Best Trip of 2013

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Jinsin456

Settler
Nov 14, 2010
725
0
Maybole, Scotland
With the end of the year coming I felt like this would be a good time to start a thread that I think I started in 2011 and forgot about last year (Hence being early this year :lmao:)

What has everyone's best trip of 2013 been?

I would have to say that my best would have to be finally conquering the West Highland Way over 5 days this year. I think it meant more to me that I tried it in 2011 and failed and this year I succeeded. Some of the best laughs I've ever had and one of those trips I would happily repeat tomorrow.

Closely followed of course by the weekend at Wooplaw but that was an entirely different story.....

Let's all share our best outings of this year :)
 

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,807
2,893
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
My highlight of the year has to be the Moot this year.

Lots of happiness tempered with the sadness of us all saying goodbye to Drew
 

Ivan...

Ex member
Jul 28, 2011
1,771
0
Dartmoor
Great thread, can i choose 2 please?

Firstly my real 50th birthday camped in the woods with all my nearest and dearest a magical couple of days, no good at them linky things but report and lots of pics on here somewhere.

And the other, much quieter, A mate of mine Patrols, sent me a PM saying he wanted to camp on Dartmoor with a good friend of his for a weekend, go lightweight and that he wanted a guided walk of about 10 miles, but they did not want to drive anywhere, so walk from camp and right back into camp, i studied maps for hours, it just wasn't coming together.

Got up the next day and winged it, apart from Stu being ill (and boy was he ill food poisoning from rice), it was a great test and few hours out taking in some stunning scenery i had forgot about,and a nice chilled weekend.Although we had to cut it a bit short, if it had been me i would have folded right early, but when we got back a few hours kip and he was as right as rain.Also report and pics on here somewhere!

Ivan...
 

Catfish1972

Member
Feb 11, 2013
48
0
London
This is an easy one for me: Back in January I climbed Mt Angkasan (2890m) in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) then descended down the other side to my friends' private hunting grounds at about 1,200m. I didn't join in with any hunting (I take a rather dim view of foreigners travelling to other countries' national parks to hunt the wildlife) and the guys I went with came up empty handed, but we ate plenty of fish (6" hillstream loaches, much bigger than the 2 inchers we get further down the river). We bumped into some old friends of mine who were also there hunting and had had considerably more success. They gave us a couple of kilos of smoked mountain goat and then a few days later about a kilo of fresh mountain sheep. The sheep was some of the best meat I have ever eaten.

I found plenty of wild raspberries along the way, some cinnamon, and some edible flowers/berries that I don't know the name of.

Climbing back up Angkasan took a lot longer that anticipated and we finished of that leg of the journey at about midnight, having climbed through the jungle using head-torches for hours. It can be quite difficult to follow a jungle path at night and there were a few wrong turns.

Sadly, there wasn't much of a view from the top as it was constantly misty, but I've been up there on clear days plenty of times before, so that wasn't too much of a downer.

At one point on the way up I managed to jump of a cliff (I simply didn't see it as there were plenty of trees) and landed on a ledge about 4m down, which was pretty lucky as if I'd missed the ledge I would have carried on for another 100m. For some reason I suffer from terrible vertigo in cities, but in the jungle not so much.

[I should add all of my friends mentioned in this report are locals from the Gayo tribe who live within the park boundaries and are allowed to bag a goat or two a year to feed themselves and their families.]
 

SJStuart

Settler
Jan 22, 2013
997
2
Suffolk Coast
Mine was a trip down the River Ouse in Thetford with Fruit Loop in very early Spring this year and that night's wild camp in Thetford forest.
The highlight of that trip was the amazing trip down-river from where we camped (a river mile or so from the sluice in Thetford itself) all the way to Brandon. The weather was absolutely perfect, the wildlife was out in force (saw my first ever wild otters on that trip), the river was very high and - aside form the weeds slowing us down at times - easily navigable.

It was peaceful and perfect! Only thing that'd have made it better would've been if I'd captured it all on video!
 

jackcbr

Native
Sep 25, 2008
1,561
0
50
Gatwick, UK
www.pickleimages.co.uk
Would have to be canoeing the great glen back in September. Didn't complete it as the weather beat us. But that was what made the trip for me. Being stuck on the banks of a Loch with only a mountain behind me and water in front of me. We made camp, settled down and rode out the storm. One of the best days I've spent out in the uk for sine time.
 

BigMonster

Full Member
Sep 6, 2011
1,322
219
Manchester
I have obtained a new pack of friends this year and we did the three peak challenge which was a lot of fun (each summit the long way up, weather was spot on each time).
But The Moot trumps most thing I have done in last few years. This place/people/atmosphere is hard to describe and even harder to leave.
 

woof

Full Member
Apr 12, 2008
3,647
5
lincolnshire
Not been away since 2008, & had no overnighters for a couple of years, as i decided to save up, pay off the mortgage so i could retire at 55, then work a lot of unpaid overtime which i then took in hours off, so finished 2 months before my retirement date, happy days !.

Rob
 

Tiley

Life Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,364
374
60
Gloucestershire
Greenland, trundling along the Arctic Circle Trail, about 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. We spent a leisurely nine days on the trail, rather too long in Sisimiut but it was truly wonderful. The sheer scale of the place and its extraordinary natural, almost untouched beauty were things to remember, along with a Czech/German group that we met along the way. Fabulous.
 

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