A future full of adventures

In just a couple of weeks time, I was supposed to be starting the quest of completing the 227 mile Severn Way. This is a long distance trail that starts in the welsh mountains and finishes in Bristol and it follows the entire length of the River Severn, from source to sea. The plan had been to hike, mountain bike and kayak the trail. With so many other peoples plans this year, this has been put on the shelf until next year. It firmly stays on the bucket list!

Not wanting to feel complacent, I made the decision to switch this years long distance trail to my local trail. I live in the beautiful county of Shropshire and if nothing else, this lockdown has bought home the need to really appreciate what's on your doorstop. For me, this comes in the form of the 220+ mile Shropshire Way. Encompassing the variety of countryside that Shropshire has to offer, it is formed of 15 stages that loop around the county in a figure of 8, covering moorland, hills, pastures, lanes and canal tow paths. In additin to these stages there are additional sections not incorporated within the loop.

As always, one of my aims is to promote the larger person being out amongst the countryside, thus proving that size is no barrier. I may be larger than some, but I always get here in the end and this is inclusive of carrying the extra weight too. I suspect many of the smaller folk out on the trails would struggle with if they had the aditional weight that I do, I think that makes me pretty awesome!

One of things I have always found a challenge is getting suitable clothing. I do plan on dedicating a whole blog on the challenge of finding plus size adventure clothing, but because its a constant for me, it's worthy of a mention here too. A phrase once said by Billy Connolly, in reference to the scottish weather, was "there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing". How true is that comment! I love being outdoors, even in the rain. In fact, I love the feel of the rain and it doesnt phase me one bit. The most challenging aspect of it is finding the right fitting clothing that does the job effectively - in essence, it would not cause Billy to be rolling his eyes!! I have found a few companies that do the most amazing leggings, especially Element Karbon. Their leggings are just lush, such vibrant colours, super comfy and most importantly, they go up to my size. I am happy to give a shout out to any company that accomodates and promotes plus size ladies clothing :-)

My intention to complete this in a two week window in August. I have two weeks where my kids will be with their dad in what would of been their school summer holidays and these are the two weeks I am aiming for. I am however, not too worried if it carries over by a couple of days, as I can complete the trek with my kids in tow for the last couple of days. Anyone who knows us as a family, know that the kids are more than capable of completing a full days hiking and part of me secretly wishes for them to be there when I step over the virtual finish line.

To conclude this blog, I'll let you know what other long distance trails are on my bucket list...

Herriot Way (52 miles)

Hadrian's Wall (84 miles)

Offa's Dyke (177 miles)

Hebridean Way (185 miles)

Severn Way (227 miles)

Camino de Santiago (500 miles)

I keep adding to this list and stubbornly refuse to remove any of the trails!! For anyone wanting to know why I walk, its relaxing, relatively cheap and a great way to see and experience the best the countryside has to offer. x

Making friends with Mother Nature

Since the globe has gone into lockdown, the impact on our environment has been undeniably incrediable:

• For the first time in 30 years the Himalayas are visible from 125 miles away in India
• Venice canals are the clearist in living memory and you can actually see the fish
• Signs suggest that our ozone layer is recovering
• Incredible NASA pictures show how much pollution has cleared over China

These are just a few of the many stories where Mother Nature is reclaiming her planet. These are stories from across the globe. Here, in our little sleepy corner of Shropshire, we continue to try to do our bit to help. Since lockdown started, we ave explored many of our local lanes and have now litter picked all the lanes around a full 2 mile radius of our house. All litter that can be recycled has been sorted and placed into our household recycling bins. This is not a new thing for us as we litter pick everywhere we go. The kids even managed to bag an award last year for the Shropshire Environmental Champions for their commitment to little picking.

The amount of plastic that we pick up is incrediable, it's literally everywhere. We even found a little birds nest on the path that had plastic woven through it. To some degree, we cannot avoid it. At the moment I'm typing this on a plastic keyboard and looking through a pair of plastic framed spectacles. That said, there is plenty of plastic problem addressing stuff we can do. We made a target of going completely plastic free in the bathroom and we have achieved this. We use bamboo toothbruses and plastic free toothpaste, bars of soap and shampoo bars. This transistion has been relatively easy and accepted well by the kids. Our next goal is to go plastic free in the kitchen. I think this will be a sizeable challenge, compared to the bathroom, but challenges is what I do!

