[bikemap 1941653]
Time again for a decent walk out, and another chance to get used to hiking with the backpack full with kit for a full on microadventure. Also a chance to try out some leg gaiters to try and prevent the spread of sticky mud up the trousers, which is obviously going to be a feature of this time of the year (and probably the rest of the spring/summer if last year was anything to go by).
I’m just about ready now to set off on an overnight adventure, probably to camp on or near the Quantock hills. Time and distance wise today was to try and get a handle on how long it might take to get there, and I’m thinking on something like 4-5 hours sticking as much as possible to footpaths or small lanes. Roadwork is not anywhere as much fun, and I find it somewhat harder on the legs than walking on tracks, even with mud.
I’ve been very lax so far in taking any photos or notes of the route and what is there to be discovered on the route, and this is something I want to make a part of the process. I’ve been trying to avoid using the technology for mapping/route finding, partly because its so woefully inadequate, and partly because I want to make the experience a bit more real. But I do need to remember to get the iPhone out and take photos and notes, so that I can write up the experience. I want to do this as a record for myself, probably more so than to share with others, but one comes from the other. Just need to remember to write!
We did find some interesting paths and views along the route. It was nice to get far enough away from home for a change that we could see beyond our own home patch and see another bit of landscape, whilst familiar for us, still nice to see it from a different perspective. This is just the sort of thing I was hoping for when it comes to some of the planned micro adventures in the coming weeks. To walk out from your own front door and discover more of the landscape nearby, and then to create a journey with no particular purpose that hopefully will be both educational and good exercise. Its a sort of [Psychogeography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography), although thats probably not quite the discipline I’m looking at, but its the closest description I’ve found to some of the microadventures I’d like to have.
