A Winter's Night Micro Adventure

A cold, windy night in December, right between Christmas and New Year's Day, we set off on a family micro-adventure...

Many of us long for adventure, but the realities of life (and things like the mortgage) appear to get in the way.

A micro adventure is something that anyone can do. It's an adventure squeezed into a small time window. Something that can fit into a weekend, for example.

With kids, especially young kids, many things are an adventure, even if they don't first appear that adventurous to adults...but don't dismiss micro-adventures as just something for kids. Getting out and doing a micro-adventure can knock you out of the day-to-day grind and put things in a fresh perspective.

We took up the challenge from Alastair Humphreys for a winter micro-adventure and set off up to Nipstone Rock as the sun was going down.

The clear, calm weather from the night before had gone. We had a strong cold wind and a few drops of rain.

There was still some frost and a dusting of snow in places in this high remote spot.

Sheltering under the protection of Nipstone Rock, we made camp for the evening.

Our trusty Trangia wasn't deterred by the wind. It warmed a chilli for our taco's-in-a-bag recipe.

This was not only an easy meal to make on a blowy hilltop; the chilli and bags helped warm our hands.

After the chilli, the Trangia warmed some mince pies.

The weather forecast was just above freezing, but the wind chill on the ridge was well below freezing. Not even the sheep were up here now.

This spot is far from light pollution, and on a clear night, there are plenty of stars to see. Not tonight, though.

Huddled together under a tarp for some protection whilst eating our mince pies, we looked at the twinkling lights of the distant town.

We stayed there for a few hours and had not planned to spend all night.

Navigating back down the hill in the dark was tricky, but when we finally returned to the car, we were surprised it wasn't as late as we had expected. Time had been running at a different pace up there.

On the drive back home, rejoining civilisation after our little adventure, it was still enough to feel like we had been away for ages.