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These national trails itineraries include 5 of the 15 National Parks in the UK, including The Peak District, Northumberland National Park, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and the Norfolk Broads. As well as areas of outstanding national beauty, known as AONB including The North Pennines, Solway Coast, Howardian Hills and the Flamborough Headland Heritage Coast and the Norfolk Coast AONB. To start out holiday you begin by exploring Hebden Bridge, then day 2 it’s a hike uphill via the Pennine Way trail all the way to the memorial Stoodley Pike with stunning views for miles, including back towards Hebden Bridge. There are plenty of beautiful day walks to enjoy each day and returning to Hebden Bridge is a wonderful way to end each day.

Here I’ve included all the Salomon gear I own and have put to the test whilst hiking in the UK, mostly in the Peak District and Lake District, but I’ve also visited Snowdonia and Scotland too! I sometimes prefer a mid-hiking boot which is lighter but still keeps my feet dry in boggy conditions, although the Quest isn’t known as a heavy boot. Out of the shorts, my favourite is the Outspeed Short, a shorter version of the Wayfarer pull-on ones, but the Wayfarer Pull On Short don’t have pockets which is a pain. Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions about particular items or you’re unsure about sizes, I know that’s a real pain when you’re buying online!

Adventure Pins is run by two brothers Chris and Dom who together design and create beautiful pin badges of the UK National Parks. This is a UK shop but the hats are handmade in Nepal, so you’re actually supporting both a UK business but also a family-run knitting group in Kathmandu which I love. Pick any colour zip, then select from the National Parks range, (Peak District, Lake District, Snowdonia) or maybe pick a specific route or challenge, for example, Tryfan, Pen y Fan, Scafell Pike to complete the gift. In addition to shopping with small businesses in the UK, there are a few other things you can do that are equally helpful and mean a lot to small business owners (including me).

Here I will share my plans for my winter adventure including the Cumbria Way route, how we are planning to break the walk down into stages and a few other useful tips as well as my winter wild camping kit list! Ulverston is about 5 miles/8 km from the south Lake District border and the route heads north to Carlisle, about 15 miles/24 km from the south border of the Lake District National Park. Our trip is still in the planning stages but we will be looking into suitable places to wild camp on the route and using those places to roughly plan the distance we’ll walk each day. Here’s the kit we’re planning on taking for the Cumbria Way walk since there are three of us doing the challenge we will be sharing a few items to help reduce the weight of our kit