Trip Report Pre-Christmas solitude

[MrEd]

My nephew and I were in desperate need of some ‘downtime’ and our usual ‘disconnect and reset’ camp out.

We headed to our usual spot, the shelter had partially fallen over in a storm but the tarp wasn’t ripped - we left it as will redesign and move it in the spring.

Fire pit was fine, and nothing had been disturbed.

My bed for the night, my nephew slept in a bivvy under a bush (young bones!) about 150m away


Fire started, I was able to show my nephew how to split down wet wood to find the dry heart, and then make feather sticks to get the fire going in the rain we could then use some of our firewood stash in the part of the shelter that hadn’t collapsed (we cut and stood upright a load of birch poles at the end of the summer). I also showed him how to make a pot hanger

Cooked a bit of bacon for lunch, then popped some spuds in the embers for our dinner



While that was cooking my nephew wanted to try and make a stick basket he could haul into a tree to store edibles away from the ground. He did quite well imo.




Then it was time for spuds before a moonlight walk around the forest looking for owls (we heard a number of them but didn’t see any this time)



Just what the two of us needed to reset and regroup
Ed

 

[nigelp]

Brilliant. Thanks for sharing that and good idea for keeping edibles up in the trees.

 

[John Fenna]

Nice one!
I have the weekend of 19th - 21st booked in the woods for a mental recharge before Xmas ....
I will most likely need one soon after as well!

 

[Falstaff]

Well done him - So I've learnt something from him! - That inverted pyramid is a great design, pretty stable & keeps everything in it without rolling or tipping out. Would drain easily too, or make a simple cover.

 

[Trojan]

That looks amazing you are both very lucky.

 

[Mesquite]

That's the sort of quality time your nephew will never forget. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[MrEd]

Well done him - So I've learnt something from him! - That inverted pyramid is a great design, pretty stable & keeps everything in it without rolling or tipping out. Would drain easily too, or make a simple cover.

Yeah it was entirely his idea, he put a bark lid on it before pulling it up in the tree!