Walking Home from Lakefest: Some Peace on the Geopark Way

Last weekend we were on a family camp at my in-laws’ farm near Pontrilas. My big tent was commandeered by my nieces, and I slept in my little OEX Phoxx 2. At Lakefest, history repeated itself. My niece Chloe and her friend needed somewhere to sleep away from their parents, so they took my big tent, leaving me to pitch the even smaller Helm Compact 1. The last time I’d used that, I was wild camping on a mountain ridge with only wild ponies for company. They were perfectly polite neighbours, which is more than I can say for a festival crowd at 2 a.m.

My Helm 1 Compact tent at Lakefest 2025

Lakefest was great though. My wife Stace came for a bit here and there with our one-year-old daughter Molly, who isn’t quite ready for camping yet. I was sharing a pitch with my mum and stepdad Peck, our friend Alan from Swansea, and Stace’s sister Tam and her kids. I’m more used to camping on my own now, where the only night sounds are owls, wind in the trees, and the occasional haunting muntjac bark. At the festival, the sound of drunken teenagers in the middle of the night was surprisingly similar to a muntjac, although I've yet to hear one singing Wonderwall.

By Saturday morning I was ready for a bit of peace and a chance to sweat out all the lager, so I set off for home along the Geopark Way. I’ve walked these paths many times before, especially during Covid when Eastnor Park was empty and we’d walk there to sit by the duck ponds with cans of cider because there was nothing better to do. Eastnor Park is beautiful, so it doesn't get much better than that when the world goes slightly apocalyptic. 

Heading out of the camping fields of Lakefest

Leaving the festival, the Geopark Way took me out of the park, up through Eastnor village and onto the high ground through farmland. From the top of the rise you could see the whole site below the Eastnor Obelisk. It was a hot day, but thankfully not the thirty-eight degrees of Lakefest 2022, when all camping stoves were banned due to the risk of wildfires starting. 

The Geopark Way through a field outside Eastnor

British Camp towering above Lakefest

I'd probably be able to see my tent if it wasn't tiny

The path carried on through high fields with great views of the Malverns. Halfway along there’s a huge old oak tree with a hollow in its trunk. I always stop there for a moment. The tree has probably been standing for centuries, watching people go by, some full of life and some looking rough as toast like me. 

An ancient oak near Eastnor

View from the edge of the fields between Eastnor and Ledbury

Not far after that I made my only diversion off the Geopark Way, along a winding trail through the tall conifers of Conigree Wood. The air was a lot cooler under the trees and I felt the joy of being alone in the wild. This is my happy place. You could be in woodland anywhere in Northern Europe or North America, at any point in history and it would basically look much like this. You can travel across continents and through time if you just have a bit of a weird imagination and can ignore an empty bottle of Lucozade Sport some grotty arse had dropped on the ground. Apart from the occasional noise of creatures scurrying around, it was as peaceful as it gets. 

the Conigree Wood, Ledbury

Me, finding some peace in the Conigree

The walk between Eastnor and Ledbury always means something to me anyway. Not long ago I did it the other way from Ledbury with my dad, carrying Molly in her carrier, to mark what would have been my grandmother Marie’s hundredth birthday. Her ashes are scattered beneath an oak in Eastnor Park so it was a little pilgrimage for her. My uncle Rick wrote a book called Your Father and I Never Married about tracing our family history and discovering that Marie had been living under the assumed identity of my grandfather’s ex-wife, which puts our family firmly in the “complicated” category. 

My father, Colin, carrying my daughter, Molly on a family pilgrimage to Eastnor in May

Once I left the conifers the path opened up towards Ledbury. I was feeling tired and a bit grotty. The time on my own in the woods had been refreshing though and, as a bit of an introvert, time like this to myself to break up a weekend surrounded by thousands of random, shouty, drunken people was just what I needed.

Waymarker for the Geopark Way, Ledbury

The Conigree Wood, Ledbury

Church Lane, Ledbury

That evening I went back to Lakefest and lost my phone while dancing badly in the Retrospective of House tent. Luckily someone handed it in. Proof that despite appearances, there are some very decent people in a crowd of drunken, glittery muntjacs.

We'd all had a brilliant weekend at the festival. The lineup is rarely to my taste (it's a family festival and I like garage punk rock), but being able to camp in Eastnor Park, doss in the sun, listen to some random music and have a short drive (or a long walk) home every morning for a shower makes it worth it. Highlights for me included Leeroy Thornhill from the Prodigy doing a DJ set and Oasis Maybe which was just a huge singalong. The headliners were Echo and the Bunnymen (I watched two songs), Groove Armada (I didn't watch), Faithless (I watched for about 10 minutes) and Busted (I went home before they came on). I'm hoping that next year they bring back more rock bands, but I say that every year and still have a great time regardless.