Break in the clouds

Work clouds that is.  An multiday trip to Dartmoor had to be put off earlier in the year because of work commitments.  This worked out okay as the weather was positively dreadful at the point in the year things should have been getting better.  I don’t mind poor weather, but there is no reason to actively seek it out when there are alternatives.  I promised myself I’d get to the moor the moment there was a suitable gap in the work schedule.

The problem with not going on a break is you don’t get the time back and if I was too busy in spring, chances are I was going to be too busy through to the autumn months.  All well and good having time on my hands in Feb but I can always think of better alternatives to being half frozen out on the hills miles from nowhere.  Usually half frozen closer to home is the option taken.

But it looks like a break in the schedule is coming up.  Uncomfortably close to the August bank holiday but take the chances when they come, there might not be another.

I am at the kit evaluation stage.  Most of it is good to go.  New boots, but they are pretty much what I had before, they work, I will let others guinea pig the latest space age nano boot tech.

My trangia is being retired for this trip.  It has done me good service, the military version, it is pretty well bombproof, but the weight is testament to the indestructibility.  The replacement is the whitebox stove.  Don’t ask me why its taken so long to make an obvious decision put it down to the devil you know.  Other considerations might have been, “I’ll let others guinea pig this space age nano cooking tech”.  Or, “its a bloody crushed can”.  Still it looks to be a well reviewed robust bit of kit, its a field tested and proven bit of kit.

New cooking pot is needed, nothing space age, its a camping saucepan with lid, folding handle and a base broad enough to handle the flames coming out of the white box stove.  Nice and light, you don’t need much to boil water and cook beans lets face it.

After the trangia, it all seems a bit like a child’s tea set.  My main concern is stability issues but I am a reasonably competent adult so I suppose I will get along.  The website says it does not need a pot stand, but that might be like saying I don’t technically need two legs as I could hop.  Nobody seems to be making a big fuss of stability issues other than saying “stability issues”.  Reasonable care seems to be the thing to apply.