Staying on the topic of litter, we have branched out into a new area of recycling. We have come across a company called TerraCycle, who will recycle crisp packets, sweet packets and biscuit packets. There is a local collection point to us and we now use this recycling service - though its all stockpiled at home until we can get there to drop them off. I advise you all to look this company up and see whats local to you, maybe even set up your own community scheme if its needed in your area.

Litter and reducing plastic are not the only changes we've done. We have been able to spend so much time in our garden and we've started some projects there. We've planted beans, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and lots of herbs. We've also sown the seeds for lots of wildflowers around the garden. We also left all the nettles (butterflies larvae rely on nettles for protection) and dandelions (bees and some breeds of beetles eat the pollen they generate). Did you know that every part of a dandelion is edible? I highly recomment battered dandelion leaves, the younger the plant, the sweeter they are. Before Lockdown, I was given some 'Treebombs'. These are handmade alder tree seedballs. The idea is that you just throw the seedballs onto the lttle pockets of wasteland and leave nature to do the rest. We're deposited about 20 treebombs around us so far and we still have a few left. Please look this company up, its a great way to plant trees. They also so beebombs too, both of which make a great idea for alternative presents!

The final thing that I'm doing is not driving. This is not necessecarily through choice, as we are in lockdown here. Not only has my purse saved a small fortune, it has also made me wonder if I could actually live without my car. This isn't a new idea for me and a few of you will know from my facebook posts that I've been debating for a while now about not having a car, as I can't afford a decent car and the maintenance on my car seems to be extortionate. The car that I currently have is ace and I love it, but its a huge diesel guzzly machine that cares very littl

These is just an outline of some of the things that we are doing to help with our environment. I'd love to hear what you're doing to, so please let me know. Us as a small family unit will not save the Earth, but if we are part of a global reblilion, we collectively have a voice that cannot be ignored.

I thought I'd finish todays blog with this poem by Haroon Rashid:

We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another.
Suddenly Disney is out of magic,
Paris is no longer romantic,
New York doesn’t stand up anymore,
the Chinese wall is no longer a fortress, and Mecca is empty.
Hugs & kisses suddenly become weapons, and not visiting parents & friends
becomes an act of love.
Suddenly you realise that power, beauty & money are worthless, and can’t
get you the oxygen you’re fighting for.
The world continues its life and it is beautiful. It only puts humans in
cages. I think it’s sending us a message:
“You are not necessary. The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine.
When you come back, remember that you are my guests. Not my masters.”

e for the environment. Maybe me being carless is the future for me.

A birthday to remember

Designing the best birthday ever, with limited resources!

Hey!! Its been a while!! I hope you are all ok and coping well with the adjustments in our lives. What a shock to the system this has all been. Like most people, my plans have all been scuppered. Within the last 2 weeks I was supposed to be a guest speaker at women's adventure festival and then last week was my planned tall ship sailing expedition. Understandably, neither of these have happened. Both have been rescheduled for later in the year. Given the horrendous time so many people are having at the moment, this is a small insignificant price for me to pay.

This is our 5^th week in lockdown. At home, its me and my two amazing children and a selection of fur babies. Our days are based around a concoction of random activities and micro-adventures. School work has been done (using the word 'done' loosely) and my kids have used this situation as a time to enhance life skills. Both have cooked meals entirely from scratch and served up some pretty top notch. They've mastered 'Zoom' and have been able participate in scouting sessions.

We've also had Dominic's 11^th Birthday whilst in lockdown. I was completely determined to make this birthday the best I could given the circumstances. With a little bit of help from a couple of his favourite YouTubers this was achieved (I think). These were Outdoors Weekly and Jiggin With Jordon. Outdoors Weekly is a lad called Bryce Nachtwey and he is an American Magnet Fishing. He has 288k subscribers. Jiggin With Jordon is an American bloke called Brandon Jordon and his videos are scuba-diving with metal detectors and looking for treasure. He has 2.29 million subscribers. Both responded to my messages and offered to record video messages for Dominic.

