I am planning to walk the ODP some time this month (September) with to friends. We are hoping to paint watercolour and sketch the landscape as we go. I have only wild camped once before and that wasn't through choice. This time I am looking forward to it.

I'm loking for as much advice on wild camping and walking this route as possable. I have camped before and walked before but never together. Basicly I need to know everything.
What should I take with me? How much weight should I limmit my rucksack to? What can I expect on route?
I'm looking for your experiance to help me. I have studied survuval for a few years now. But I dont wan take any chances. This will be the fist time I will be putting my kowedge to the test so to speak.

Looking forward to you advice.

Thank you

Darren

Can't give you any advise on wild camping, but I hope you will give us a look at your paintings and sketches when you return.
Have a great trip anyway.

Be careful when wild camping - make sure you do not offend land owners. It could spoil it for others wanting to camp on official sites. Having said that, camp in the right places and who will know.

Wild camping may not be too much of an issue, provided you ask the land-owner. We had to wild-camp twice on Wild Edrics Way which shares part of the ODP route around Clun/Craven Arms. Just asked the land owner about camping of one of his recently mown hay-fields each time. With no crop on and nothing about to be planted it was easy both times.

Pack-weight may be a problem for you, if you're also carrying sketching materials. - My other half is a semi-professional landscape artist and her sketching kit weighs at least 2 kg, before the inclusion of additional water for paint mixing.

Your basic kit (asuming each person carries all their own kit - i.e not sharing tent/cooker etc) will probably end up weighing in at around 15kg. Plus food, water and artists materials - could get to 18 kg plus!

I'd try it out on a shorter (2 night?) trip first - so that you can work out what to ditch for the real event. Nearly everyone I've ever back-packed with has sent some kit home after 2 - 3 days, because they've realised they're carrying too much.

A breakdown might be:-

Tent - 2kg
T'rest - 1.5kg
Trainers - 1kg
S/Bag - 1kg
Cooker/Pots - 1kg
W'proofs- 1.5kg
Fleece - 0.5kg
Spare Clothes - no more than 2kg
Rucsack itself - 2kg

Plus wask-kit, first aid kit, maps/guide-books torch, spare batteries etc. etc. it soon adds up - then add your lunch and 2 litres of water!

I find that upto 17 kg is manageable - you get used to it after 48 hours - more than that and its a permanent struggle!

LWM - will no doubt be able to cut those weights back a lot further - I'd be just as intrigued, as you are, to find out how!

H

THANK YOU for your advice. I will take it all on board. I hadn't though about weighing the items I am taking, great tip. I think my tent must weigh about 5k alown. Its a three man tent, but its the only 1 thats being taken so I hope I can sort out a way to share the load.

I have my survival pack with all the basic that are needed. can anyone tell me:-
how often along the path are there places to get water from? I know we need 2.5ltrs or 4.5 pints of water a day each, so will we come across water points each day if we travel 10 miles a day?

There is now no way I can complete the walk this month, there is just too much to plan. Can anyone tell me when is the best time to walk the ODP?

I wild camp as much as possible and did the ODP a couple of years ago and their are plenty of good places to wild camp. Obviously the best thing to do is to get the landowners permission but this isn't always possible/practical. I've always said that so long as you leave no trace of your camping, no-one should ever know or mind that you were there. One great place on the ODP that springs to mind is towards the end at Moel Arthur, about a hundred feet up the hill there is an old landslip that has left a natural shelf which is ideal for a tent or two. The legend is that King Arthur fought a battle against the Saxons on the hill and if you're lucky/unlucky you may according to the locals see a ghostly battle!

As far as the best time to walk goes, I've always favoured the season changing months which are March and September for long walks. These are times of settled weather and in fact I did the ODP in March and didn't have a single days rain. Nights are cold but if you've got the right kit then it's not a problem.