It’s October now. Autumn.

The nights drawing in.

The year drawing to a close.

It’s natural to assume that the end of summer means the end of getting out into the wild, the end of microadventures, the end of the year.

But there are 91 days left this year. What a shame it would be to let them slide by.

So here is my challenge:

Let’s squeeze in a 5-to-9 microadventure before the clocks go back.

Once the clocks go back, the world (or Britain, at least) becomes rather a dark and wintery place. So let’s make the most of now! Autumn is a beautiful time of year. If you bivvy in the woods you’ll marvel at the beautiful colours of the leaves. Return to a place you slept in the summer to savour quite how much the place has changed. The sun sets earlier so you’ll have more chance to star-gaze too.

Autumn: golden leaves, conker trees, puffballs and mushrooms. Morning dew gleaming in the beautiful low angle of the morning sun. The sea is at its warmest for swimming. Rivers are at the bracing-but-fun stage, not yet at the bonkers-howling temperatures of winter. It’s a lovely time of year.

Pick a date, sometime between today and the last weekend of the month. Go by yourself or recruit a couple of friends. Dash out of work as early as you can. Go sleep on a hill. Enjoy the sunrise. Swim in a river, and get back to your desk by 9am.

Don’t just give up on the year and twiddle your thumbs until Christmas.

Practical Tips for an Enjoyable Autumn Microadventure

1. Don’t forget to pack a torch as the sun is setting much earlier. (There’s a full kit list here.)
2. There is more chance of rain in October, so take a basha as well as your trusty bivvy bag. It costs a couple of quid and takes less than a minute to pitch.
3. Being cold is miserable. It’s worth using a slightly bigger, warmer sleeping bag than in the summer. If you only have one sleeping bag, take a couple more jumpers along.
4. Even if it doesn’t rain, the dew is heavy in autumn. When you go to sleep, stuff your rucksack and shoes into a bin bag to keep them dry.
5. You should take a woolly hat with you at all times of year, but definitely do that this time.
6. If you have a manual camera, it’s worth the weight and hassle to take along a tripod too to dabble with some star photography. I use this light and cheap tripod. Here’s how to photograph stars. You can even do it with your phone.

If you go and do this, please share your photos and tales online to inspire other people to do something similar. Use the #microadventure hashtag like all these people have done.