So what did I plan?? Given that we only had my house to work with, I decided to turn the entire house into an escape room. This was just the best amount of fun ever. Every room had a puzzle that both kids had to work together to complete. Only once they had completed that puzzle, could they unlock the door to that room and in doing so, they were presented with a riddle which, when solved, would tell them which room was next. Their prize for cracking the escape room was an old treasure map, where they had to find the treasure (a big bag of sweets). The treasure map was of our garden and I have used teabags to stain some card to make it look old and battered.

They just loved it and Dominic could not believe that his two favourite YouTubers had sent him recorded messages. Some people have since asked me how I managed to organise that. Its simple, I messaged them (via Instagram and Facebook) and they both responded. I've always been that person who will ask, 'if you don't ask, you don't get' and 'what's the worst they can say?' ringing around my ears!! If anyone wanted to try making an escape room, most of the ideas I got from doing an online search.

Later on in the evening, I had set up Dominic's WhatsApp Birthday Bingo, via a group video chat, with his friends Tom and Charlie and also his dad and step-mum. This was just the best fun. They had blocks of 10 general knowledge questions to answer and then they would be given the name of an item that they would have to retrieve from around the house. These included a matching pair of socks, a clothes peg, a hat and a glass of water filled right up to the very top (extra points for the fullest glasses). Any deviations from the tasks and forfeits were issued. I genuinely think, for me, the highlight of the day was making stepmum put on a blindfold and put lipstick on the kids dad 😆! Charlie was crowned Dominic's WhatsApp Birthday Bingo winner and his prize was a £5 lego set from Amazon, sent directly to him – adhering to social distance rules!!

The weather was glorious that day and we finished off the day with a BBQ and a firepit. It wasn't the birthday he had planned, but it really was great fun. I've not seen him belly laugh as much as he did that day. The cost of the escape room / treasure hunt was a £4 bag of sweets and the cost of the Dominic's WhatsApp Birthday Bingo was a £5 prize. The memories made = priceless.

Holistay

So this last week was half-term for the kids, usually a time we would pack a bag and go and do something that involves staying away from home. Not this time. Limited funds and extensive flooding around us as a result of 2 back-to-back winter storms have not done anything to fuel our enthusiasm. So we decided to stay put and see what we can do locally. This is an account of our half-term staycation or, I prefer, holistay.

Did I mention that 2020 was also going to be a year of firsts? Well it is, feeling the need to up my game when it comes to adventuring, I felt the need to push myself more. Why? Isn't what I'm doing enough already? Nope, there's always room for more. I've made a pact with myself that I need to try at least one new thing every month. So far, I've tried magnet fishing, climbing and laughter yoga – completely bonkers. So far, I've exceeded my one a month quota!!

We decided to stay put and gave ourselves a £75 entertainment budget for the week. We managed to go over budget by only £3.20, so I'm super proud of that. Here's how how half-term shaped up:

Saturday and Sunday, not much because the weather was a real shocker. Just local dog walks and quite frankly, they were not impressed and really did not want to leave the house. Tough love little doggies, you need to poop and I need to escape these 4 walls!!!

Monday wasn't much different to be honest, except a trip to the vet for the poorly cat. £78 later and the cat is now fine. It was interesting trying to safely navigate a none flooded route to the vets and back home again.

Tuesday and the real fun begins after a few days of a really slow start. First was a lovely long dog walk - Dominic on his bike, then leaving the dogs at home we head off to attend a willow weaving session. This isn't the first time we've attended a workshop run by the wildcraftist, last year we made some really amazing lanterns and they're still proudly displayed in my lounge. This time we made willow hearts and they're proudly hanging up on the wall.

Wednesday was a non-exciting day, we spent the day at the local hospital. Just routine, but something we have to do every so often.

Thursday back on the half-term fun, though not necessarily adventure related! We went to the cinema to watch Dr Doolittle and then to Pizza Express for tea. Why have I mentioned this on this adventure blog? Only because I used what I call 'free money' to pay for it. My nearest petrol station is Tesco and I always use my clubcard when paying. They currently have a deal on their vouchers where they treble them up. I spent £25 of clubcard vouchers (I had £50 of vouchers in total) and this paid for a meal for three of us + drinks + pudding and a trip to the cinema. Use your loyalty cards peeps, this would of cost me nearly £90 out of my own pocket!!

Friday and we're back in the world of adventure. Axe-Throwing. Oh my goodness, I have never done this before and I honestly did not realise it would be so much fun. We got a mini-league going between us and ended up leaving with both Dominic and me deciding that we're going to have our birthday parties there. The best thing is that they can print out poster size pictures of people or things and they'll stick it on the board so you can throw you axes at it. You can literally throw axes at the head of someone who you hate, its brilliant! I NEED TO GET THIS DONE FOR MY BIRTHDAY PARTY – who will be in the poster I hear you ask? You'll have to wait and see x

Saturday was archery and luckily it was indoors. This was the first time at this club and it was organised by the Shropshire Scouts. This is a really fun way to spend the morning. All three of us enjoyed this and we'll do this again I'm sure. I've had a go at archery before, but this is the first time I've actually had an instructor on hand to give me a few basic tips. It really made all the difference. All three of us showed huge improvements in just the 2 hours we were there.

We thought we'd utilise the local swimming baths for a change on the Sunday. Again the weather was crap and I personally hadn't been swimming in a long time. The kids beat me into the pool and I found them alone in the deep end. I decided that I was going to bomb myself into the pool and nearly drowned them both in the resulting tsunami. The funniest part for them was watching the lifeguard trying to telling me off whilst trying not to laugh. The kids decided that I must have annoyed him as the wave I created managed to soak him too. You'd think getting wet would be an occupational hazard for a life guard hahaha.

So how much did we spend:

Willow Hearts £15 (£5 each)

Cinema and meal £0

Axe-Throwing £45 (£15 each for 45 minutes) (add £6 for the poster next time!!!)

Archery £9 (£3 each for scout members)

Swimming £9.20 (not sure how much each)

Total £78.20

One thing that I have realised is that I haven't done on these blogs is to actually tell you my name. I'm Fran and I live in the most beautiful county of Shropshire. My nearest town is Ironbridge and I get to frequently drive past the iconic bridge that is a world heritage site.

Sadly, at the moment Shropshire and surrounding counties are struggling with the worst floods in 20 years. Its terrible to hear the stories of those effected. Floods, fires, polar caps melting its all impacted on by the threats we as humans pose to our planet. We can all do our bit to help and in my next blog, I will talk about the little things that I do that will go towards helping the environment. Take care x

Starting life as an Adventurer

You came back for more!

Thank you for that, its much appreciated. Today I thought it might be a good idea to give you some background into my adventures so far, how I got to do them and a little bit of reflection.

Not all my adventures are big expedition size, most are what people might call micro-adventures. Some have been officially organised expeditions where I had to be selected to be part of the team, some on my own, some with amazing friends and some with my awesome kids. Like most people, I'm on a really tight budget and we try and keep costs down wherever we can, I'll share my tips on how to do that as we go along.

About 4 years ago, I suddenly woke up to the realisation that my life had become boring. I didn't do anything any more that was outside of ordinary and my life was plagued by routine. So what did I do? I got a dog. We had family dogs growing up, but this was my first dog. I researched the kind of dog I was looking for. I wanted a dog with stamina and energy, but one that was quiet and kind. The breed I was looking for was a Bedlington Terrier. We found a litter relatively locally and Honey soon became a firm member of our tribe. Soon after Honey arrived, we were also joined by Bob, a Jack Russell Terrier. Having these two soon kick started my love of walking and they have both been loyally by my side ever since. We must of walked thousands of miles over the last 4 years. Part of me wishes that I knew exactly how far I'd walked, maybe I should start keeping a log now!!

Interestingly, I knew I wanted to get out into the big outdoors, but my motivation was not to get slimmer, it was simply to have adventures. This ambition so far has come true. I really haven't got any slimmer, though I do feel much fitter and I've had lots of adventures. Since getting the dogs, we have climbed Snowdon 3 times, completed the 36 mile South Loch Ness Trail, completed the 79 mile Great Glen Way and we're slowly ticking off sections of the 229 mile Shropshire Way. I've also completed an organised week long woods survival expedition with Love her Wild. This is in addition to lots of smaller challenges on the way. These will be discussed in more depth in later blogs.

This summer I am planning the biggest adventure yet. Me, the kids and the dogs are completing the 227 mile Severn Way. This follows the UK's longest river, from source to sea. We are hiking, canoeing and mountain biking the entire length. Yes, that's right, I will actually be riding a bike over a significant distance. Not bad for a fat bird – she says with mumbling confidence. In all seriousness, there is good chance with any of these adventures that I / we might not complete them. I don't start them knowing we cannot complete them, more believing that we can complete them, but it is going to be tough. It wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy and fearing failure is not a reason to not try. Having the fear of failure has been almost paralysing at times in my life and its taken me to relatively recently to realise that the true failure is not even trying.

I'm also completing a child-free challenge this year. In April, I have been selected to part of a crew that will sail a tall ship. I've never even sailed a dinghy before and I get seasick watching the boats from the safety of the beach. Cue a well rehearsed quote from my kids “you're going to die”. I'm not going to die, its going to be ace and I cannot wait. I'm really excited to share a write up of this adventure with you once I've done it.

It is half-term this week and due to storm Dennis and extensive local flooding, we've ditched our excursion plans and completed some smaller challenges, a couple of which are completely new to me and I've loved doing them. I'll enlighten you in my next blog. 

Until then, keep being courageous, yet stay safe xx

Fat Lass Adventures

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a lady that thrives on doing things that take me out of my comfort zone. Call it a midlife crisis. I'm 44 and only really found this new zest for life in the last few years. Maybe due to being middle-aged (does that mean that every day from this point is me being old?!?!), maybe due to actually not being in a situation where I need to consider the needs of another adult. Who knows, maybe through this blog the answer will appear, I am open to suggestions.

I am single and I have 2 amazing children. They are Penny, aged 12 and Dominic, aged 10. I'm not being biased (honest!) when I say that they are just the best kids. They are simply up for doing anything and only occasionally say “you're going to die” when I line up a random challenging expeditions that seriously push me out my comfort zone. So far, I've proved them wrong. Most of the stuff I do, I do with the kids and I genuinely think that they are my motivation for doing this adventurous stuff. I am determined to show them a life of adventure and to develop their passion for nature and the environment. So far, we are ticking every box, but there is still much more to be done.

I also try and complete an expedition every year that is away from the kids. Something for me, but also something that I hope my kids will see and think “my mum just did something pretty cool”. This years child-free expedition is already lined up, I will tell you about that very soon.

So why have I set up this blog? I am someone who always sticks up for the underdog, the minority and the excluded. Why, because I have been that person and it takes a lot of mental strength to get through it. Now I feel in a position where I can provide a platform where people who are in the situation that I was in can listen and hopefully be inspired. The title “Fat Lass Adventures” has been developed because its describes me perfectly. I'm a fat lass who has the best adventures.

Historically, I've come across many challenges to being an adventure-fatty person outside, not all necessarily obvious. Some of the comments, highlighting my size, I truly believe were not spoken out of malice, some maybe were. Often they were disguised as something else, such as concern for my health, or they think they're being motivational, but the reality is its just fat-shaming under a hidden agenda.

I think the most hurtful comment was from a toxic parasite that was briefly in my life. Following my decision to move away from that persons poisonous company, they highlighted my size on a national UK hiking Facebook page. I was initially gutted and then realised that I had as much right to being on a mountain top and also on that Facebook page (as well as any other outdoorsy page) as the next person. I'm sure their intention was not to actually inspire to shout from the rooftops that I'm fat, my body is ace and I love it, I love being outdoors and in the process of doing so, I complete some pretty cool stuff. Incidently, after setting up the Fat Lass Adventures Facebook page, it was reported for promoting a negative self image (cue an eye roll!). Anyway, this is a blog designed to promote and inspire us adventure-fatties to get your outdoorsy kit on and get outside, no more air time will be given to that fool in this blog!

So for my next blog, I'll tell you about my world of adventure so far and what I have in the planning. This is along side tackling some of the challenges that us adventure-fatties face. Until then, be nice to others and to yourself. x