Non Diving trip report

[Venus]

Not much of a report ...
I can't wait to see Dan's pictures

Originally Posted by Sixsquid

Dan will have some decent pics

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by Venus

Not much of a report ...

Probably too weak to write

[Letz]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

Edale? Good God woman, I was only just game to camp there in mid-Summer (I lived about 12 miles away).

Happy memories of Edale though, it was the site of my first ever dirty (camping) weekend. Did you make it up onto Kinder Scout?

No, we worked a few things out and given the limitation of a short daylight planned to do that another time. As for "dirty" ...... it pissed down with rain all Monday evening so I got pretty muddy

Originally Posted by Venus

Not much of a report ...
I can't wait to see Dan's pictures

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

Probably too weak to write

Well I thought, as many knew I was going, the most amusing part was that I was cold and shan't be rushing out to camp that time of year again. But it was definititely a wonderful way to spend Christmas and I had a very happy time

Here ya go Venus ....

After a fun weekend of Dan's BSAC club Christmas doo and recovery on the Sunday we set off at 11:25 (from Herts) and managed to be leaving the M1 (J29) only 1.5 hours later Found the campsite easy-peasy 'cos I'm a star navigator and Dan wove his magic with the tent, thankfully, before the heavens really opened.
Most of the goodies secure in the outer bit of the tent and Dan had everything under control so he warmed up the home made Mulled wine I prepared earlier (in true Blue Peter style) That was very yummy but Dan didn't get much as he started with a cup of tea (no surprise there) then kicked the rest over LOL
We then enjoyed the chilli I cooked and froze previously with some rather unusual '2-minute' rice and that was great.
We strolled down to The Ramblers pub where they had a rather nice selection of single malts and settled in. We met Colin, the guy from the blue tent and a chap in a kilt who was in a green tent down in the backpackers bit. It was toasty by the real fire and I probably got warmer than I should have as I started removing layers

Are you bored yet?

So, cutting to the chase, it rained most of the night and became quite 'boggy' but the toilet and wash area was close so not a problem. Christmas Day Dan made us tea and porridge cooked to absolute perfection, sorted sandwiches, cup-o-soup and snacks etc. and, after a couple of Christmas presents, we set off for our walk.
This mist was very low and on occasion we could feel the moisture as we walked through it but there was no wind which was my only real concern. It was fab scrambling up along the river and we had a yummy lunch where I got a wet arse but I didn't care as I was happy as a pig in the proverbial.
We were visited by a Red Grouse while eating our sandwiches. It sat on a nearby rock and kept bobbing it's head up every now and then to check if we'd finished dropping crumbs. They make quite a remarkable noise. We also saw some kind of hawk hovering looking for dinner.
During our walk we enjoyed quite a few bridges and as we returned to camp the sun started to shine and the remainder of the afternoon sported a blue sky with the odd fluffy, white cloud. We came to learn that the sun would make an appearance once we had finished walking

Dan now started the BBQ and cooked a delicious Christmas dinner of steak, corn on the cob and jacket potatoes with a garlic bread starter
Because the skies had cleared it actually became pretty darned cold and if I'd be able to sit on the bbq I would have!
We were too full for pudding and once the bbq had died we snuggled up in the sleeping bags where I was wearing 2 layers on my legs and 3 layers on the top and still needed to wear ski gloves! I eventually warmed up enough to shed some clothes to sleep in. It rained intermittently.

Boxing Day morning Dan threw the porridge about so we went straight to the egg n bacon sandwiches, packed up and went for a walk starting along the Pennine Way and returning on local footpaths. There was a cold, biting wind and keeping my eyes open was sometimes difficult but we had a nice walk, with more bridges , and encountered some completely black geese with a black chicken. I reckon that was a Goth Farm As we headed back to "The Nag's Head" for lunch the skies cleared and the sun appeared

The Campsite we stayed at was very nicely laid out and incorporated a Peak District Centre thing which we had a quick nosey in before heading home. Once we were on the M1 I shut my eyes for 10 minutes and opened them properly again as we were coming off the M1 in Herts and I've been knackered ever since !

Not really a trip report but certainly a Christmas to remember and very lovely for me, I can't speak for Dan. Dan has a few pics on his camera, mostly views in mist and me on bridges, but I'm sure we'll find something suitable

[DanE]

Don't listen too her. It wasn't cold at all.

