A bit nippy for the time of year

It's a bit nippy of late but no complaints from me. March 23, 1916 was really nippy with a max of 1.1 degrees Celsius.
It's the wind and lack of sunshine that makes you put on two sets of cloth. Last night the effect of windchill was near minus 20 C. and I still don't complain. Britain has much worse weather conditions at the moment. Snowdrifts 15ft high in Cumbria, cars buried in snow. Extreme windchill on Cairngorm, Scotland, of -26 C. with gusts up to 100 miles per hour (160km/u). Walking on ridges and high terrain would be impossible.

Watching several webcams the West Highlands don't seem to have much snow. At least no more than usual at this time of year.
47 days from now I'm going over Ladhar Bheinn and Luinne Bheinn.

diy pot-cosy and bag-cosy

 For the TGO Challenge in May I made my own potcosy and a bagcosy. I used radiatorfoil, ducttape and aluminiumtape. The bagcosy has an 'envelope form' and can be closed to retain heat for a longer period. The bagcosy has a wider base so the 'boil-in-the-bag' meals can stand up inside. Don't want to spoil it on the tentfloor, do we ?

The potcosy has a double layer, a base and a top, to be able to seal of the cooking pot as much as possible. There's an open space where the handle of the pot comes out. The potcosy is for meals that are made..... in a pot, yes. After bringing 500ml water to the boil I switched of the gas and put the pot into the cosy. Twenty minutes later the meal was still piping hot so the test was a great succes.

The bagcosy weighs 23 grams and the potcosy weighs 35 grams but will save me a lot of gas.

 

 

 

 

 

Snow for the seventh time this winter. I want to speak to the manager !

While it rained for 24/24 hours a couple of days ago and we've seen the digital mercury hit 16 on the thermometer a few days before that it's now snowing again in the Netherlands. The north and the south have a considerable amount of snow again but so far where I live - the middle - the streets are still black. Windchill is minus 15 at night however.

Preparations for the Challenge are going according to plan except that I'll probably won't be able to find the time off to do a two day walk and do some (illegal) wildcamping at night.
Eight weeks from now I'll be leaving for Scotland. Why does that feel so close ? I get this odd feeling there's hardly enough time to do the things I want or must do. I know there is, it just doesn't feel that way.

I've made a potcosy and a bagcosy, that is a cosy for a pot and a cosy for 'boil-in-the-bag' type of food. I'll post some pictures soon.
Overall weight of my rucksack, including food for 4 days, will be 15 kg.