Dartmoor In February...

[ex member mick sturbs]

(With Permission )
On Sunday Paul Webster and his delightful 10 year old daughter Talia, ( future heartbreaker ) came for a few days wild camping at my site on Dartmoor, it was also their first experience of sleeping out under the stars and i have to say it rained so hard and long i thought he was going to have to build an ark. I walked up at 8.30 pm feeling guilty as the conditions were atrocious and found them as snug as bugs in rugs and more importantly happy .( i will let Paul tell you how his kit performed ). I can honestly say it is the wettest i have known it up there . I tried my hardest to persuade them to come to the cabin i lit the woodburner made up two beds put the tv on , but they were having none of it and insisted they had come to wild camp and thats what they would do !! I think despite the awful conditions they had good time (Paul will put me right) It was a pleasure to have you both . Talia what can i say you should be very proud of yourself i was very impressed with you . Hope to see you again sometime soon , all the best Ivan .

PS Mr and Mrs Webster take a bow a charming girl ...

 

[Paul Webster]

Ivan's spot on Dartmoor is a beautiful place made even more so by his hospitality. We arrived on Sunday and it was dryish but that night and pretty much all day Monday it poured down. I had set my hammock up so close to a stream that in the night I thought I would be washed away. We had originally planned on staying until Wednesday but by Tuesday morning we succumbed to the call of a bath and some clean clothes.

This is the first time my daughter and done any real camping and she was a real trooper, never grumbled about being wet or caked in mud! It was a bit of a learning experience for me also, having not been camping since a kid but I have been an avid forum lurker for the last 6 months getting ideas on kit and listening to other peoples experiences.

I would love to go back and see the woods change with the season, perhaps in the summer when its a bit dryer! Thanks again Ivan for letting us visit your beautiful place on Dartmoor

 

[Paul Webster]

Being a numpty and a newbie, I cant edit my posts...

[/IMG]

 

[Shewie]

Nice one lads

Interesting way of putting up the underblanket, I never thought of trying that when I had mine, I had mine strung like this ...

Do you find it too snug underneath with maybe a cold butt sometimes ? The second ridgeline under tarp was handy for hanging a torch off and somewhere to put a jacket or waterproofs.

 

[Paul Webster]

Hey Shewie, it was actually your picture I tried to copy. I thought I had done it the same....I had elastic cord loops at each end attached onto the hammock karabiner mod, then an elastic cord from each side up to the ridgeline and through a prussik then attached onto the other side with a small krab.

If that wasn't the same it seemed to work quite well, was my first time putting it up.

 

[Shewie]

Hey Shewie, it was actually your picture I tried to copy. I thought I had done it the same....I had elastic cord loops at each end attached onto the hammock karabiner mod, then an elastic cord from each side up to the ridgeline and through a prussik then attached onto the other side with a small krab.

If that wasn't the same it seemed to work quite well, was my first time putting it up.

Did you put a second line under the tarp ? I think that's the only difference. I hang my tarp ridgeline just above head height so I can stand up in there, the second line was strung about 6" lower.

It's quite a handy thing to have in there for hanging stuff on, if you look at putting a mosi net up at some point then it's good for that too.

I like to see how different folk set up their gear though, makes life interesting and there's always something new to try.

That's a lovely spot of land Ivan's got, that birch in the third piccie looks to be quite old