might even be a lakeside bivvy, we'll see. Spider Waterfall, I'm going to have to check it out. I'm not sure what it's called. I think I saw a sign back there for Scale Force but I can't confirm that so we'll see. So here's the waterfall. There's no sign so we'll just have to guess what its name is. So that looks pretty cool. See if I can get a little bit closer. I'm not going all the way up. It's very pretty though. Gorgeous Buttermere. I'm beginning to wish I'd brought my hammock. There's loads of woodland. It would have been nice to swing between a couple of trees overlooking the lake. That would have been perfect for the hammock. It's a gorgeous reflection off the lake. I'm tempted to just pitch up here. The view is absolutely stunning. There's a nice flat bit of grass and I've even got a seat for the night. Or I could just go a bit further back into the forest but maybe not get quite as good a view. Decisions, decisions. I'm cutting it a little bit fine. It's now quarter past eight. I've still got no idea where I'm kipping. That last spot is a little bit close to the path I might like in. I've seen somewhere across the way over there but it means walking around the lake which I don't know how long it's going to take me. So I better put my finger out. We're not a million miles away from the sun going down a little bit. It's still bright over there so I still think we've got an hour and a half yet. So this is pretty cool. Just following the footpath around. Come across this. Oh it's like a mud bath but it is pretty cool. I wasn't expecting that. Now as always there's light at the end of the tunnel. I've had an absolute nightmare. I've walked all the way around Buttermere. The first spot that I picked I should have took it Everything that I've spied and thought oh that looks better when I've got there. There must be half a dozen groups of kids around with fires. A bit rowdy. Hopefully they'll clean it up after them. So it's now 25 past nine and I still don't know where I'm camping. Fortunately I've just got a bivvy so I should be throw it anywhere but I was hoping to have somewhere awesome to wake up to. We'll see. It's not perfect. It's a bit close to the path. Mid central but it's nice and flat and there's a good view. The path's only there which is not good but I'll be up early in the morning probably about five o'clock and I'll be gone before anybody comes anywhere near. The moon is looking lovely. I've watched the sun go down but there's still some light. I might see some campfires a little bit later on. I can hear the stream down here and there's the waterfall behind those trees. I've got myself a bevy. Yeah I know what you're thinking. Although I've brought my stove and a dehydrated meal, you know I can't be arsed. I've just got a bag of shit and I'm just going to eat figure old food of the gods. I'm going to have a picnic. A bit of protein courtesy of beet frisbee and I might even have a few of these. So there's bed settled for the night. Midges on me. There's a bug net on this bivvy. It's a rubber scent. I've got my next bed inside. Just a little down blanket. It should be warm enough. That's going to be my view in the morning and I imagine the sun's going to rise from over there because it's set over there. It's half 10 at night. I've still got plenty of light. There's the bivvy. That's my view in the morning as long as I haven't been eaten by them midges. I've had a couple of cans of beer. Picnic and that protein bar. That's me done to be honest. I might have one last beer and then I'm going to hit the sack. So I'm not going to film anymore tonight and I'll catch you when I wake up. 6.15am. I woke up a couple of times that night and there was a few really windy spells where the bag was blowing about a bit but still here. It's a bit misty this morning. I'll show you around. There's a little bit of mist there creeping over the back of that woodland really and some on the tops of the mountains or hills should I say. That was me last night. Yeah quite comfortable. I better get packed up before the masses start piling on to Gets everything in that I need. Have one last look at Buttermere. Nice isn't it? Catch you next time Buttermere. So that's about it for this video. Apologies to everybody who's left comments that I've not really had a chance to reply yet. As you've probably noticed I've not made any videos on YouTube for a while. Life's just got in the way really. But now everything's rosy and I should be back at it. So I'll try and catch up with my comments, make a few more videos. I've been out a few times. What have I done? I've been to Edale, Great Northern Bushcraft Conference. That was really good. Met some really good people there and I've been out in a couple of camps since then with some of those people. So there's Paul, Jay, Mark Taylor, there's loads of them. Kev from Woodland Camp and Craft. So they've all made me really really welcome. So I did do some filming but I said I've not really had a chance to put it all together. So and I've been doing everything a bit half-arsed shall we say. But focus is back on it. So I hope you enjoyed this video and weather permitting I'll see you in the next one.