October 2020
To state the bleedin' obvious, since my last post nearly a year ago a lot has happened. The first 6 months were a combo of health issues and an almost complete lack of weather windows for outdoor antics. On the rare occasions it wasn't pissing it down/blowing a hoolie at the weekend, I was either snowed under with studio work (my second job is providing an audio mastering service) or the ground was just too saturated to contemplate trudging through. It was a mild, wet, windy, dark, mucky and thoroughly depressing auld winter.
The Christmas hols did provide some much needed flexibility to seize a couple of those rare moments, however. Perhaps the best was in the first day or two of the new decade, where I did a longish hike and camp at a new place in The Peak District.
An upside of staying in throughout Jan/Feb was that I concentrated my efforts (and spent a few quid) upgrading camera and editing gear, so that hopefully my vids and pics could step up a notch in quality.
An early spring well and truly sprung mid-March and the weather took a turn for the better. Yay! Then late March, well - we all know what happened late March....
In that sweet week or so post-manky weather and pre-'The L Word' I actually squeezed in three overnighters in quick succession, trying out the new camera gear on them all. First up was a schoolnight bikepacking 'microadventure' in some woods outside Stoke. By 'schoolnight' I mean 'go there straight from work, camp, then go straight into work next morning without going home'. As it happens though, I do work in a school.
A couple of days later my son and I headed to my 'permission' spot so that he could try out the hammock. Dad was reduced to ground dwelling in a bivvy, staring straight up at the woodland canopy and stars above. Chilly but nice.
Last of the trio had a culinary bent - my attempt at an authentic Roman carbonara during a solo stealth camp. The lack of abuse and outcry from the Italian community at another straniero debasing their cuisine, I'll gladly take as a sign I may have done ok under the circumstances...
Then, just as I was getting back into the swing, 'The News' happened, school closed, and nobody needs/wants to hear anything about all that. Suffice to say I threw myself into music and had 4 singles out in a couple of months - more than in the previous 3 years. This one is my personal fave, written and recorded very quickly (for me anyway) in the days after hearing that a good friend and ex student of mine named Adam, a super talented young man in his early 30s, had tragically and suddenly passed away. I made it with him very much in my thoughts, and it's damn sad and frankly quite annoying that he never got to hear it, as I hope it would have been up his street. It is dedicated to him.
In early July 'The Situation' eased and camping was legally back on the menu, plus I potentially had more time to enjoy it. Sadly for me though, in the intervening months staying indoors everyone and their dogs (ESPECIALLY their dogs) seemed to have realised, ironically, that there is a world out there called 'outdoors'. The news and anecdotal evidence showed that many scenic areas were crawling with people at best, and littered with their shite (metaphorical AND literal) at worst. Mam Tor and Durdle Dor had become the new Costa Del Sol and Glastonbury it seemed. As both a lover of solitude and someone whose household was shielding it wasn't remotely attractive to go to a National Park or AONB crawling with more human beings than Tesco, and I still felt I owed it to the NHS and rescue services to stay within the catchment area of my local hospital. I stuck to this throughout the summer, and only enjoyed complete, real solitude in a few unglamorous spots I'd found walking distance from my front door. You'll find vids of some of these, plus a campaign video to help spread the message of 'leave no trace', on the YouTube channel. Perhaps the most 'exotic' was a three day hike around the nearby town of Stone on the late August Bank Holiday weekend, which essentially became my 'summer holiday'. For once I added a bit of narration to my usually talk-free vids.
The day after returning from this trip, we were back in school. Whether I liked it or not (I didn't...), we were thrust into close proximity with hordes of people from hundreds of different households, 5 days a week, 7 hours a day, and almost all indoors. The only upside was that I felt I could justify going a little further afield on the Vespa, and managed to squeeze in a beautiful schoolnight camp on this side of The Peak one evening, using a new tent which was one of the new bits of kit I'd acquired in the previous months of hiatus. Not setting foot in a pub for 6 months (2 of which I spent teetotal) had given me a few spare quid for treats...
And that brings me pretty much to where I am now. As you can see, I've done a fair bit of videography - a big reason why this blog has been neglected. Whilst I love the process of filming and editing, it can be hard work and extra hassle on a camp, and for a few days afterwards putting it all together. The tail has started to wag the dog a little, and last thing I want is for the camping to be relegated to a mere topic for YouTube content. So I have made a resolution to do the odd camp with no more than a small stills camera, and do a write up on this very blog in my own good mystical time afterwards.
It also seemed sensible to change the name of the blog, as 'Mid Life Crisis by Vespa' was very specific to my Wales trip, now over 2 years ago. Bringing the name in line with my YouTube channel, Instagram, music label etc just makes more sense, whilst allowing me to blog about anything potentially. But for the time being I am still very much in love with wild camping, so I expect that to provide the lion's share of inspiration.
Right - it's World Mental Health day tomorrow and I'm grabbing me a piece of that. I'm off for a local overnighter, before 'World Events' prevent me from sleeping alone and outdoors in my own parish for a few hours once more. Could be my last chance for another long while....
©Rich Lane 2020
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