A long walk…
One day, I told myself I would walk from one end of Britain to the other. The years passed but the ambition never did. I had a loose set of rules in place and a relatively simple premise- To walk from the most southerly point on mainland Great Britain to the most westerly, finishing at the most northerly. In other words, Three Points of the Compass. For good measure I decided I may as well take in Land’s End and John O’Groats too. It was going to be a long walk.
I began my walk at Poole in April 2018. Having walked all of the South West Coast Path, Offa’s Dyke, Pennine Way, West Highland Way and the Cape Wrath Trail, plus the hundreds of miles between these, I completed my walk 152 days later at Duncansby Head, the most north-easterly point of mainland Great Britain. I had walked over 2000 miles and it was amongst the greatest experience I have ever had.
My walks continue and some of those trails are covered on these pages. Beside these and some other thoughts, there is a little knife chat, which looks at knife and smaller multi-tool options on trail, also a bit of gear talk (we all like that…) plus anything else I wish to ramble on about. These last may be worth a glance perhaps. Links for these are in Ramblings…
Hi, I have an early Midnite Mini Champ with the red LED. I always found it to be too weak to be of much use. I should be interested to know why you think it would be more useful? The “cuticle pusher” can also be used as a flat blade screwdriver and a tiny scoop. Thanks for your high quality reviews. Regards.
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Thanks for your comment Geoffrey. I carry decent white light already, either my Olight H1R Nova, Nitecore NU25 or even a little Nitecore Tube or Photon Freedom microtorch, I find a subtle weak red light unobtrusive if either sharing a room with resting hikers, or perhaps putting up a shelter in the dark in a place where, ahem, perhaps I shouldn’t be.
The cuticle pusher on the Midnite MiniChamp can indeed, be used as screwdriver, thanks for pointing this out. There is, of course, already a 2.5mm flat screwdriver tip on the tool but the coke spoon could perhaps deal with a wider screwhead. Not my primary need while backpacking however.
best wishes
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Hello,
If you use a compass which one?
Thank you for walking and writing.
Best wishest
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Hi Jo, I spoke a little about compasses on my ‘Ramblings/Navigation’ page, but to give an update on that. I have four ‘modern’ baseplate compasses and one sighting compass, only one of which usually goes on trail with me. Silva Ranger 3 which is a good compass and did me well for years until I put it into reserve when I purchased a Silva Expedition 4/54, purely because I wanted the longer baseplate. The compass that accompanies me most often however is the little Silva Classic. This is a smaller, but very good ‘basic’ compass that sits in my packs hip pocket on day walks, which are invariably low level.
For longer multi-day hikes all of these are now supplanted by superb Suunto M3 or MC-2. Though these fantastic items are probably overkill for most English walks. (and you can alter for declination.)
Finally, I always have the diminutive Suunto Micro Clipper on my sternum strap for quick checks of rough direction. It isn’t any more accurate than within a few degrees and is never regarded as a compass to map navigational tool. I have lost a couple of these, had them fall apart and they all seem to develop bubbles at lower temps, but I haven’t found an alternative acceptable quick check mini compass yet
Best, J
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