Canoeing and Wild Camping in Poland

What a trip! 7 days down the River Obra on Poland. Great weather for the most part, very friendly locals and wonderful food and wildlife, here are a few snaps.

Make shift chopping board, going to cook my vegetable and chorizo soup for the 8 hungry campers.

Next night, fresh fish!

A few pics showing just how idyllic this part of the World is.

 And of course the woods, not too dissimilar to the UK, but a little more diverse in both plants and  animals....apart from the human kind, definitely less of those around, between the towns you would rarely see anyone.

A Walk Around Britian

Just stumbled across these very inspirational guys Ed and Will, here's a short youtube video for you enjoy and their website here http://awalkaroundbritain.com/

Kempsey Kite Club - Near Worcester - New Members Wanted!

Today was the official first day of Kempsey Kite Club, which is based on Teal Turf Farm near Worcester. I wasn't kiting due to a back strain but I will be soon, and I wanted to go along and show my support and become a signed up member.

At £14 per month it's a real bargain for unlimited use of such a fantastic site and they really want new members to help make the project viable long into the future. With such a great second hand kite market on places such as ebay this extreme sport can be a bit of a bargain compared to others such as snowboarding or paragliding, you could prob get started for £200 if you chose carefully and others are always willing to let you try out their kites too. Although latest new kit and a 'quiver' of kites for different winds sure can add up!

I'm pretty sure if you wanted to come along for a taster you could post on their facebook page and you would be welcome http://www.facebook.com/groups/294964893946838/

Here's a couple of snaps I took of people whizzing up and down

and if you get really good it can lead onto crazy stuff like this, video shot at the club by Ben Davies

Kempsey Kite Club Session from Ben Davies on Vimeo.

Let me know if anyone wants to come along with me to try it out, cheers, Tom

Learning to Paraglide - Day 1

As I mentioned in my introductory post to the blog, I paid for my intro paragliding day some time ok and then didn't bother to get on with it, so with my new found enthusiasm I checked their weather forecast and booked in a day.

When the morning came the weather looked foggy but as I drove to over the border and on into the welsh valleys it started to clear. I met the instructor Steve from Axis Paragliding and his assistant Ellis in Merthyr Tydfil's Asda carpark and then we headed up to the top of a gentle nursery slope (above)

Day 1 consists of : Learning how to fall and roll in-case you ever have a heavy landing, an intro to the equipment and how to check it over, pre-flight checks, an intro to the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, some theory of weather and suitable flying sites. Hopefully once a bit of this has sunk in you are onto the actual paragliding action!

This latter part of the day begins with trying to run on the flat with the paraglider being inflated and rising above you in a kind of mock launch. Progressing to doing this on a downhill slope where you might get the odd 'hop' off the ground. To where with a hopeful head-on breeze and some serious running effort you should experience your first actual first flight! See the video below to see how it went!

The day costs £150 and overall I can't recommend this experience enough, it's an incredible sensation when you feel the paraglider first take your weight and you actually start to 'fly'. I think I'm going to get hooked on this new sport and am trying to book my second day already, I just can't wait to soar! To become trained up so you can fly on your own takes about 8 days. If anyone wants to come with me from the Worcester area to give it ago you are welcome to a lift.

Hiking and Photography in the Brecon Beacons

I thought I would go and climb a mountain today, it's something I haven't done for a long time and when I looked on the map I saw the Brecon Beacons are under 2 hours away. So it's very easy to jump in the car drive there have a good hike and drive home in time for tea!

The net is pretty well set up these days with walking routes websites, I grabbed the route from here http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_3/walk_85/index.shtml put some food and a waterproof in a rucksack and headed off. On a simple route like this, besides some decent boots a hike like this is really that simple (when the weather forecast is very good and clear like it was me)

You start off on the road as in the above photos and you can clearly see the peaks you intend to climb in front of you and then about 2 hours later you are at the top of Pen y Fan which is the highest peak in South Wales at 2,905 feet

The mountains here are different to those in North Wales, which tend to be quite rocky, these are more smaller grassy sculpted lumps. If I remember from my GCSE geography what happened is a long time a go a big manly glacier trundles along and basically tears the back out of the curvy beauties, resulting in some stunning scenery and when you have the changing light like today, quite good for taking the following pictures too.

One of the advantages of going on your own is you definitely talk to more people, I hiked for a while with a German guy who often goes to the Alps, and I laughed at his jokes with him at how pathetic these little hills were whilst trying not to sound too out of breath. He told me all about ski touring where you stay in basic remote mountain cabins with only wood fires and you hike up the mountains with snow shoes and then ski or board back again, much cheaper than your usual commercial skiing holiday and more of an adventure too. Something to definitely add to the to-do list and it seems great that the more you do the more people you meet and new ideas you get.

On the way back down you head towards the little reservoir and as you can see in this photo it had a small strip wood on the left side.

When you reach this I think its Scots Pine and Beech and with the combination of autumn light, water, peaks etc, it's another great spot for some photos (see below) and a nice contrast to the steep hills to finish the walk which I would be happy to do again and guide anyone who wants to try it (but not great for mountain bikes really) Weekdays are great, I probably saw about 20 other hikers but I reckon it would be crowded on nice weekend days.

But the cream teas at the cafe are even better (if not a little posh for a grubby lone traveller)