So when I got up this morning to make breakfast, seems someone had been waiting for me.

This may not have been the dude from yesterday, although, they are all under suspicion for the nighttime mugging I experienced. Sooo, about 0100, I was awake and kept hearing some weird rustling noises from just outside the left tent door. I bashed the side of the tent, thinking that if it was an animal, that should just scare it off.

A little later it happened again. I got up and shine torch out there, to no avail. No movement, no sound of scampering away, I decide it must just be wind playing tricks on me. After an hour of this, the noise is unmistakable, so I’m up, torch in hand, and done bugger has got my ginger biccies out of my rucksack that I’d left outside the tent.

In the cold light of day, turns out he chewed the packet out of my bag. Anyway so I had to get up to dispose of biccies and topped up water bottle, but damn it was freaky.

One, some, or more of these pics may be replaced when I get home and can see them better, but it’s a quick photo summation of my day here. I’ve walked a lot, taken a few hundred photos, and now I’m in bed hoping to sleep until dawn.

So, if only I realised that this would be the start of a problem.

Okay so obviously I realise that this looks hilarious. However this pearlescent nutter followed me to watch while I cooked, and then came and harassed me for half an hour until I managed to wolf down my nasi goreng, when he wandered off. I have now eaten 66% of my rations and it was not a peaceful meal. Fuck peacocks, they are bullies.

Well, I’m currently on an island that is way bigger than I thought, in my tent, with way less food than I need. I have packed very light, at least that’s what I thought. I have a front and back pack, so that I can wander around the island with some supplies without having to take a full pack. However, as it’s quite warm, being sandwiched between the two bags has been incredibly hot and uncomfortable.

Train journey was uneventful, and when alighting at Poole station, I tabbed to the dock to catch the ferry. There were a lot of people waiting. Decided that queuing was the best plan rather than going to buy supplies. Got onto boat, boat floated, boat arrived.

When I got to the island I dropped my big bag off to be taken across the island in a cart. I then started my walk to the campsite. Everything here is just stunning. So I meandered off course a few times until the campsite had to call me to check I hadn’t fallen off a cliff.

Got to campsite after ignoring their instructions and getting lost again. Picked a pitch, met Noisy Nigel, pictured below, and got settled.

I had food, one third of my supplies, so now chilling in my tent, listening to nothing but birdsong.

I will update later or tomorrow, peace all.

Had a hankering to be in a field, so hopped onto the train to Dorset again. It’s quite a chill journey albeit about ninety minutes. I didn’t take into consideration that it is a bank holiday weekend before half term, with good weather forecast. Lots of kids. Still, I have noise cancelling headphones, so while they charge around screaming, in between cans of red bull, I’ll just be laying in my tent trying to ignore them. Saw very cool cinnabar moth, and flowers have filled out since I was last here. Had a kinda Mac and cheese with some fried kielbasa for dins, and a nice hot chocolate. Went for a bit of a paddle and a walk, then got myself comfy to test out the two new pillows. This was basically the justification for this trip. I will update you in the morning on how it goes. I’m basically trying to see if the tiny purple nemo pillow is good enough. If it is, that will save a lot of space and weight, as I’m sure the big blue will be comfy, but is huge and heavy-ish.

Also took chair and table. Both are awesome, and glad to have them. I’m also experimenting with a floor to the vestibule, by attaching clips to the silver foam pad to clip it to the pegs.

Anyway, slumbers sweet embrace beckons, so see you all tomorrow.

So the night felt colder than I expected, but I guess because I wasn’t completely cocooned in my bag as I would be when it was really cold. When I woke, the birds were giving it all they had and there were no other sounds. Until the trains started.

When I fully regained consciousness, I assessed the tent to find all the slugs that had crawled all over the tent during the night. I also spotted a wee fella making his way across the roof vent.

No idea who he was, but the first thing that sprang to mind was that he was a leech. Everything was soggy but it was a bright morning, so made a cuppa and started getting packed up.

Hopped on the train and it was already sweltering. Instead of changing trains to go one stop at the end of my journey, I decided to walk home by the lakes. It was a fairly enjoyable walk, but the heat and weight of the backpack made it tedious pretty swiftly. I did get to see goslings and cows though, so it was totally worth it.

Got home, ordered pizza and called it a day, it was an exciting 24 hours, and front garden flowers are looking amazing.

Sunny day and two new pillows to try out, guess I better go camping then. Definitely seemed like quite a light pack, especially as everything was inside the bag, with the exception of the foil mat and a cool bag with some frozen sausages. This time I was headed to Moreton, famous for the Top Gear episode where they set light to a caravan.