Her squidness


Pretty view


Christmas lunch being prepared


Water


dan

[Steve Summers]

Great report, it's a shame I didn't know earlier that we had two hobo's in the area, you could have joined us for Christmas dinner

Safe diving,
Steve

[Letz]

Originally Posted by DanE

Don't listen too her. It wasn't cold at all.

So sayeth the radiator. Or are you just full of hot air
Nice pics Dan Did I take them ? (excepting the one of me on yet another bridge of course)

Originally Posted by Steve S

Great report, it's a shame I didn't know earlier that we had two hobo's in the area, you could have joined us for Christmas dinner

Thanks although we really did have a great Christmas lunch and excellent Christmas Dinner. I realised today that I haven't eaten any turkey this Christmas, let alone sprouts!

PS. Dan, have you taken up Quidditch ???

[Venus]

I love camping, but this is what happened last time I went ....

This isn't my tent ... I wouldn't pitch in a ditch



This isn't my tent ... I would fix my poles correctly so I doesn't collapse



Im' in here somewhere

[Venus]

When you gotta go ... you gotta go



These are the ladies urinals



There is no place to hide

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Venus

I love camping, but this is what happened last time I went ....

This isn't my tent ... I wouldn't pitch in a ditch



This isn't my tent ... I would fix my poles correctly so I doesn't collapse



Im' in here somewhere

Urgh.

For my sins (and as local EHO), I've spent 2 out of three days (29th & 31st Dec) at the Falls Festival at Marion Bay in Tasmania. A bit smaller than (what I'm assuming is) Glastonbury, at only 14000 punters plus several hundred support, catering & security staff.

Unlike the latter, Falls Festival isn't held in the rainy season and the site is well drained and unlikely to get disgustingly muddy and you drive your car onto the campsite, so if it really goes to crap and we get an East Coast rain depression, which could dump several inches overnight, you can at least take refuge in your vehicle.







The irony of wet weather at Glastonbury to me is that if they gave you out rifles and baggy green uniforms and paid people to stand in the mud like that, they'd have to conscript them and their human rights would be being breached.

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Venus

When you gotta go ... you gotta go



These are the ladies urinals



There is no place to hide

That is truly disgusting. It amazes me that they can charge people huge amounts to get in and yet provide crap facilkities like that. The Local Authority should be ashamed of themselves for letting the organisers get away with it.

The Falls Festival management can be justifiably proud of the toilet facities they provide. These comprise individual cubicles with a dry-composting toilet, designed around a wheely bin underneath. I doon't have any photos here of the actual "below stairs" setup but basically, there's a sealed chute dropping into the 240 litre (big) wheely bin underneath; each wheely bin has a small diameter outlet pipe running to a french drain system, for inground absorption but all solids are retained within the bin. After each use, toilet goers are asked to sprinkle a tin full of sawdust onto their "deposit". When each bin is full, the toilet team staff disconnect the drainage outlet, close the lid down on the bin and secure it with tech screws. Before use, each bin is seeded with compost containing worms from the previous years event.

The urinals provided are colocated with the toilet blocks are male-only and run to the same french drains receiving effluent from the composting toilets. The good news is that there is no need to provide female urinals.

At the end of the event, the sealed bins, each of which contains two "snakes" of draincoil plastic pipe to assist air penetration, are stockpiled in a sunny location on site, then in early December the following year, the bin lids are unscrewed and the contents, which by now are a rich dark but still moist compost, full of tiger worms, are tipped out onto the compost pile. Lab testing on the compost typically yields E coli levels comparable with normal soil, nil detection of parasite eggs or pathogens, so all in all, a very successful system, which is both aesthetically acceptable and protects public health and environmental values.

The level of acceptance of these toilets by festival goers is very high.......put it this way, SWMBO has camped there 3 years running now....and she reckons they're pretty good. They are certainly way better than portaloos as you don't need to provide access for a sludge tanker to pump them out, nor do you have toilet content dregs dripping all over the ground from the tanker uplift pipe.

The good news is that I understand that the designer-provider of this system has been contracted by Glastonbury to provide toilet facilities at this year's event (2008).