Peak District Wild Camp

Well, what fantastic weather we had last weekend, eh? Absolutely gorgeous! It was a bit nippy in the wind’s, mind – but it made for some clear air with excellent visibility.

It’s been a few weeks since I last headed out into the hills and my legs and stamina knew it – nevertheless it was as always a pleasure to be out and about and sleeping under the stars with not another soul about.

Actually, for one night there was someone with me – my Swiss friend, Moonlightshadow (online name).

We had previously met on my Coast to Coast Walk where he joined me and Eion for a wild camp – in fact his first ever night spent under canvas out on the fell tops.

He’s been truly bitten by the bug now and so we decided to hook up together on this trip.

Incidentally, I’ve been itching for a while to do a wild camping video from a first-timer’s point of view and so I thought Moonlightshadow (MLS) would make a perfect candidate. So, I packed up my rucksack with the usual gear along with tripods, cameras etc.

I headed up on a Friday evening and reached camp just in time for sunset and by golly! What a sight it was this evening – click on the image below to enlarge:

I had a beer in hand, not a soul about (bar an owl which flew out of nowhere and just missed me!) and took in the local scenic delights. Despite it being June here in the U.K, it was rather chilly in the breeze. In fact, temperatures dropped to about 2 degrees at one point – so who knows what the wind chill was.

No matter, I was content and more so given the England football teams result in the World Cup that evening (I’m a footy fan and was not too pleased) and so considered myself lucky that I took the decision to not spend an evening in the pub watching the game – but instead be out on a wild camp.

The next day I was due to meet MLS at a pre-arranged point on the Kinder plateau. He was late having got his times of arrival in Edale and the fell top mixed up – but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I woke at 5am and was packed by 6am and spent the next few hours wandering around the fell taking in the fine views. It helped relax my mind for the day ahead and furthermore ready myself for the day’s filming.

Eventually, MLS arrived sweating and cursing a scramble up to Fox Holes and not long after, we headed off to wander around Kinder Scout – all the while with my video camera in hand.

I have to say not only is MLS a true gentleman and great company but he proved to be an absolute star with regards to my filming. He proved to be patient and easy-going and moreover relaxed in front of the camera – of which I’m sure you will agree when you view the video!

We spent hours walking about enjoying the landscape and all at an easy pace when finally we reached our camp for the night. After noting a young mountain hare in some heather we began to set up our tents and evening meal.

MLS has really took to wild camping – his pack was small and light, in fact lighter than mine! And his choice of gear was what I’d consider a hardened hill-veteran to take along. I mean all this with the best intentions as many newbie’s to this hobby can often take with them way too much gear.

Remarkably, MLS had a cheap £20 Gelert tent that weighed only 1.5 kilos and other cheap bit’s and bob’s – showing anyone that you don’t have to spend a great deal of money to spend a night out on the hills – or at least in the summer.

Sure, I have no doubt MLS will “upgrade” his gear in time but for a first-timer he had clearly thought thing’s through.

We took a short walk over to a crashed Halifax Bomber out of curiosity and of course to pay our respects. The RAF craft had been damaged while on a bombing raid over Germany in the Second World War. The crew made it back to England but due to low cloud had overshot their intended landing field by quite some way.

Lost and low on fuel they decided to descend through the cloud to see where they were and unfortunately at that point they crashed into the high moor’s of Kinder Scout.

The sun was setting and the breeze was chilly – we did some more filming, ate and enjoyed some wine and at around midnight we headed off to bed.

The next day was glorious (again) though I felt a little hungover and MLS was a little annoyed at my snoring in the night despite being several feet away from him in my tent.

We took an easy stroll down back to Edale, had a beverage in a cafe and duly caught our trains home.

A memorable trip in terms of the weather, atmosphere and scenery – the few pictures I captured are evidence of that. But the video more so as that was what we were primarily there for.

I shall upload the video shortly and I hope you like it – a fine memoir of a enjoyable trip out in the Peak District.

More photo’s from my trip can be seen here:

Peak’s Wild Camp