Longish train journey, but only one change, so quite chill. Campsite is about as close as you can get to the train station, and great people running it, dude wandered about with me helping me pick a pitch. Tent up and had some Mac and cheese, as I’d forgotten breakfast. Mug of hot chocolate for dessert, and went off for a wander. Met a cat on a leash, lots of cute doggoes, and saw part of a deer. Had a cheeky splash through a stream too, mainly to see how waterproof my new shoes were.

Got back to tent and cooked my sausage and mash. The mash was portioned and vacuum sealed over a year ago, so hoping I survive eating it. Dollop of brown sauce and I was done.

I have done all the washing up, got ready for bed and got myself comfortable, so obviously I now want a pee. I will let you know how that worked out in the morning.

So after very limited sleep, mainly due to a deflating sleeping mat, I actually felt pretty good and very much enjoyed my morning cuppa. I managed to use the cooker under the awning setup, and launched into my breakfast.

I had packed sausage, bacon, black pudding and hash browns into a cool bag with a freezer block. They were all frozen when I left the house. So hopefully stayed within safe temperature by the time I cooked them this morning. It was a stunning brekkie, but was too much for a camping breakfast I think. I just wanted to sleep when I finished it.

Quick shout out to my awning setup here.

I have tied para cord to the door flap, run it out to a peg you can see in the distance, and then run back to the tent, to another peg that I could tie it off. This means that without leaving the tent I could pull the door out like an awning to cook, and then untie it to close the door afterwards.

After eating and washing up, there was a rain pause, so I started packing up. Had to cram tent into a bag as got close to train time. Made it to station just as train arrived. Was pissing down with rain when I got off the train. Seemed like a very long, cold, wet, windy walk home.

Good news was that after checking the mattress for leaks, although it was the valve leaking, it turned out that it seemed to have a small thread through the stopper. I think this was causing the air loss, so will hopefully be fine.

I’ll end with a pic of the pitch and how surrounded with water I actually was. I was half expecting Shrek and Donkey to start shouting at me to leave.

So here we are again, another field, another tent, and yet another bad life choice. So I had debated hitting the canvas on Friday, but after a rough week, felt a day doing nothing but lazing was probably on the cards. I had packed bags though, so when I felt the call of the wild, I was nearly ready to jump straight in. However, I had planned to use a different bag, so by the time I was supposed to head trainwards, I had decided that it wasn’t gonna work. So one quick repack later I was aiming for the next train. As has been my previous experience, as I got if the train at Ashurst, it started drizzling. As per usual, it waited until I climbed the stile into the field leading to the site until it bucketed down.

Gave up on waiting for it to stop. Headed out to pitch. As I unrolled the tent, I realised I’d brought the wrong damn tent. This has to be the world’s smallest tent. Originally managed to pitch where there was a huge puddle just outside the door, so had to shimmy the tent a few feet to avoid falling in a pond when I left the tent. Currently everything I was wearing is soaked, and although I managed to cook, I still feel hungry, and it’s nearly impossible to cook as there’s no vestibule.

To clarify my accommodation, I have decided to name the tents.

Vinny was who I meant to bring, as its huge dry vestibule means it’s perfect for rainy camping.

So-called as it looks from inside with both the doors open like the view if you’ve got a pair of Y-fronts on your head.

The name says it all.

I will update you tomorrow on whether I survived.

So waking up was a bit of a nightmare as it was ridiculously early and bloody cold. I heated up the penguin water and went back to sleep for a bit. Breakfast was eggs sarnie with black tea, as I had not brought any milk.

I went for a wander to take pics of trees and any available horses, but felt that my home bed was calling.

I left the forest to commune with my pizza and nap, but got another great ass pic on my way out.

This is a fairly short post add I feel I have covered most of my week in the other posts. Stayed tuned for next weeks instalment.

After waking up on Wednesday morning, it was cold. Like really cold, and had the realisation that I pitched up way too far from the toilet block. Was obscenely cold, but looked stunning.

Concerned that the gallery won’t have added the photos correctly, but fingers crossed. When I got back from my dawn walk and micturation, I managed to blag a teabag and some sugar and made breakfast. Sadly, whilst trying to fry my eggs, the frying pan fell off the stove and threw my egg all over the floor. I cooked more but I was left with an eggy mess on the entrance to the tent.

I tried to get a bit more sleep but became aware that there were noises coming from the vestibule of my tent. Turns out great tits were hopping under the canvas and cleaning all the food off my plates. One of them was also eating the egg, which feels wrong in some way; cannibalistic in some way.

Anyway, it was really cold, and only looked like getting colder, so I called it a day and made my way home.

Two days later and I’m here, this time with some new bits of equipment and most importantly, a hot water bottle.

I had a hotdog for snack when I got here and have just cooked a super rice that does not live up to its name, so I am prepared to try to get some sleep. As before I will update you if I survive.