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A Matt on a Mission

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If you’re anything like me, you enjoy a good ramble. If, like me, you own a thesaurus, you might also voice your penchant for peregrination, or your predilection for pererration (a word last used around 1860 ). Perhaps you were born with itchy feet. Or perhaps, like me, you have a wanderlust that rears its head and demands to be fed every few months like an ornery beast of yore. Whether a restless soul or an occasional wanderer, travel does the mind and body a world of good. What happy coincidence then, that a certain type of travel can do the world some good in return. A little background The Youth Hostels Association (YHA) is a registered charity that has for over 90 years aimed to offer affordable accommodation to all, with a particular focus on helping “young people of limited means”. They variously offer dorm rooms, private rooms, camping, or their glamping alternatives of Land Pods and Bell Tents. Some even hire the whole place out. Although I have a fondness for the organisatio...
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Volunteering Hub

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You can find all entries chronicling my YHA Volunteer experience here. Click on the post title or the image below it to navigate to the relevant post! YHA Ilam Hall The view northwards from Thorpe Cloud. YHA Swanage A section of the coastal path between Swanage and Lulworth Cove YHA Ambleside The view over Grasmere from atop Loughrigg Fell.
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YHA Hotpot Series Hub

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You can find all entries in the Hotpot! series (so-named because of the eclectic mix of information they contain) here. Click on the post title or the image below it to navigate to the relevant post! YHA Helvellyn, YHA Bath, YHA Wye Valley Red Tarn, viewed from Helvellyn YHA London Earl's Court, YHA Stratford-Upon-Avon The Houses of Parliament YHA Penzance, YHA Youlgreave (Or 'The Ones I forgot') Mawgan Porth YHA Ingleton, YHA Mankinholes Top Withens, Pennine Way
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YHA Treyarnon Bay Redux - June 2025

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The view onto the beach from the top of the (inaccessible) steps of Bedruthan. Eagle-eyed readers may notice the subtle clue in the title of this post that would indicate that this is a revisit. Many of the locations I mention here are indeed also accounted for in my post on my September 2023 trip . Such readers might rightly, if unkindly, question the wisdom of retreading old ground while there are so many YHA hostels languishing, unvisited (by me - poor things), on my list. To that, I say: it's YHA Treyarnon Bay. The location is lovely in itself, but it's what can be found nearby that makes this such a prize. And so, like a favoured piece in a collector's gallery, I return to it once again. The view out to sea from the South West Coastal Path. On this occasion, my partner and I were camping with a tent and airbeds - none of your fancy landpod business this time! The process, barring some worryingly strong winds on a couple of nights, was a heartening success, and much-nee...
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Hiatus 2: Back in the Habit

Dead! Dead! And never called me Mother!* Well, perhaps not. This blog may be experiencing a temporary bout of death, but it is definitively not buried. I envision a fine resurrection some time soon. How thematically-appropriate, with Easter just around the corner. Where next for the young traveller? Only time will tell. And then I shall too, at some length. *This phrase has been knocking around in my head since I first read it - I think in an encyclopaedia - way back when. Essentially a byword (by-phrase?) for melodrama, it harks back to the mid-19th century, and the stage adaptation of Ellen Wood's East Lynne .  If this somewhat leftfield reference to the melodramatic nature of Victorian theatre leaves you confused (and you would be well within your rights to be feeling so) , you can read more in  this blog post .
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Hotpot! no_4 - YHA Ingleton, YHA Mankinholes

What use is a blog with no content to fill it? As I near the end of my list of visited hostels, I am confronted with just such a question. Although I can cheerfully postpone my reckoning through today’s featurette on YHA Ingleton and Mankinholes, I must also look to the future (now it’s only just begun). What does it hold? With any luck, even more fruitful YHA visits. But since I can’t count on getaways to new hostels to continue apace, content may become in ever-decreasing supply. So what use, this blog? O, reason not the need!, as capricious crackpot and unlikeliest recipient of a ‘World’s Best Dad’ mug Lear might say. Let’s make hay while the sun shines. The treachery of memory forces me to brevity when it comes to YHA Ingleton, located in the Yorkshire Dales. In the halcyon days of my youth, my family visited the hostel during an especially rainy week. My principal memories from our walks there were the unusually powerful waterfalls along the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail . Visiting ag...
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YHA Helmsley - August 2023

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A rare moment of sun in the Rye Valley. Autumn: a time of contemplation, of schoolyard memories, of last-minute getaways, but principally, a time of rain. This is how an English summer dies. And yet, between the August showers of 2023, there were walks to be had aplenty. Gentle perambulations in the gentle sun - when it graced us with its fleeting presence. The picturesque North Yorkshire village of Helmsley, replete with historical attractions, played host to my late-summer venture. Since the Norman era, Helmsley has boasted a castle in various materials and states of construction. The final iteration, left in ruins from the English Civil War, looms commandingly over the village, and the walk from there to Rievaulx Abbey, sorry victim of the Dissolution of the Monasteries , is short and sweet, winding through rolling hill and dale. Byland Abbey, a fellow casualty of Henry VIII's infamous decrees, is also only a couple of hours walk south west. Helmsley Castle, Rievaulx Abbey and t...
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YHA Whitby - January 2025, plus special guest YHA Boggle Hole

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The cliffs between Robin Hood’s Bay and Ravenscar, looking south. I n early January, the cold still had its claws sunk deep into the Yorkshire soil. April may be the cruellest month (an assertion that I still find doubtful, sorry T.S.), but January is often the bleakest. With the cold of the start of the year, however, comes the dramatic low winter Sun that makes walking a delight. As you may have noticed, I will never stop extolling the photogenic virtues of that light. Ravenscar was a childhood mainstay of mine, and I have fond memories of fossil-hunting along this particularly rich stretch of the Jurassic Coast. When the tide allows, there is ample opportunity for seal-watching (from a respectful distance, of course), as they bask on an outcropping just away from the headland (‘South Cheek’, on Google Maps - I confess I have never heard it referred to as such). On this visit, however, the tide wouldn’t allow for beach access without approaching the seals too closely. There are a mul...
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