As promised when I first joined a few weeks ago, a short resume of my experiences at Blackberry Wood which was kindly suggested as a suitable place to take my nephew on a first time overnighter.
Blackberry wood probably will not appeal to the hardened Bushcraft fan, but it is IMO perfect for a short stay or as I did an introduction to camping out over night for youngsters.
I took my nephew (8 years) to BB Wood on the 3rd August, we had a very friendly welcome from the owner Tim (who by the way lived out of his Hammock in Costa Rica for nine months - lucky ***
), Tim was witnessed walking people to their pitches as they are all surrounded by undergrowth and a small woodland and can be difficult to locate, Tim also makes all visitors aware of the multitude of footpaths available for short or more strenuous walks, he even gives you directions to the local pub and will leave you with a map of the local area. Fires and BBQ's are allowed and encouraged, you are not allowed to fell trees or collect fire wood from the surrounding woodland, but you can buy bundles of fire wood (we had Birch & Willow) for £ 3.00/sack, I bought two sacks which was enough to keep a fire going from 1pm on Wednesday to 10am on Thursday as long as you are conservative with your usage, we had plenty to make pots of tea and cook the evening meal and brekkies, as well as a small blaze in the darkness last evening, Tim's wife Eva has no objection neither does Tim to you bringing your own firewood on site.
One thing I would recommend is, if you buy the wood from BB Wood, use a small axe (glad I sharpened mine) to chop the wood into smaller chunks as the pieces supplied are in quarters and about 12 inch deep, too big for a small cooking fire, but handy for the evening campfire.
BB Wood has 20 pitches all of which are surrounded by scrub/woodland, very few however lend themselves to hanging a hammock and tarp as they are basically designed for tents, water is available on site, as are very clean male and female toilets (with an amusing anecdote on a sign), male and female showers are available on a timer and cost a mere 20 pence, there is also a washing up area, which is kept clean and tidy.
Myself and nephew had to walk a distance of about 30 yards from the car to our pitch, but once you were there it felt much further than that as they are all nice and sucluded giving the impression that you are much further away from civilisation than you really are, all of the pitches are clean and have benches and a fire pit.
The total cost for myself, nephew and two bags of firewood was £20.00, which I felt was fairly reasonable, as I stated earlier it's not a place for the majority of the users on this site, but it's close enough to home (for me anyway) to stay overnight or use it for a comfortable introduction to BC for the younger generation.
The whole emphasis of the place is to have fun, radios are not allowed and no noise is allowed after 11PM, in Tim's own words "having fun is compulsory at BB Wood, im not going to disagree with him.
We were lucky enough to have a pitch where I could rig up two hammocks as well as a tent (the hammocks were used for chilling out, nephew preferring to sleep in the tent for his first ever overnighter), even though the place was packed when we were there you could not see the people on adjacent pitches, and it felt as if you were in the middle of nowhere on your todd wonderful.
We had a great time and I would not hesitate to recommend the place to anyone who wants to introduce someone to outside living or indeed if you just want to get away from it all for a night or two.
I have attached a few photos to show our pitch; unfortunately it was so big I could not get it all in on one photo.
Contact details for Blackberry Wood can be found at http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=4663
Blackberry wood probably will not appeal to the hardened Bushcraft fan, but it is IMO perfect for a short stay or as I did an introduction to camping out over night for youngsters.
I took my nephew (8 years) to BB Wood on the 3rd August, we had a very friendly welcome from the owner Tim (who by the way lived out of his Hammock in Costa Rica for nine months - lucky ***
), Tim was witnessed walking people to their pitches as they are all surrounded by undergrowth and a small woodland and can be difficult to locate, Tim also makes all visitors aware of the multitude of footpaths available for short or more strenuous walks, he even gives you directions to the local pub and will leave you with a map of the local area. Fires and BBQ's are allowed and encouraged, you are not allowed to fell trees or collect fire wood from the surrounding woodland, but you can buy bundles of fire wood (we had Birch & Willow) for £ 3.00/sack, I bought two sacks which was enough to keep a fire going from 1pm on Wednesday to 10am on Thursday as long as you are conservative with your usage, we had plenty to make pots of tea and cook the evening meal and brekkies, as well as a small blaze in the darkness last evening, Tim's wife Eva has no objection neither does Tim to you bringing your own firewood on site.One thing I would recommend is, if you buy the wood from BB Wood, use a small axe (glad I sharpened mine) to chop the wood into smaller chunks as the pieces supplied are in quarters and about 12 inch deep, too big for a small cooking fire, but handy for the evening campfire.
BB Wood has 20 pitches all of which are surrounded by scrub/woodland, very few however lend themselves to hanging a hammock and tarp as they are basically designed for tents, water is available on site, as are very clean male and female toilets (with an amusing anecdote on a sign), male and female showers are available on a timer and cost a mere 20 pence, there is also a washing up area, which is kept clean and tidy.
Myself and nephew had to walk a distance of about 30 yards from the car to our pitch, but once you were there it felt much further than that as they are all nice and sucluded giving the impression that you are much further away from civilisation than you really are, all of the pitches are clean and have benches and a fire pit.
The total cost for myself, nephew and two bags of firewood was £20.00, which I felt was fairly reasonable, as I stated earlier it's not a place for the majority of the users on this site, but it's close enough to home (for me anyway) to stay overnight or use it for a comfortable introduction to BC for the younger generation.
The whole emphasis of the place is to have fun, radios are not allowed and no noise is allowed after 11PM, in Tim's own words "having fun is compulsory at BB Wood, im not going to disagree with him.
We were lucky enough to have a pitch where I could rig up two hammocks as well as a tent (the hammocks were used for chilling out, nephew preferring to sleep in the tent for his first ever overnighter), even though the place was packed when we were there you could not see the people on adjacent pitches, and it felt as if you were in the middle of nowhere on your todd wonderful.
We had a great time and I would not hesitate to recommend the place to anyone who wants to introduce someone to outside living or indeed if you just want to get away from it all for a night or two.
I have attached a few photos to show our pitch; unfortunately it was so big I could not get it all in on one photo.
Contact details for Blackberry Wood can be found at http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=4663
