A day in the life of...

Barney on the trail!

 Barney's day starts when he gets up from lazing at the bottom of the tent - he sleeps at our feet, mostly on Jos's side where he has more room.

His breakfast is dished up and soon consumed, then it's back to bed while we have ours. Packing up follows and eventually he has to leave the tent - it's being taken down!

The sight of the harness / panniers causes him to move some distance away - he doesn't much like it being fitted first thing even though it may be empty! A few minutes later however and he's forgotten it exists.

From first awakening to leaving camp  normally takes us about 2 hours - we're not fast!

The morning proceeds and depending on the terrain, one or more stops may be taken before we have a longer break to eat lunch which Jos got together earlier. If the site is right, she may be painting as well as eating and Barney would be asleep!

Similar for the afternoon until it's time to stop. When wild camping we aim to look for a place to pitch the tent by about 6pm & Barney knows we're finished for the day! When heading for a campsite it may be later. The tent is put up and Barney is more than ready for his evening food - after gulping it down he is looking to get into the tent and snooze! An hour or so later and he is up for a drink & a quick wee before settling down for the night - 8:30 probably sees him fast asleep!
7pm and any passers by might hear the sound of the Archers from the tent while water is being boiled to make a cup of tea! I get our meal ready - normally a 3 course affair consisting of soup (cup-a-), main course (dehydrated packet meal) and sweet (cake with instant custard).
By about 9 or 9:30 we're probably also ready for bed - Jos is busy catching up in her diary, I could be updating the blog if we have internet access. We are both carrying Kindles and are reading if we can stay awake!

Throughout the day we see people on the trail - Barney brings a smile to almost everybody's face when they seem him carrying his load! Visiting cards get handed out, photographs taken and Barney just stands and waits - he's used to it! We are now making a habit of noting down the comments made when people first see Barney carrying his load - most we have heard before but we do occasionally get original ones!

Route finding includes Jos with the pre-printed OS maps for the day ahead & me with the mapping GPS & guide book descriptions to avoid us getting lost.

If we pass a shop en route, we stop for goodies, also pubs / cafes for soft drinks or coffee but these are all few and far between on the route we are taking.

That's about it - a simple life!