Back from first weekend in the woods Sunday night and just had a few minutes to bash out a post about it.
I've been getting sick of looking at the inside of an office each day then only getting outdoors for a few light hours at the weekend, so at Christmas I decided that I was going to go camping for a weekend once a season at least and not at campsites, as much as I love them it feels a bit artificial. Gave my family the dates on Christmas day and said any or all of them were welcome to join me if they wanted. My intention was to do it without a tent where possible but they were welcome to use one if they had to.
First outing was last weekend, went with my sister brother and neice. All of us have campsite cmaped before but not wild camped. As you may remember from earlier thread I had got permission to stay in some woods owned by a friend of my mum and dads who has a small farm- it was close enough to my sisters so if anyone was really hating it they could bug out (or maybe more appropriately bug-in
).
We got there Friday night about 8pm carrying far, far too much stuff and set about making a fire.
Was quite chuffed, decided to try and get by without matches or lighter (though did have them in case) and lit the fire using a firesteel and a piece of cotton wool soaked in Vaseline and had a decent size fire blazing within a few minutes, despite it having been pretty wet for the few days before.
Strung my camping hammock, got a tarpaulin up for the others (I paid for bivvys and mats for them to use but the tarps I had ordered didnt come through so a horrific blue builders tarp it was!)
All felt quite homely, quite quickly. (pic is from next day in the light, but you get the picture)
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My sister does not eat wheat or dairy which makes for an interesting challenge in terms of light to carry things to eat.
The first night she decided to cook us all pasta (gluten free made from corn) on the trangia copy stove I took. As the water wasnt quite boiling and the pasta is incredibly starchy so ended up looking (I emphasise looking rather than tasting!) like fondue.
She wanted to ditch it but in keeping with one of my most deeply help beliefs that there is no meal that cant be saved with the judicious application of chorizo and salt added plenty of both and it was well at least edible.
The night was chilly and the DD hammock was comfy for a while but trying to coordinate a sleeping bag in it whilst under a quite low poncho strung as a tarp was a bit challenging. My back ended up hurting - I dont know whether this meant that hammocks just dont work for me (my back is a bit dodgy anyway) or whether I hadnt strung it tight enough. All hammock evangelists hold off... I will try it again I promise!
On the second day I thought I would try baking bread. Never having done this outdoors I just thought I would wing it and hope for the best. So... mixed some pre mixed bread mix (for breadmakers with yeast
included- just add warm water and butter/fat/oil- I used olive) kneaded it between my hands then put it in the smaller trangia saucepan with the larger saucepan upside down on top of it to cover and placed it near the fire where it felt about airing cupboard temperature (too hot and the yeast will be killed, too cold and it wont prove) and turned it every 15 minutes or so for an hour and a half to make sure both sides got warm.
After this time had a peek, it had risen a fair deal so rather than take it out of the saucepan I dribbled olive oil down the edges and shook the dough away from the sides and the bottom so the oil covered all sides and the bottom of the dough. (Did this carefully so I didnt knock any air out of the dough) Put the larger saucepan back on the top.
Pushed all the wood on the fire about a foot to one side and dug a hold about 4 inches deep in the exposed embers, stuck the loaf (in its two pots) into the hole and covered it completely in the embers.
Left it for half an hour then lifted it out with a spade, thinking it would either be undercooked or burnt to hell on the outside.
It was actually fine, came out of the saucepan with a sharp tap to the bottom, was cooked all the way through (probably could have been a little more cooked right in the middle but only a little) and had really good crunchy sides and bottom from the oil.
Felt incredibly satisfying. Bread is great to cook at home but to do it on a fire was just fantastic.
Granted my sister couldnt eat it but well she made the pasta so probably deserved it.
Food and cooking are very important to me so was pleased to be able to cook pretty well with what we took.. Other meals included rice and dhal, jacket potatoes with fried chorizo and dehydrated onion. Had a fry up each morning with tinned ham and eggs that I had cracked into a water bottle (couldn't find dried eggs anywhere). Also had a stew made partially with Jews Ear fungus which was growing in wobbly profusion throughout the wood we were in. Next time I plan to go to the local eastern shop and get some coconut milk powder to make Thai curry.
Mmmm... Curry...
It was a great learning experience and taught us all lots of things including:
Water for 4 for just a weekend is incredibly heavy so will be making more of an effort to choose sites near to a wstersource and/or make some dew-catching wotsits
Tea IS the meaning of life
My niece can survive for more than 5 minutes away from her hair straighteners
There are a range of muscles in my hands that I have never felt ache before that are used when chopping wood
Those cowboy style full length Long Johns seem like a great idea (particularly when you're lower and upper thermals part company in the middle of the night in a chilly hammock
Headlamps are one of the best inventions ever.
Leather gardening gauntlets are dirt cheap and very useful
My knot tying abilities are non existent (prussiks first I think)
and the most imporant part of the camp.
