By: Blonde Two

I have a rather odd problem to solve which is related to the time of year.  Until recently, the Two Blonde’s Dartmoor walking season ended in May with the Ten Tors weekend.  Since last year and the advent of our involvement in Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, our calendar has been completely different.  For the first time that I can remember, I am doing walking in warmer weather.

Don’t get me wrong, I am delighted to find out that Dartmoor has a kinder, more friendly side to her.  It is great to want an ice-cream instead of a hot water bottle at the end of a day and it is fabulous to be able to sit on a tor without having to wriggle inside a storm shelter to keep warm.  What I am struggling with, is that age old question that has bothered women for centuries, “What shall I wear?”

Let’s be really honest here (I feel that I know you well enough by now).  I am not a skinny walker, I do not look great in walking trousers and I firmly believe that every time I walk up a tor, my backside gets bigger.  Of course, this is something to do with muscle development and tone – true hill walkers all have big bottoms … please tell me this is true?

As you can imagine, this makes the purchase of walking trousers rather tricky.  In fact it is my third worse thing after stepping stones and Portaloos.  I have one pair of thick, Winter weight trousers that I love but now that our walking season has extended, I am either going to have to melt (will that make my bum smaller?) or bite the bullet and buy some Summer weight ones.

I have tried twice over the last couple of weeks.  The first time, I was put off by a nice young man pointing out that I was looking at men’s trousers (only ones that will fit) and then asking what size I needed (I usually start with the biggest and work down).  The second time I found some that did fit but couldn’t face spending £58 on something that made bits of me squeeze out through the pockets.

The positive side to all of this (Pollyanna) is that every time I fail to find trousers, I buy myself a new top.  Today’s is a lovely RAB soft shell one which will go very well with my Winter trousers.  If the summer gets too hot, I think I will abandon trousers altogether – should be easy to spot me striding across the moor in a RAB top and a giant pair of walking knickers.