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About the Author

From bicycle touring to backpacking, watercolour painting to clay modelling, the exploration journal captures my journey through many different interests and travel adventures.

I love to find those out of the way places that whisk you away from the concerns of everyday life. Whether this is by wading through an overgrown river or trying new paint techniques is up to you!

Category: Day Walks

The Tamar Valley: Arsenic mines of the Tamar Valley

When someone happens across an arsenic mine on their land they probably don’t react with “oh that sounds like a great place to visit! Lets build a series of public walking and trails through it!”. Nevertheless, that is what Tamar Trails have done, turning the once poisonous arsenic mines of the Tamar Valley into a walking, mountain biking and general…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Bubbenhall Wood

Bubbenhall Wood & Meadows, Old Nun Wood, Wappenbury, and Ryton Pools &  Wood all border on each other and form part of the Dunsmore Living Landscape project. A National Heritage funded project to restore important wildlife habitats between Leamington, Rugby and Coventry. The reserves are interconnected and it is easy to follow the footpaths between each one, though they are…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Ryton Wood

The nature reserves in the Ryton area have quickly become my favourite over the past year. Ryton Pools and Wood, Bubbenhall Wood and Meadows, Old Nun Wood and Wappenbury all border on each other and form part of the Dunsmore Living Landscape project. A National Heritage funded project to restore important wildlife habitats between Leamington, Rugby and Coventry. The reserves…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Skipwith Common

Skipwith Common is a National Nature Reserve and SSSI near York and one of the last remaining areas of northern lowland heath in England. Most of the valley around York was once lowland heath but now only three sites remain. Skipworth Common covers 270 hectares and is a beautiful mix of open heath, birch woodland and murky ponds. This location…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Crackley Wood

I discovered this Warwickshire Wildlife Trust (WWT) nature reserve whilst on the hunt for a good source of blackberries. I’ve been going through a bit of a apple crumble phase and the one thing that improves apple crumble is a handful of blackberries. Over the summer I’ve been trying to see as many of the WWT reserves as possible and…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Swithland Wood

I recently visited Swithland Wood SSSI (a nature reserve designated as being of particularly special scientific interest) on the way back to Warwick from a work trip. I put the route into Google maps and hunted along it for a good stretch of woodland to spend a couple of hours walking. After 10 minutes I found Bradgate Park country park,…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Hampton Wood

Hampton wood was the first Warwickshire Nature Reserve I cycled to and is one of my favourites. It has over 25 species of butterfly and a mix of different environments which range from woodland to riverside to meadows, and the reserve is only 12 hectares! Unfortuantely the only time I’ve visisted so far is in Summer, so the other seasons…

Rainbow over the Cairngorms

After climbing Ben Nevis, our next destination was the Cairngorms. We wanted time to dry out so we stayed Aviemore youth hostel for the first night. I shared with three other people in a dormitory. They were mostly fine to share with other than the one who thought it was acceptable to snooze his alarm twice between 6.30 and 7.…

Climbing Ben Nevis

For my early summer holiday I caught a flight from Birmingham International to Inverness in Scotland. Our plan is to walk up Ben Nevis and climb as many of the Munros as we can. I’ve only been to Scotland once before, and that was bicycle touring around Skye during an unusually dry week. The success of that trip meant I…

Nature Reserve Spotlight: Brandon Marsh

The Warwickshire Wildlife Trust flagship nature reserve is Brandon Marsh, its 220 acres of large, woodland and meadows. In the winter you have wintering birds on the pool, spring welcomes hundreds of froglets and the return of the song birds. In summer it is overrun with birds, dragonflies, butterflies and the occasional grass snake or lizzard. And autumn brings an…