[/IMG]
I've been getting sick of looking at the inside of an office each day then only getting outdoors for a few light hours at the weekend, so at Christmas I decided that I was going to go camping for a weekend once a season at least and not at campsites, as much as I love them it feels a bit artificial. Gave my family the dates on Christmas day and said any or all of them were welcome to join me if they wanted. My intention was to do it without a tent where possible but they were welcome to use one if they had to.
First outing was last weekend, went with my sister brother and neice. All of us have campsite cmaped before but not wild camped. As you may remember from earlier thread I had got permission to stay in some woods owned by a friend of my mum and dads who has a small farm- it was close enough to my sisters so if anyone was really hating it they could bug out (or maybe more appropriately bug-in
).We got there Friday night about 8pm carrying far, far too much stuff and set about making a fire.
Was quite chuffed, decided to try and get by without matches or lighter (though did have them in case) and lit the fire using a firesteel and a piece of cotton wool soaked in Vaseline and had a decent size fire blazing within a few minutes, despite it having been pretty wet for the few days before.
Strung my camping hammock, got a tarpaulin up for the others (I paid for bivvys and mats for them to use but the tarps I had ordered didnt come through so a horrific blue builders tarp it was!
)All felt quite homely, quite quickly. (pic is from next day in the light, but you get the picture)
My sister does not eat wheat or dairy which makes for an interesting challenge in terms of light to carry things to eat.
The first night she decided to cook us all pasta (gluten free made from corn) on the trangia copy stove I took. As the water wasnt quite boiling and the pasta is incredibly starchy so ended up looking (I emphasise looking rather than tasting!) like fondue.
She wanted to ditch it but in keeping with one of my most deeply help beliefs that there is no meal that cant be saved with the judicious application of chorizo and salt added plenty of both and it was well at least edible.
The night was chilly and the DD hammock was comfy for a while but trying to coordinate a sleeping bag in it whilst under a quite low poncho strung as a tarp was a bit challenging. My back ended up hurting - I dont know whether this meant that hammocks just dont work for me (my back is a bit dodgy anyway) or whether I hadnt strung it tight enough. All hammock evangelists hold off... I will try it again I promise!
On the second day I thought I would try baking bread. Never having done this outdoors I just thought I would wing it and hope for the best. So... mixed some pre mixed bread mix (for breadmakers with yeast
included- just add warm water and butter/fat/oil- I used olive) kneaded it between my hands then put it in the smaller trangia saucepan with the larger saucepan upside down on top of it to cover and placed it near the fire where it felt about airing cupboard temperature (too hot and the yeast will be killed, too cold and it wont prove) and turned it every 15 minutes or so for an hour and a half to make sure both sides got warm.
After this time had a peek, it had risen a fair deal so rather than take it out of the saucepan I dribbled olive oil down the edges and shook the dough away from the sides and the bottom so the oil covered all sides and the bottom of the dough. (Did this carefully so I didnt knock any air out of the dough) Put the larger saucepan back on the top.
Pushed all the wood on the fire about a foot to one side and dug a hold about 4 inches deep in the exposed embers, stuck the loaf (in its two pots) into the hole and covered it completely in the embers.
Left it for half an hour then lifted it out with a spade, thinking it would either be undercooked or burnt to hell on the outside.
It was actually fine, came out of the saucepan with a sharp tap to the bottom, was cooked all the way through (probably could have been a little more cooked right in the middle but only a little) and had really good crunchy sides and bottom from the oil.
Felt incredibly satisfying. Bread is great to cook at home but to do it on a fire was just fantastic.
Granted my sister couldnt eat it but well she made the pasta so probably deserved it.
Food and cooking are very important to me so was pleased to be able to cook pretty well with what we took.. Other meals included rice and dhal, jacket potatoes with fried chorizo and dehydrated onion. Had a fry up each morning with tinned ham and eggs that I had cracked into a water bottle (couldn't find dried eggs anywhere). Also had a stew made partially with Jews Ear fungus which was growing in wobbly profusion throughout the wood we were in. Next time I plan to go to the local eastern shop and get some coconut milk powder to make Thai curry.
Mmmm... Curry...
It was a great learning experience and taught us all lots of things including:
Water for 4 for just a weekend is incredibly heavy so will be making more of an effort to choose sites near to a wstersource and/or make some dew-catching wotsits
Tea IS the meaning of life
My niece can survive for more than 5 minutes away from her hair straighteners
There are a range of muscles in my hands that I have never felt ache before that are used when chopping wood
Those cowboy style full length Long Johns seem like a great idea (particularly when you're lower and upper thermals part company in the middle of the night in a chilly hammock
Headlamps are one of the best inventions ever.
Leather gardening gauntlets are dirt cheap and very useful
My knot tying abilities are non existent (prussiks first I think)
and the most imporant part of the camp.
