Well Im the king of the swingers, oh Im a jungle vip. You find a spot ya like, tie ya marlin spike, its the hammocking life for me
..oh dooby do I wanna be like yooooouuuuu
..
Hi All, popped my hammocking cherry this weekend. Now why didnt I do this sooner, best couple of nights sleep Ive had in the woods for ages. What a great summers weekend to be camping in the woods. I know theres a lot of rufty tufty bushcrafters on here wholl tell you that theyve camped out when it was minus this or minus that, and occasionally I like to think myself one of them. But you simply cant beat kicking back in your hammock chair in the woods on a warm summers day while supping on a cold can of suds, with a group of mates, listening to the birds sing and the trees gently rustle in the cool breeze. Life dont get much better than that.
view from the hammock chair:
But of course, its not all about kicking back and relaxing as there is some living to be done;
First up a fire to be lit using natural tinder (good old silver birch bark the queen of the forest!) and a single spark. One of my camp mates Andy also got a fire going with his bow drill, fair play there matey, I had a go and couldnt get the knack of it more practice needed methinks.
A pot hanger; over engineered would be an understatement. It only needed to hold a billy can but Im packing more than my fair share of timber and this tripod held my weight very easily. Still it helped me practice and memorise a new knot the clove hitch. Am happy to report that Ive got quite a few handy knots stored in the old memory bank now. And for any gram counters out there I can confirm that a collection of memorised knots weigh absolutely nothing!
And then it was time to prepare those sausage sticks because no camping trip is complete without cooking a sausage over a fire. Ive been doing that since I was a cub scout and its still as much fun now as it was 25+years agol
But the fun doesnt stop there, as we were camping out for two nights this time so the next day was spent doing a little bit of spoon carving with a bit of hazel, this is my second ever go at carving a spoon, needs some more work yet but Im quite proud of it.
And then we went for a walk around the local area to remind ourselves how amazing the English countryside can be:
Later that day, one of my camp buddies, Andy, checked his trail cam that he keeps set-up nearby and shouted out that hed got something. So, as I sat there nervously wondering whether his cam may have inadvertently caught me answering a call of nature (not something youd want to see on springwatch) it transpired that hed recorded a lesser spotted rambler walking by which was quite odd as we were way off the beaten track. But then there was another video and this was the jackpot, hed only got some footage of a fallow deer wandering around at night! Amazing to have such great wildlife in our area, I mean you really dont get that many ramblers in that part of the Kentish woodland!
So heres a pic of my hammock set-up. This to me was a revelation, as an otherwise happy ground dweller I wasnt sure how Id get on with this swinging malarkey (no not that kind of swinging!) so I ordered a basic Woodsman hammock from UK Hammocks with the whoopie sling suspension and it was by far the most comfortable sleeping experience Ive had in the woods. The hammock was huge and allowed me to enjoy a very comfortable flat lay on the diagonal and was also able to sleep happily on my side (Id watched plenty of youtube vids on hammocking before this trip and whoo buddy, it was all secure in sector seven!) The hammock didnt come with a bug net but that didnt cause too much trouble, I came prepared with some deet bug repellent and citronella candles. During the first night I found that I slipped down into the centre of the hammock so I fixed that problem by adjusting the lay so that my head end was lower than the foot end easily adjusted when you have the whoopie slings. Comfort aside, a couple of the other highlights for me was; making coffee from my hammock in the morning, and enjoying the sights of the woodland as you wake up (up until this point, Id always zipped myself away in a small tent)
And heres some pics of my camp mates set-ups, we had a bit of everything here, snugpack jungle hammock, hennesey hammocks and dd hammocks. Everyone slept quite happily and quite comfortably:
Now Im back home, I cant wait to get out again for another camp and to practice more bushcrafting skills.
Hi All, popped my hammocking cherry this weekend. Now why didnt I do this sooner, best couple of nights sleep Ive had in the woods for ages. What a great summers weekend to be camping in the woods. I know theres a lot of rufty tufty bushcrafters on here wholl tell you that theyve camped out when it was minus this or minus that, and occasionally I like to think myself one of them. But you simply cant beat kicking back in your hammock chair in the woods on a warm summers day while supping on a cold can of suds, with a group of mates, listening to the birds sing and the trees gently rustle in the cool breeze. Life dont get much better than that.
view from the hammock chair:
But of course, its not all about kicking back and relaxing as there is some living to be done;
First up a fire to be lit using natural tinder (good old silver birch bark the queen of the forest!) and a single spark. One of my camp mates Andy also got a fire going with his bow drill, fair play there matey, I had a go and couldnt get the knack of it more practice needed methinks.
A pot hanger; over engineered would be an understatement. It only needed to hold a billy can but Im packing more than my fair share of timber and this tripod held my weight very easily. Still it helped me practice and memorise a new knot the clove hitch. Am happy to report that Ive got quite a few handy knots stored in the old memory bank now. And for any gram counters out there I can confirm that a collection of memorised knots weigh absolutely nothing!
And then it was time to prepare those sausage sticks because no camping trip is complete without cooking a sausage over a fire. Ive been doing that since I was a cub scout and its still as much fun now as it was 25+years agol
But the fun doesnt stop there, as we were camping out for two nights this time so the next day was spent doing a little bit of spoon carving with a bit of hazel, this is my second ever go at carving a spoon, needs some more work yet but Im quite proud of it.
And then we went for a walk around the local area to remind ourselves how amazing the English countryside can be:
Later that day, one of my camp buddies, Andy, checked his trail cam that he keeps set-up nearby and shouted out that hed got something. So, as I sat there nervously wondering whether his cam may have inadvertently caught me answering a call of nature (not something youd want to see on springwatch) it transpired that hed recorded a lesser spotted rambler walking by which was quite odd as we were way off the beaten track. But then there was another video and this was the jackpot, hed only got some footage of a fallow deer wandering around at night! Amazing to have such great wildlife in our area, I mean you really dont get that many ramblers in that part of the Kentish woodland!
So heres a pic of my hammock set-up. This to me was a revelation, as an otherwise happy ground dweller I wasnt sure how Id get on with this swinging malarkey (no not that kind of swinging!) so I ordered a basic Woodsman hammock from UK Hammocks with the whoopie sling suspension and it was by far the most comfortable sleeping experience Ive had in the woods. The hammock was huge and allowed me to enjoy a very comfortable flat lay on the diagonal and was also able to sleep happily on my side (Id watched plenty of youtube vids on hammocking before this trip and whoo buddy, it was all secure in sector seven!) The hammock didnt come with a bug net but that didnt cause too much trouble, I came prepared with some deet bug repellent and citronella candles. During the first night I found that I slipped down into the centre of the hammock so I fixed that problem by adjusting the lay so that my head end was lower than the foot end easily adjusted when you have the whoopie slings. Comfort aside, a couple of the other highlights for me was; making coffee from my hammock in the morning, and enjoying the sights of the woodland as you wake up (up until this point, Id always zipped myself away in a small tent)
And heres some pics of my camp mates set-ups, we had a bit of everything here, snugpack jungle hammock, hennesey hammocks and dd hammocks. Everyone slept quite happily and quite comfortably:
Now Im back home, I cant wait to get out again for another camp and to practice more bushcrafting skills.
...woods
