Well here I am, on the hottest day of July, at the train station with a rucksack that weighs only marginally less than a middle aged hippo who has recently got divorced and decided to let himself go. On the bright side, I have packed the bag with literally everything I could. All the stuff I don’t use will never be taken again. I have two mattresses, two camping stoves, and a shitload of food.

I think I will publish this as a live document and update as I go along. Currently I won’t arrive for another hour, so have a lot of time to kill hanging around in trains and their stations. I will keep you informed.

So, after a fairly uneventful train journey, I arrived paid for my pitch and popped the tent up. The picnic blanket that I have purchased was absolutely no use whatsoever. So I used the silver mat in my vestibule.

Made myself, Mac and cheese and then boiled a chocolate pudding for dessert. After I was all set up, I went for a couple of wanders around the campsite just to see what other options were there for next time I come here. It’s now about 9:45 and I’m finishing this and basically going to try and sleep. I’m actually still really hungry, so might wake up in the middle of night to cook some more as I forgot to bring any snacks.

Well, I didn’t wake up to cook, however, I did decide to inflate my double mattress. Now on the bright side, this is really comfortable and means I can roll over in my sleep, if I get any. however, it also fills the entire footprint of my sleeping compartment.

I managed to get up and use the toilets before it started pissing with rain. This means I could come back to the tent and then sleep for a couple more hours. It is now just past 10 o’clock and I think I’m gonna make a cup of tea.

As I won’t bore you with pics of every single thing I eat, I made some chow mein mug shot for lunch and then took a wander to the local shop. It is a horrible sweaty and muggy walk next to a busy main road. But I did get minstrels. Came back and went in search of sunshine to charge my power pack, as I’d gone to the effort of packing the solar panels. Sat opposite the pub writing this and trying to enjoy a little solitude.