Dartmoor bound
- Thread starter dirty ben
- Start date
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Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.
Elen Sentier
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Have a really good one. As a Dartmoor-born girl I'm looking fwd to seeing the pix too and hearing where you go. Hope to be down there meself in the spring.
This was my route to the campsite we took a more direct route back this morning,unfortunately my phone packed up on the journey so there is no photos 
I have photos from a previous camp which I'll stick up tomorrow with a bit more info about route and new kit tested.
tip tap tapping away
I have photos from a previous camp which I'll stick up tomorrow with a bit more info about route and new kit tested.
tip tap tapping away
Elen Sentier
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I have long been looking forward to this trip,mainly because i have not been out for a camp in a couple of moths and secondly i wanted to try out some new sleep kit,i've had a little bit of luck at the bookies recently so have treated myself to a new sleeping bag,after a lot of research and alot of time on the web i plumped for a Alpkit Skyehigh 600,i was always a bit nervous getting a down bag but over the last 10 years i have not really got any of my bags wet so i was swayed by the warmth to weight ratio and i also plumped for the long version as i am over six foot two and of the generous waist,secondly i wanted to try out my new sleep mat a Exped Synmat ul 7 having tried and failed to locate the slow puncture in my Pacific outdoor ac mat i saw the exped as a straight swap albeit a little bit more expensive.
Well saturday did not start off great, in fact the problem starts on friday night when a mate pops over for a few drinks then leaves at 3am,i promptly over sleep till 0930,not sure how it happens but the night before i pack and repack my kit, only to find that my gear has had babies in the night and my pack has shrunk,it puts paid to my smugness on how much space i have in my sack.
1045 and i am picking a mate up who also has a new sleeping bag a North Face Gold Kazoo to try out,we are both kitted out for a chilly night ahead.Parked up in Princetown and set off towards Swincombe along the well defined path,path is pretty waterlogged with varying length detours around flooded parts of the path,we hang a left towards Sherberton,this is where it gets a little embarrassing.We head through the farm admiring the stacks of wood thinking could we stick a few lumps in our rucksacks for the arctic freeze later, when we came across a ram with his head stuck in a fenced pen,of course we rushed to his aid not before my friend had taken multiple shots on his iphone(my phone is dead at this point)on closer inspection the ram was not stuck but was doing his best impression of a 1970s typewriter when it would go from one side to the other the slide back from where it started from,following the track down through the farm we see our stepping stone river crossing,i could lie and say it was a raging torrent carrying trees,buses and phone boxes downstream,but it didnt look that bad,not till we got a bit closer the stones looked a bit further apart and a bit more slippery but what the heck it's onlt 6 or 7 stones and we are grown men what could go wrong.....
nothing went wrong we both crossed ok no real wobbles and pats on the backs all round,no big deal.The deal got bigger when we came to the second stepping stone crossing of 10-12 stones of varying sizes and shapes,think grapefruit,razors edge,pineapple all covered in a healthy coating of Tiswas slime(showing my age,younger readers try Google)and spaced apart in various distances,i went first and got about halfway without to much swearing that is until i came across the meanest lump of stone i had ever seen,it was barely big enough for me to get one of my size 11 boots on let alone two,i looked at it,it looked at me,i looked at it,it looked at me,this went on for a while as i was trying my jedi mind trick of making stones bigger and flatter and easier to walk on,it did'nt work,i went for it i thought if i slipped and fell into the water it would be close to the feeling of cold if i decided to stare at a stone all night long,i launched like a gazelle landed like a slug but i was safely across the stone of the Styx,it was now my mates turn,me full of encouragement and a fair amount of mickey taking he did remind me of a dog crouching taking a poo with all his leg shaking,but he was across as well dry and proud,we held back on the high fives just in case some 8 year olds skipped across the stones in double time and we looked like a couple 39 year old girls blouses,i did a little fist pump on the quiet though.....
Part 2 to follow
Well saturday did not start off great, in fact the problem starts on friday night when a mate pops over for a few drinks then leaves at 3am,i promptly over sleep till 0930,not sure how it happens but the night before i pack and repack my kit, only to find that my gear has had babies in the night and my pack has shrunk,it puts paid to my smugness on how much space i have in my sack.
1045 and i am picking a mate up who also has a new sleeping bag a North Face Gold Kazoo to try out,we are both kitted out for a chilly night ahead.Parked up in Princetown and set off towards Swincombe along the well defined path,path is pretty waterlogged with varying length detours around flooded parts of the path,we hang a left towards Sherberton,this is where it gets a little embarrassing.We head through the farm admiring the stacks of wood thinking could we stick a few lumps in our rucksacks for the arctic freeze later, when we came across a ram with his head stuck in a fenced pen,of course we rushed to his aid not before my friend had taken multiple shots on his iphone(my phone is dead at this point)on closer inspection the ram was not stuck but was doing his best impression of a 1970s typewriter when it would go from one side to the other the slide back from where it started from,following the track down through the farm we see our stepping stone river crossing,i could lie and say it was a raging torrent carrying trees,buses and phone boxes downstream,but it didnt look that bad,not till we got a bit closer the stones looked a bit further apart and a bit more slippery but what the heck it's onlt 6 or 7 stones and we are grown men what could go wrong.....
nothing went wrong we both crossed ok no real wobbles and pats on the backs all round,no big deal.The deal got bigger when we came to the second stepping stone crossing of 10-12 stones of varying sizes and shapes,think grapefruit,razors edge,pineapple all covered in a healthy coating of Tiswas slime(showing my age,younger readers try Google)and spaced apart in various distances,i went first and got about halfway without to much swearing that is until i came across the meanest lump of stone i had ever seen,it was barely big enough for me to get one of my size 11 boots on let alone two,i looked at it,it looked at me,i looked at it,it looked at me,this went on for a while as i was trying my jedi mind trick of making stones bigger and flatter and easier to walk on,it did'nt work,i went for it i thought if i slipped and fell into the water it would be close to the feeling of cold if i decided to stare at a stone all night long,i launched like a gazelle landed like a slug but i was safely across the stone of the Styx,it was now my mates turn,me full of encouragement and a fair amount of mickey taking he did remind me of a dog crouching taking a poo with all his leg shaking,but he was across as well dry and proud,we held back on the high fives just in case some 8 year olds skipped across the stones in double time and we looked like a couple 39 year old girls blouses,i did a little fist pump on the quiet though.....
Part 2 to follow
