Great weather, good company, fantastic mountains, two pubs, the Jamie Oliver of dehydrated food and enough navigation devices to map the world, twice - what more could you ask for?
BIG SMILES ALL ROUND :-)
The weekend's OUTDOORSmagic meet in Eskdale was a cracker with
perfect Saturday weather and over 40 OMers taking advantage of it
with some familiar faces joined by a few new ones.
We had our own field at the excellent Hollins Farm camp site -
totally recommended for its superb location within easy walking
distance of two pubs and spotless facilities - and the combination of
weather, good beer, a fantastic location and a lot of good humour
created a gentle mellow vibe all weekend.
Scafell, the nearest obvious mountain, was positively over-run by
OM members who scampered up from all imaginable directions for some
gentle banter on the summit, while others popped over into Wasdale,
the next valley, for a pint and some lunch in the Wasdale Head or a
route or two on Scafell Crag. There were lots of smiles and tired
legs back at the campsite for a mellow evening sitting around a
barbecue log and chatting about, well, pretty much anything and
everything. Shirley shome mishtake...
Tarps And Tapas...
As a bonus, Bob 'Podcast' Cartwright from www.backpackinglight.co.uk
rolled up with a tent full of the latest lightweight gear plus his
own mini-tarp city. It was an eye-opener to see what the Fluff
Freeman of outdoors podcasting could do with a simple sheet of
waterproof fabric, a trekking pole or two and some cord.
Perhaps the highlight of Bob's display were a couple of food
driers together with an endless supply of dehydrated lightweight food
produced in the Bob kitchen with Jamie Oliver-like finesse.
Beef stew, apple and blackberry pie, pasta, mashed potato, they
can all be dried out then reconstituted on the hill with amazingly
edible results. Definitely worth considering if you're a regular
lightpacker.
Finally, watch out for an OM meet podcast coming soon.
Never Get Lost Again
Various OMers also benefited from the loan of one of Dave
Mycroft's numerous GPS-equipped, map-displaying PDA gizmos. We're
talking a system where you have an OS map on a screen with your exact
position marked on the map.
Even confirmed techno-sceptics couldn't help but be impressed. And
then there were Dave's GPS-equipped watches, devilishly cunning
mobile phones and, well, let's just say that no-one got lost all
weekend. Interesting stuff.
More Meets
Thanks to everyone who came along to Eskdale and made it a great
weekend. There are more meets planned, so if you're interested in
meeting a few fellow OMers take a look at the Meets
and Partners section of the forum.
