First trip of the winter, summer not being camping and bushcraft season for me. Davidpingu of this forum was my companion, and this was to be his first overnight camping trip.
First impressions. Dave needs to work on his lightweight camping kit
The site was located at the furthest point of a long valley, sheltered by trees. There was a relatively short (2km) walk in, but not especially uphill, and a decent track there. The site was a colliery 150 years ago, with rail tracks and heavy industrial working. Now the valley is largely a local nature reserve, but the bit we were in is not part of that, being a sort of abandoned and forgotten corner.
This is why I selected this site. I was here last week, and found this beautiful fire pit. No litter, two pre-made wood piles, and even some seats made from old tyres and flat stones. It would have been silly not to take advantage of this.
We got set up. Dave looks enormously pleased with his tarpology.
I used my lightweight solo tarp, which nearly turned out to be a mistake.
After a bite of lunch, Dave decided he wanted to try some firelighting. We had both brought some dried wood for fuel as the weather has been very wet here, but Dave wanted to try to use just what he could find. He got started in splitting down some of the woodpile.
Just when we were ready to start the fire going (Dave doing it, me taking pictures and giving unhelpful advice) the weather decided to get interesting. First drizzle, then steady rain, then a downpour, and then absolutely bucketing down. Dave struggled manfully, but was swamped by the rain. I dashed off and got out my spare DD 3x3 tarp, and managed to rig it over the fire to give us some shelter. That enabled Dave to get the fire established, although the wet wood meant huge clouds of smoke and we both inhaled a few serious and unpleasant lungfuls.
Once the fire was going, the rain stopped (of course), so we refined the camp by the addition of a central pole to life the tarp and stop it collecting water.
I then took a few shots of where we had pitched.
I felt unwell for and hour or so (smoke inhalation, not enough lunch, not enough water drunk) but a couple of paracetamol and a few good drinks soon sorted that, and we got down to the business of food as darkness fell. Tinned cassoulet from Aldi, with a can of peas. Dave produced a fruit cake for dessert. It was a damn fine meal, and set us up well for the evening.
We sat and talked rubbish for the rest of the evening, but managed to delay getting into our sleeping bags until the rain had started just after 11pm
I was worried that the pole under the tarp would slip and rip the tarp, so we took that down, and dashed for our sleeping tarps.
It rained really hard all night, and the wind was strong, swirling, and gusting. I woke at 5am to find that one of my walking poles had slipped and my tarp was on my face, but as I was inside a goretex bivvi as well I was still dry. I got the pole back into position and went back to sleep, without even getting up. Both of us slept really well, despite the weather.
In the morning, we found this:
The pool was actually in the fire, but fortunately the fire was cold by then, so the tarp was undamaged. We got the water off, replaced the pole, and set about breakfast. Eggs, bacon, cheese, bread rolls and scotch pancakes. Couple of coffees thrown in. Beautiful.
Then it was time to pack up, as we knew that the dry weather was only going to hold until early afternoon (and the forecast was right again). That took a little while, but we left the site pretty much as we had found it, with just a smaller woodpile to show we had been there.
Many thanks to Dave for his company. If you can survive that, and put up with me, you'll have no trouble mate. Here's to doing many more trips.
First impressions. Dave needs to work on his lightweight camping kit
The site was located at the furthest point of a long valley, sheltered by trees. There was a relatively short (2km) walk in, but not especially uphill, and a decent track there. The site was a colliery 150 years ago, with rail tracks and heavy industrial working. Now the valley is largely a local nature reserve, but the bit we were in is not part of that, being a sort of abandoned and forgotten corner.
This is why I selected this site. I was here last week, and found this beautiful fire pit. No litter, two pre-made wood piles, and even some seats made from old tyres and flat stones. It would have been silly not to take advantage of this.
We got set up. Dave looks enormously pleased with his tarpology.
I used my lightweight solo tarp, which nearly turned out to be a mistake.
After a bite of lunch, Dave decided he wanted to try some firelighting. We had both brought some dried wood for fuel as the weather has been very wet here, but Dave wanted to try to use just what he could find. He got started in splitting down some of the woodpile.
Just when we were ready to start the fire going (Dave doing it, me taking pictures and giving unhelpful advice) the weather decided to get interesting. First drizzle, then steady rain, then a downpour, and then absolutely bucketing down. Dave struggled manfully, but was swamped by the rain. I dashed off and got out my spare DD 3x3 tarp, and managed to rig it over the fire to give us some shelter. That enabled Dave to get the fire established, although the wet wood meant huge clouds of smoke and we both inhaled a few serious and unpleasant lungfuls.
Once the fire was going, the rain stopped (of course), so we refined the camp by the addition of a central pole to life the tarp and stop it collecting water.
I then took a few shots of where we had pitched.
I felt unwell for and hour or so (smoke inhalation, not enough lunch, not enough water drunk) but a couple of paracetamol and a few good drinks soon sorted that, and we got down to the business of food as darkness fell. Tinned cassoulet from Aldi, with a can of peas. Dave produced a fruit cake for dessert. It was a damn fine meal, and set us up well for the evening.
We sat and talked rubbish for the rest of the evening, but managed to delay getting into our sleeping bags until the rain had started just after 11pm
I was worried that the pole under the tarp would slip and rip the tarp, so we took that down, and dashed for our sleeping tarps.
It rained really hard all night, and the wind was strong, swirling, and gusting. I woke at 5am to find that one of my walking poles had slipped and my tarp was on my face, but as I was inside a goretex bivvi as well I was still dry. I got the pole back into position and went back to sleep, without even getting up. Both of us slept really well, despite the weather.
In the morning, we found this:
The pool was actually in the fire, but fortunately the fire was cold by then, so the tarp was undamaged. We got the water off, replaced the pole, and set about breakfast. Eggs, bacon, cheese, bread rolls and scotch pancakes. Couple of coffees thrown in. Beautiful.
Then it was time to pack up, as we knew that the dry weather was only going to hold until early afternoon (and the forecast was right again). That took a little while, but we left the site pretty much as we had found it, with just a smaller woodpile to show we had been there.
Many thanks to Dave for his company. If you can survive that, and put up with me, you'll have no trouble mate. Here's to doing many more trips.
