Easter at Brockwell Woods

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merrygold85

Nomad
Sep 11, 2010
328
1
Ireland
*********WARNING*****PIC HEAVY*************

Heyo,

This weekend I took the missus out to Brockers as the weather has been good, we had the long weekend, had to try out my new sleeping bag, and I wanted to see what the place was like in full growth. Oh, and I thought it would be nice to more or less do stuff on my own as my previous outings had been in groups.

So off we went, Claire with a tent and myself with hammock and tarp. I ended up sleeping in the tent but it was great to have the hammock and tarp anyway. It makes a nice living space whether you are sleeping there or not. I wanted to be there at 9, got there at 12:15. Even with a 1 hour wait on the bus that is pretty bad. But we got there.

So here is the set-up. The place was actually quite busy so we had limited options. Luckily those options were round about where I had planned anyway.
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This is before I remembered how useful the tautline hitch is. I later tied most of my guys with this knot. Makes for easily adjustable tension.
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We were right at the top of the slope down to the stream which was nice and handy.
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Lunch was nice but my easter egg went overboard and into the fire.
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She thought this photo was funny... Women.
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Check out my boobies in this.
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Nooooooooooo!
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This is how it should have looked.
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Anyway you get the jist. So then went and had look at the pretty things on the forest floor which my camera failed to capture the beauty of.
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And there was an insane amount of wild garlic abouut, so we through a load of it in the stew. Mmmmm stewwwww.
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Claire frolicking through the woods.
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Back at camp I made a back rest. And it worked, yay!
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I stumbled across 3 branches that looked suspiciously useful. I think they may have been Joely's from the November trip, and used them to make a tripod for the dinner. Then it rained. Quite heavily for a little while actually.
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Had an early night then, without booze :yikes: Which really wasn't too great. Claire had the sleeping mat and decided my side of the tent was best. But I was very warm. My new Snugpack sleeping bag was great. I was a little too warm actually. Anyways, Sunday was glorious. The sun was out in force. I went down to the creek to wash out the tins and found some footprints which I forgot to photograph. They were two towed prints about 8cm long. Any ideas? Anyways, here are some of me relighting the fire and being surprisingly bald.
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I did a little bit of carving on a spoon. It should one of those spoons with drain holes in it when finished.
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And then I decided I would try and make a bowl using embers and a piece of elder as a straw. The burning process went really well but afterwards I realised that I should have chosen a piece of wood better suited to the job. There ended up being a big crack down one side and the opposite was quite rotten, so when I was carving out the burnt bits at home a big chunk of soft, almost spongey wood came off one side. I enjoyed the process though and next I will make something cool.
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And that is all! Yay! You have reached the end of this massive post. Thank you for looking/reading and Happy Easter to you all.

Mark
 
Last edited:

andyc54

Settler
Dec 28, 2010
601
0
44
durham
nice one mark looks like you and your miss's had a good weekend can't believe you did n't have some cheap morrisons wine lol

andy
 

dwardo

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 30, 2006
6,451
475
46
Nr Chester
Great post and never too many pictures. I must get up there soon and try thepalce out for my self.
 

joely

Forager
Sep 27, 2010
114
0
York
Thanks for the pics Mark!
Did you wake up in the middle of the night, scared and gasping for air after spooning claire in your sleep but dreaming it was Raikey? :rofl:

seriously, nice to see you getting out there though,

Joel
 

merrygold85

Nomad
Sep 11, 2010
328
1
Ireland
Yes the bluebells were out in force. Though I didn't realise they were early. Were they?

Oh Raikey, how I long to hold you once again, hahahaha. No, luckily my dreams have been Raikey free since that beautiful evening, haha.

It is really just a small wood that you pay to camp in. Though, while I was there I was talking to Ike? the owner, who was actually clearing bits for designated camping areas. So I think they might be making it less wild camping, and more regular camping as time goes on. Either that or he just thinning the place out a bit and I got the wrong impression. So to answer your question totum, eh... yes?
 

ex-member Raikey

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 4, 2010
2,971
3
SPOOOOOOONS AND BOOBIES!!!!!

hhahaha

looks nice this time o year up in ole Brockers Mark,...

Stu,...

Lol @ Joel,...
 

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