A sidestep from ordinary life
A FEW WEEKS AGO, I wild camped next to a high tarn on a wide moorland plateau in the Yorkshire Dales, having hastily cobbled together the contents of a backpack to take advantage of a window of good weather. We arrived at our campsite in the golden light of the evening, with golden plovers speeding through the sky in tight formations around us. On the way, we’d seen two short-eared owls hunting through the peat groughs, heard the bubbling sounds of a curlew, and seen a ‘drumming’ snipe whirling around high above us in its strange mating display, the wind in its wings making a noise like a UFO taking off. Even before pitching camp, there was a sense that we had entered another world, a lonely tableland populated by enigmatic wildlife,…
