New Challenge story
It's another great report from Peter Goddard. I haven't worked out the distance and ascents on this crossing, but there are one or two big days in there!
You can go straight to the story HERE.
An alternative look at the great outdoors...
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Welcome to Doodlecat - and if you've been here before you might have noticed that the site looks a little different. Yes, the long promised new site is here at last.
The home page is where we post the latest news and views from the Doodlecat team. You can have your say too! Just click on the 'comments' link on any of the posts.
Enjoy your stay!
A petition is not a campaign. It is a start - no more than that. Andy Howell expands on this point on his own excellent 'Must be This Way' blog - clearly the views of a seasoned campaigner who has padded along the corridors of power in his time.


There are so many landscapes - let's celebrate them all!
No, nothing to do with duellists, nor an assassination attempt on Dawn, but an interesting article on hygiene in the great outdoors by Eddie Meecham in the latest TGO magazine. Well worth a read before you rush off to buy the latest water filter. There is no doubt that most of the ailments blamed on ‘the water’ are more to do a with lack of basic hygiene. Eddie examines the science behind the different cleansing agents available, and their effectiveness.
As the late, great, Douglas Adams might have put it - the first ten miles were the worst…the next ten, they were the worst too.
Putting on boots and socks on the far bank, I congratulated myself on being dry and warm, even in these conditions, and trotted off happily to camp.
It was the whisky that did it. Four flasks being passed around rapidly means a large intake over a short time. This, it has to be said, can impair one’s judgement somewhat – and so it was with me.
I decided it was time to eat, and went to the river to fill my Ortlieb bag. The current tugged the screw top out of my hand, and it bobbed and swirled in an eddy by a large tussock out in the stream. I decided that I could easily leap onto the tussock and retrieve it – so I did. The top sank. I lunged for it and plummeted headfirst into the torrent, grabbing the black top as I did so. I surfaced to find that I had grabbed a black rock by mistake.
Great hilarity from all ashore (apart from Al, who had retired to his tent refreshed).
For the first time that night I had some condensation in the Akto. Unsurprising really as despite stuffing my sodden top, socks etc into a drybag, the soaking Paramo and trousers lay in the corner of the tent, and I cooked with the porch just open a crack as it was raining. To be fair my companions did offer dry clothing and occasionally shout to see if I was alive.
Actually I was OK. Once towelled off and in the bag, I cooked and slept like a babe, only waking for a pee and checking that the water outside was not going to rise over the edge of the groundsheet. Yes, it was raining – hard.
The next morning, the rain stopped for a while. We could see things, and all agreed that yesterday’s walk would have been wonderful if we could have seen anything. It was a bit like the game shows of old where the host would say to the losers, “…and this is what you could have won”.
With dry underclothes and socks, I donned my wet trousers and Paramo top. What miraculous stuff Paramo is. Within ten minutes it felt dry inside, and I was warm. Very impressive. I was unsure about using the Velez top on the Challenge; now I have no doubts. A superb bit of kit.
Visibility soon deteriorated as we made our way to ford Lingcove Beck and pick up the path to Three Tarns. This is a lovely path, little trodden and a bit intermittent in parts, but what the Lakeland paths were probably like before they were reduced to rubble. The mist lifted and I loved it. Delightful. Then just over the hill we descended The Band – another once wonderful path destroyed by the thousands plodding up to Bowfell. Not complaining, really. Whilst the hordes stick to these trails, it keeps the rest of the place nice and empty for the rest of us!
All in all, a great week end with great company, thanks to Alan Sloman, Mick Hopkins, David Hobbs, David Albon & Richard White. And are we fit for the chally? Well, only me Mick & Al are actually on it this year, and I reckon that now we’re all as fit as we’re likely to be.
Oh dear…