Monday 29 June 2009

the ridgeway re-visited part 1

The forecast for the weekend didn’t look promising; hot and humid, and thunderstorms. Never one to shirk a challenge I stuffed enough kit in a 35l rucksack and set of for Radnage late Saturday afternoon to meet up with other Backpack club members.

On a way up a detour off the M40 was made to Marlow for a supplies stop and a wander. Marlow is a pretty little Thames riverside place that appears to be a piece of displaced west London, like someone’s taken a chunk of Chiswick (Turnham Green Terrace?) and moved it up stream.

Penny and I timed our arrival at the campsite with the only downpour of the weekend. The downpour didn’t last and we found ourselves a flattish pitch near to the others.

Despite having the car I opted to leave all the car camping kit at home; I wanted to see whether I could get all the stuff needed for an ultra lightweight trip in the Berghaus 640. The short answer was just about. There was just enough space to squeeze in an evening meal but I’d have even less had I filled the platy that I’d also packed. So to answer my my own recent musings on what size rucksack I should be looking at; something with a capacity of 40 to 45l is the answer. That’s not say that the Berghaus won’t get used, in the bag was a two person shelter and groundsheet, so for bivi only or bivi/tarp summer trips it should be fine.

A pleasant evening was had in the Crown Inn where we exchanged stories about the trips we’d done, characters we’d met whilst thunder rumbled harmlessly in the distance.

No comments: