so by now you know that i've decided to take up solo hiking and camping but you don't know why and
here is the short version i have been struggling a lot with anxiety and depression over the past year
as i imagine have you know many of you because it's not been easy with
the lockdowns and everyone's plans getting completely derailed and throughout the past
year the one comfort the one stalls that i found was walking i would go on these long
six seven hour walks two different parts of london it was helping me scratch on it but it wasn't
quite the thing i needed i felt like i really needed some kind of a challenge long story short
i ended up buying a tent and deciding that this was something i was gonna try i'm not entirely
sure how we got here but i am ordering a tent and here it is 70 pounds proceed to checkout okay
and now i've got a tent after the tent arrived it took me about two months to
actually trial it for the first time because i got back inside my own head telling myself that
that probably wasn't something that i could do oh it's raining again um but then two days ago
i finally decided you know what now is my time and i tried at the tent out in my garden
it's really windy today okay the tent is up i managed to like semi-stake it
in because we've got gaps in between our tiles and now i'm gonna cut out the inside
okay here we go good morning i have done it i managed an entire night here in the tent it was
a little bit patchy in terms of sleep because there are foxes screaming out in the garden
and also my yoga mat is so thin so i was just lying on stones and it wasn't super comfortable
but i loved it i'm definitely going to do this again and so i sat down on my laptop and i started
doing research i was thinking where could i go maybe in the summer maybe in two months time and
after i did a bit of research i thought well why wait because what am i really waiting for here and
so i made the decision to go hiking today because ironically today was gonna be the last day when it
wasn't gonna rain for about two weeks um but here we are i've got my tent and everything in here got
my waterproofs what's the worst that could happen hi tom any final words uh well maybe let's see
all right so of course the first thing that happened the second i
left guilford station is that it started raining
okay i've done my tesco shop i got a triple sandwich and some other snacks for the journey
guildford is looking quite nice and it's sunny again so fingers crossed
all right so i've decided to have a picnic before i start the trail
because i haven't had breakfast yet and i don't want to start an empty stomach
okay i think we're on the right path we're gonna cross over that footbridge and go left
so one of the main reasons why i've been struggling with anxiety is that suddenly it feels
like i'm not in control of my life it feels like so many of the decisions i want to make depend on
something or someone else for example the pandemic that one's pretty obvious um yeah i can't plan i
can't make big life decisions about traveling because it's currently not possible and hiking
and navigating through the wilderness and relying on myself for my own survival is
i guess a natural pushback against that right it's me wanting to reclaim that power
oh what's my camera doing here obviously not staged at all
okay so we've crossed the bridge and now we're going
and connecting onto the north down's way and i think this might be a slightly difficult route
to navigate just because i'm flicking back in between different paths but like i said
i've got this so we're going to be following these for a while north down's way off we go
okay north downsway and chantry wood which is our first pit stop a quick word on chantry wood we are
currently in bluebell season and it looks like the entire forest is going to be carpeted in beautiful
little violet flowers i don't want to be whiny but trekking uphill with 12 kilos on your back
and then a waterproof jacket that makes you incredibly sweaty
is not comfortable luckily and then we've got too much longer to go
so that would be a no on the bluebells but there is this stunning cathedral view right over here
i found the bluebells they're all around me now
while we're on this entire mental health tangent the blue bells are as good a metaphor as any
for the sort of expectations that we create in life and if there's one thing lockdown has
taught me and probably many of us it's that those expectations aren't always good for us sometimes
it's much better most times it's much better to just roll with the punches go with the flow
and then if you do find your metaphorical blue bell meadow you'll be pleasantly surprised as
opposed to being disappointed when you don't i kind of worked kind of worked
i want to teach you a new word that i learned and that word is kissing gate
i didn't know that's what these were called that's really cute i'm not gonna lie i'm a
bit nervous about these clouds and the birds seem really loud and i feel like that's a sign i'm not
loving these uphill bits but we're nearly there i can see it yeah there we go saint martha's church
and there later
this stretch is incredible hey the church behind me was lovely but b i'm walking on
sand and there are pine trees all around me and i feel like i'm somewhere near a beach in croatia or
