The Longest Day

Grab your rucksack, bike, kayak or whatever gives you your thrills -say the guys at Alpkit*- and do something adventurous on the longest day of the year.

As we approach midsummer it is important that we don’t get complacent and to remember that the days are only going to get shorter and colder. With its long hours of daylight, June is a great time to get out after work and cram as much into an evening session as you would into an entire day, and still be back at your desk the following morning.

This year the longest day falls on a Tuesday, but don’t worry too much about that, the length of a day only varies by about 2 minutes through the month so there is still plenty of daylight either side of the big one.

So what to do and where to go? For a start you need to be disciplined, have your stuff ready to go. You want to be out of the door pronto, so don’t get drawn into any last minute meetings or idle banter.  It doesn’t matter where you go. It just matters that you go. All that is needed is to look at the OS map with a fresh pair of eyes.

In a boring, pragmatic world I appreciate that not everyone can muster the time or the money to go on a massive, whoopeedoo expedition. But everyone, everyone, EVERYONE can manage a microadventure…

Of course you don’t have to beast yourself, there are other senses to stimulate: get out and take advantage of the range of natural foods which should come into bloom over next month by collecting nettles, dandelions and burdock to cook with.

Or you could just take the family for a daring mid-week camping adventure.. and why not: just pack up your camping equipment the night before and -bingo- you are away. Drop the kids off at school the next morning on the way to work and they will be telling their mates about it all day.

If you want to get involved feel free to share your ideas or photos over on Alpkit’s Facebook page.

Get involved (it’s me, Al, writing again)! NOW! Don’t wait. Don’t think, “oh that’s quite fun” and then go home and watch X-Factor. Don’t think “I might do that next year”. Do it NOW. THIS week. THIS month. THIS year. Go do SOMETHING. And here’s a deal. If it’s wet and cold and you’re tired the next day, give it a day or two to settle. And if then you still think the whole thing was rubbish then send me an email and I’mll apologise to you, send you a book or two to say sorry, and concede that maybe I was wrong. Is that a deal? OK, grab your sleeping bag and GO…

[* – DISCLOSURE. I have absolutely nothing to do with Alpkit, no freebies nor vested interest. I just like their style. So go get involved!]