About Me
I'm Jamie, from Potton! (England). Thats me looking epic in the photo up top... sadly I wasnt epic enought to climb the mountains in the background. I regularly go hiking around the UK, and when I can in Europe. Last summer I had a 2 week camping/hiking/driving road trip to the Alps, I can promise you that no photo of the Alps will ever live up to how breath taking they are in real life, a must see!
So What Got Me Into Big Hills And Bikes?
I can blame two people for my passion for being outdoors; Ranulph Fiennes and Ray Mears. Having read pretty much everything they had ever written about their adventures I decided it was time to have a little adventure of my own. At the end of my 1st year of uni (summer 2009), after a training regime that can at best be described as 'a bit rubbish' I hit the Scotish Highlands with, in hinde sight, what turned out to be to no idea how difficult the task I had set myself was but with huge amounts of excitement and great plans for 6 weeks of hiking, covering most of the Scotish Highlands and averaging between 12-20 miles per day...This did not happen. Day 1 consisted of lots of travelling on trains to get to Bridge of Orchy, followed by torturous 3 mile hike over 1 hill with a rucksack weighing in at close to 30kg, before settling down for the night. What I had not thought about before taking on this trip was the emense amounts of weight I was taking with me (since then I have realised what an idiot I was for taking so much with me, and have become a bit OCD about cutting down weight). Day 2 involved a retreat back over the same hill I had climbed the day before to the train station, where I caught a train to Fort William and camped there for a week before heading back home. On the plus side I did go up Ben Nevis whilst at Fort William (minus that bloody bag!)
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My tent after a few hours of snow & a good shaking, more snow was to come!
Following that experience I took up running and joined the university mountaineering society, affectionatly shortened to CUMS (Coventry University Mountaineering Society). Interestingly there are also a fair few BUMS out there as well! (Birmingham, Brunel, Bangor, etc). After doing a whole bunch of Hiking and Rock climbing (and even 1 Mountain Rescue callout, discussed later) I decided it was time to tackle Scotland again, this time the West Highland Way (April 2010). It went badly (again!). The first day was brilliant, 17 miles flew by (with a much lighter pack this time); however over night the skies opened and out fell a huge amount of snow. The next day I got up at 6am to my tent buried in snow, and promptly waded back to civilisation and went home again.
Back in February 2010 whilst doing a scramble in the Lake District, one of my friends took a bit of a nasty fall (10m+) and ended up breaking his ankle. As a result we were a bit stuck; very high up with 1 of our team with a broken ankle and the rest of us feeling pretty shaken by the ordeal. Keswick Mountain Rescue Team came out and fixed the whole problem for us; Fay and I were lowered off the scramble on the biggest rope I have every seen, which was followed by a 3 mile walk back in the dark. The rest of the group got winched up in the helicopter and dropped off back at the hut whilst the helicopter was en route to take Owen to the hospital. (I am still pretty jealous that they got to go in a helicopter!)
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By way of a thank you I took part in the 2 Castles run, which is a 10Km race from Warwick Castle to Kenilworth Castle, in the hopes of raising some money for Keswick Mountain Rescue Team. By the time the money stopped coming in we had raised £560! This is where the idea of doing charity fundraising all started. (Just incase you are wondering Owen is fine now!)
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Over the summer (2010) I went on a 2 week road trip to the Alps which was brilliant and if you ignore the impromptu, 8 hour detour through Italy was a complete success. whilst there I did a whole bunch of hiking and managed to bag a peak that is twice the size of Ben Nevis! (the UK's highest peak). Check out Euro Trip for more info.
A Nectarine Break; A Must Have On All Bike Tours
Since then I have been on a solo bike tour to Switzerland and back again (2011) (One man, Two wheels, Three countries, and An Amazing Cause), which raised £6515.50 for charity as well as being thoroughly character
building!
building!
What am I up to now?
Fast forward to the present I have finished university and am on the hunt for a job, as well as having a few ideas in the works for my next adventure. This includes two more bike tours and a bit of an odyssey around Europe by car.