something like that it's gorgeous and it's warm the storm clouds seem to have gone away big fan
fyi guys some sections you actually just climb over the fence i wasn't sure at first but i
ran into some other hikers and they said that's fine so here we are and another one
look how narrow this bit is i can barely fit in with my bag hi piggy
imagine this being the pathway to your house
and imagine this being your house if you have ever wondered why i spent the past 10 years in the uk
this is why this entire walk is why such a beautiful country
if you are looking for a bit of a challenge and you live in london and you don't have a car
then this is such a great show because you take the train to guildford and you can train them
if you hear me breathing in the background that's because that hill killed me a tiny bit
oh another beautiful beautiful sight public toilets
oh hello how are we doing hey girls
hi don't leave me that was a nice little moment with my friends and i should mention for the first
time in this entire walk i have put in headphones we're way past the halfway point now i'm getting
a tiny bit tired and i thought let's motivate myself with some words of wisdom and by words
of wisdom i mean a really funny podcast called off menu by ed gamble and james a caster they're
both stand-up comedians here in britain very very funny and i love food they love food just works
so according to my guide which by the way massive shout out to saturday walker's club
who provide these free of charge and they are so incredibly sorry
that i've not actually needed a map i've just been following written instructions
they told me that right over there ish you can see london you can see the wembley arch
now i don't have binoculars so i'm trying to really use my imagination over there
we're briefly back on the road behind me by the way so nice um but we're gonna turn off onto
it right away very soon but there's something i wanted to mention i find it really sweet that all
all the hikers greet one another i just didn't know that that was the trail i took head i'd seen
it done before but this was back in czech republic in germany which i thought was a cultural thing
it's not and everyone's been greeting me and i was so embarrassed because i'm never the first
to greet anyone because i just didn't know that was a that was the dumb thing but now i'm just
on the lookout for people so i can aggressively greet them to know that i'm a better person
than they are no just to know that i'm a pro hiker and here we are sheep please
that's the thing we've been looking for this is the last pit stop on our journey
and the next place we're gonna be going to is actually hoarsely where i'm gonna be camping so
let's soak up these last moments of our walk and one thing i will say i love the podcast
that i mentioned of menu but it's much nicer when you're not listening to anything where you're just
listening to the little sounds of the forest it sounds cheesy but it really is much nicer like
you are so much more in tune with your surroundings and you notice a lot more
animation text and drive where you shouldn't vlog and walk apparently we're back to this house
because i went wrong i was supposed to go right here onto this public right away i think it's
sorry a fly flew into my mouth um i think it's very ironic how i was going off on an entire
tangent about how i shouldn't listen to music in the wilderness and be one with nature and then
i got distracted and i went off the path so there you go make of that what you will
a small meaningless observation every second to third dog that i see seems to be a cocker
spaniel or a springer's manual i'm not sure why i don't know if you saw that
but literally as soon as i finished saying not this man with two spaniels
what are the chances of all the chances are high like i just told you very high
another church this one's called saint mary's really beautiful and peaceful aside from the
road that we can hear over there we're about to go cross and let me show you the church
we're nearly there this last stretch is next to a road but it's not a problem we've had plenty
of beautiful greenery today i have to say i'm really looking forward to pushing up my tent and
sitting down this pack is really pressing against my lower back
i'm about 10 minutes away from the campsite and i have suddenly been hit by this wave of stroppiness
i'm in pain i want to get there i am suddenly like the pack just feels so heavy
we've arrived let me check in i don't want people to see me vlogging
right so you're probably wondering why i'm sat at horsley train station and honestly the explanation
is slightly mortifying but we're all about honesty here so we're all friends as it turns out
the campsite that i was going to doesn't currently have functioning lose so upon my arrival i was
asked to present my solution to this problem which is a solution i did not have i didn't have like a
porta potty with me and i was denied entry on the fear that i might to put it politely in the woods
so i'm going home
hi why are you back i'm just gonna sit on the sofa and eat pizza and thus went my first
it was pizza i'm gonna sit and just think about my life um so yeah i hope you enjoyed my first ever
solo capping adventure actually so fast brilliant thanks for watching see you next time bye