Stefan Durkacz

Recently I wrote about making the move away from gas canister stoves towards other, less environmentally unfriendly fuels, at least for use outside winter. I bought a Trail Designs Sidewinder ti-tri stove , which can be used to burn wood, meths, or solid fuel cubes. I did a back garden test in wood-burning mode, which I was very pleased with. Today I wanted to try out the meths burner, but also the final piece of the jigsaw: a pot cosy. I made the cosy from a kit from backpackinglight.co.uk . The purpose of the pot cosy is to keep the contents of the pot at a simmering temperature. The food therefore continues to cook when off the stove, saving fuel. The flame on simple meths burners can't be adjusted like a gas stove, so can't be used to simmer anyway, making a pot cosy essential if you plan on doing anything other than boiling water to add to dehydrated meals. I want to limit my use of expensive dehydrated backpacking foods on the Tay watershed walk so needed to get to grips...

One of the ironies of planning a major backpacking trip in Scotland is that my preparations have turned me on to the outdoors possibilities on London's doorstep. During most of my years in London, the commuter belt was just somewhere I whizzed through on the train on the way to Scotland with my hiking kit on board. During a short spell when we lived in Hertfordshire a few years ago I got to know the local back roads very well by bicycle, but walking never occurred to me. Maybe it's because I got into walking growing up in Scotland, where it's almost invariably summit-focused: walking as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. The need to build up walking fitness can't be met by sporadic trips to Scotland though, so I've been forced out into Kent and Sussex to sample what's on offer, and I like what I've found. Trail walking in a landscape with little variation in elevation is so different to hillwalking. Navigation is surprisingly difficult! Waymarki...