James Black

Hey! I’m James – a hobbyist camper and hiker, born and raised in Scotland.

I started this website out of a desire to reconnect to nature and have since involved my long-time friend, Fraser.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed escaping to the outdoors. This first started through family camping trips but, in an attempt to find some freedom, quickly turned into adventure camps.

These adventure camps were brilliant for my former teenage self. They had climbing, abseiling, kayaking, survival tips and culminated in the ultimate survival experience – being left with two friends on a remote, uninhabited island in the Scottish Hebrides with nothing but a sleeping bag, a bivvy and a couple of tools.

You can see a picture of me a few days before one of these survival experiences, desperately needing a haircut and with no idea I would soon be hunting for a cave for shelter and foraging for thistles to create possibly the most unappetising soup possible.

However, I’ve things have changed. I moved to the city, I went to university, I got a job and I’ve changed a lot as an individual.

Long gone are my days of wrapping myself in a bivvy to keep out the torrential rain, of covering myself with skin so soft to keep out the particularly annoying Midge (an industry secret) and of waking up only to find out that my tent was very much not waterproof.

This website encapsulates my attempt to reconnect with nature but doing so in a way that doesn’t leave me sodden and miserable. Equipment has come a long way since I was eating thistle soup, and being outdoors no longer needs to be uncomfortable.

James's camping advice