Trip Report Dec 2019: A wet and windy wildcamp and a new bivvy bag

[Barney Rubble]

Morning all, hope you are well.

I thought I'd share a link to one of my recent blog posts. In this post I talk about my December wildcamp in Essex. It was very wet, very windy. And, as some of you will no doubt attest, when those two forces of nature combine, it can make for quite a challenging camping experience.

https://barneysbimbles.blogspot.com/2019/12/december-2019-wet-and-windy-wild-camp.html


Naturally things didn't quite go to plan for me, I learnt a lot of valuable lessons on this camp and would encourage you to check out my blog and let me know what you think and what you might have done differently.

I also tried out a new bivvy bag that I picked up recently for the princely sum of £36 delivered. It's the Miltec 3 layer waterproof bivvy bag and is essentially trying to copy the popular US MSS Bivvy bag. I was very impressed with the build quality and look of the bag, but had some concerns about how it would perform. I figured for £36 it was probably worth a punt though. All in all, my first impressions are that it's pretty good.


Note to mods: this is just my personal blog, I don't do any product placement or marketing on here and have not activated the advertising feature for my blog.

 

[ScottE]

It’s that beautiful uk combo of cool breeze and humidity catches us all out at times, difficult conditions to prepare for and easy to get in a muddle.
Toughed it out well

 

[crosslandkelly]

Great report, I'm glad you put up with the weather, and enjoyed yourself. I camped in Suffolk that weekend, so I know how the weather was. Met Des at the Suffolk group meet in september, nice bloke.

 

[Barney Rubble]

It’s that beautiful uk combo of cool breeze and humidity catches us all out at times, difficult conditions to prepare for and easy to get in a muddle.
Toughed it out well

Great report, I'm glad you put up with the weather, and enjoyed yourself. I camped in Suffolk that weekend, so I know how the weather was. Met Des at the Suffolk group meet in september, nice bloke.

Cheers both, the fire made a heck of a difference.

I do a lot of camping with Des and he's a good bloke to have around, especially in those conditions. You may also know another friend of mine that recently started going to the Suffolk group - Mick Kinsley.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Cheers both, the fire made a heck of a difference.

I did a lot of camping with Des and he's a good bloke to have around, especially in those conditions. You may also know another friend of mine that recently started going to the Suffolk group - Mick Kinsley.

Yes, I've met Mick a few times.

 

[Robson Valley]

Excellent read. Get out of the wind (and rain) and get some kind, any kind, of a fire going for hot drinks and hot foods.
You said you were out once a month. How I envy that. Practice makes perfect.
A petrol stove like mine (Coleman 533) could never match the warmth of your open fire.

Going back again and again to the same site, what simple changes would you make for better shelter?

 

[Nice65]

That was a nice little read mate, cheers. I’m not really a blog fan, but I enjoyed that. What a difference a fire, secure set-up, and a decent meal makes eh? Such a morale booster.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Excellent read. Get out of the wind (and rain) and get some kind, any kind, of a fire going for hot drinks and hot foods.
You said you were out once a month. How I envy that. Practice makes perfect.
A petrol stove like mine (Coleman 533) could never match the warmth of your open fire.

Going back again and again to the same site, what simple changes would you make for better shelter?

Thanks for your comments, if I was to return to that particular site, I would almost certainly take a different tarp. I'd probably take a military basha tarp and there's two reasons for that. 1) it's a bit smaller and would enable me to configure it a little better in the confined space - I'd probably configure it as a plough point shelter, and; 2) I'd feel happier having a fire a bit closer to the basha as it's such a bombproof piece of kit. Yes it may be bulky to carry, but sometimes you welcome that bulk/robustness when you know the weather is likely to be quite challenging.

That was a nice little read mate, cheers. I’m not really a blog fan, but I enjoyed that. What a difference a fire, secure set-up, and a decent meal makes eh? Such a morale booster.

Many thanks for checking my blog out, I appreciate the written form isn't for everyone but I enjoy it and, I think I've said before that I aspire to entertain the avid toilet readers among us! With that said, I got a new go-pro for Christmas so I'm hoping to post more videos up on the blog soon.