Making more room for the outdoors

There is a little more room here now.

The photographs are still part of it, but this site is becoming a home for the journeys around them too: campervan trips, mountain days, short breaks and time spent exploring the UK and Europe. Some stories will follow a longer trip. Others might begin with a spare weekend and a rough idea.

If you have visited before, the older posts and photo collections are still here. They belong to the story. The new name, Balderstone Outdoors, gives me space to bring those photographs together with films, travel notes and more of what happens between the stops.

A base for getting outside

I’m Jon, and I fit these trips around work and everyday life. My 2019 Mercedes Sprinter is a useful part of that. It is somewhere to travel, cook and sleep, and sometimes somewhere to open the laptop and work, meaning I’m free to travel more often and for longer.

The appeal is fairly straightforward: having a small base makes it easier to get out. It might take me to the mountains for a weekend or much further from home. Either way, the van supports the trip.

There will be room here for journeys without it as well. A few days in a city, a walk or a short trip with a camera can be just as worth recording.

Photographs, films and a few more words

A photograph gives me one way to share a place. Film adds movement and sound: a road opening out, water passing through a scene, or the view changing as the journey continues. Writing gives me room to put those moments in context.

That is what I want the blog to do. Alongside the pictures, there will be notes about the journey, how the days fitted together and the practical details that were useful. Some posts will look back at trips I have already made, with their original dates clearly shown. Others will follow new outings.

I’m starting by bringing a few of those earlier journeys together, including Iceland and the Arctic, alongside shorter trips closer to home.

For now, have a look through Trips & stories, spend a few minutes with the films, or meet the van.

There is more to come as I get outside, take the camera with me and find something worth sharing.