Just to keep you guys up to date... Suffolk had the Boonie challenge.....
Home now had a shower.. sitting down with a cuppa, going through the weekend and the experiances,
Thr Boonies meet in the Compasses, With Colin, Sam and Martin i the beer garden and Andor deing Droped by his family, at the Farm yard, Simon and myself just had to have a quick, 1/2 and a coke, from there we all, made our way to the Carparking area, then with Andor's family we walked to the Tap, filled up with some water, and walked to the Mail SBCG camp, where we had a sit and a chat,
Once we were ready, we then walked across country to Shadow Bush Wood, this was the first sign that how we packed the kit was showing signs of the weakness of our methods, Mine was showing that I needed wide Straps, for the weight of the bed roll.
When we arrived at Shadowbush, We then showed of out loadouts, and went through what kit we had each chosen,
Colins Kit.( Crossland Kelly)
Sams Kit (Man of Tanith)
Martins Kit (Albus Cutler)
Andor's Kit
I did not get an Image of Simons Kit (SJStuart), but he packed lighter then normal... but he says it was too much to carry
We decided that a group fire would be good, as we could sit cook and chat, so we put up of our tarps, Sam and Martin set up opposite each other, Myself, Andor, Simon and Colin set up signally,
The night saw quite a few conversations about Boonie things and the kit we were using, and how we carried our load out.
The next morning we woke, and had breakfast, packed and made our way back to the Main Site,
when we arrived, Colin and Andor set up in a pyramid set up together, and had a fire in between.
Simon, set up his new Canvas tarp in the "A" style
Sam, Martin and myself decided to sleep round the fire,
Once set up we did a few activities, had a go at bow drill, did some spoonage, and I had a go on the Pole lathe... but after the walk and all the sitting on the floor cross legged for hrs the night before my legs would not operate properly.......
Sam, Martin, and Andor made a spoon, Andor also made a small bread chopping board, Sam also took to doing a small, awl sheath by candle light..
Food was also of interest to all.. along with trail bread, beans and bacon, and of course Banock..
There was loads of talk about the Boonie times... and how things were done, and again how we would change our kit, for the next time...
The Challenge did alter to the main brief and the intended one for this meet, but worked out to be a good one, It was great to meet Sam, Martin, and Andor, all three were great to spend the weekend with,
There were a number of things that I would do different, the main thing was how I carried the bed roll, and what I would take in that roll, next time, I would not take an Axe, Food was another one that I over catered for, apart from the Blackberries that I picked for to have stewed apple and black berry for pudding on the last night, I would have thought about collecting more, as we did go past Apple trees, soles, and a few mushrooms, that we could have made use of...
Also a larger haversack would have been nice, so will make one of those, the food quiver was good , but that needs to be better organised, and a Market Bag would be good for foraging..
I felt the first night we run out of time and was cooking in the dark, this was not easy by candle light, this was really caused but to much chat about what kit we had ect.. before setting up...
It was a great weekend, with great guys, and would say to anyone thinking about this challenge do it you will learn something, Thank you for the great company guys, catch up soon
