Skip to content

Author Archives

Unknown's avatar

Jools

UK backpacker, striving for lightweight while body gets increasingly heavyweight. Completed all of the UK national trails while fitting in local day hikes and other multi-day trails both in the UK and overseas. Walked across mainland UK on five month 2500 mile 'Three Points of the Compass' hike in 2018

Cooking

Gear talk: the Fire Maple FMS-300T ‘Hornet’ gas stove

The Fire Maple FMS-300T gas stove is a well made product from a manufacturer with many years of experience in producing stoves. This particular stove has been on their catalogue for ten years now. In that time Fire Maple have sold tens of thousands of them and they remain a favourite for those looking for a truly lightweight small burner, specifically for heating water rather than cooking. In operation, the stove benefits greatly with protection from the wind and if treated with due care should perform faultlessly for many years. While not the cheapest, or the most efficient, or even lightest for that matter, the FMS-300T will fill a particular niche more than adequately.
Gear talk: the Fire Maple FMS-300T ‘Hornet’ gas stove

beer trail

Trail talk: a (sort of) Birmingham Beer Trail

The 2022 CAMRA Winter Beer Festival in Birmingham failed to take place due to worries over Covid restrictions. However Three Points of the Compass has a pretty good knowledge of some decent pubs in the city. After a little further research putting together a tour of some of the best, I rang my brother and booked a hotel. In February 2022, we met up for a two-day'ish pub crawl. Life can be hard sometimes, someone has to make the effort!
Trail talk: a (sort of) Birmingham Beer Trail

Trail talk

Trail talk: the Gritstone Trail

Backpacking along the edge of the Peak District, with hills to my left and the Cheshire Plain stretching far off to my right. It snowed, rained and (occasionally) shone brightly for this three day February trip. The Gritstone Trail went up, it went down, very rarely was it flat. Regardless of the gradient, mud was a frequent companion.
Trail talk: the Gritstone Trail

Trail talk

Trail talk: the Miner’s Way

The Miner's Way is a now largely forgotten trail that loops around the East Kent countryside, visiting the former collieries of the short lived Kent Coalfield. Once heralded as a fitting tribute to the miners who came to toil, live and die in brutal working conditions, local authorities now seem to be doing their best to ignore this trail.
Trail talk: the Miner’s Way