A friend new to wild camping mentioned by chance that she wanted to see more meteors, so we raced out to see the Quadrantids over y Bannau Brycheniog. Braved ice on the roads and got to my secret sleeping spot, of which I shall not speak.
The sky was hazy, and meteors were few. The ground looked as if it had been spray glittered. When you read memoirs about disasters on big mountains, often people in distress will be so near to the base camp and yet unable to see it, and vice versa. I was stunned how, in the dark, and in a place I knew well with few complexities, it was trivial to miss our camp even five meters away unless someone signalled with a torch.
Unusually, some other people came by, which is a first for me there.
Disenchanted by the stargazing, I got the Kelly kettle out for some amusement. This is the first time I've made hot water for friends on an adventure, so the stakes were high. Cheers to Pattree for the fire starting kits, a very reassuring thing to have on hand. It was so cold matches wouldn't stay lit, but I put my friend to work splitting down sticks & thanks to a large dollop of vaseline, tea was done in no time. Plus, the process of making it warmed us up some. Then I popped my toes over the fire pit.
I'm still not in love with my kettle. The fire pit is so small. When I poured out the water, tall sticks still burning in the chimney obviously fell out onto the ground. Whenever I blew or fanned the pit, sparks and chunks went everywhere. At one point I knocked it and put a hole in my ground tarp with a glowing coal. The places I camp get flammable during summer and there's simply no way I can use this in good conscience, even if I was inclined to risk it. I'm going to try and knock together a tall-walled windshield to at least catch the sparks.,and maybe look at the design of the lil stand as well.
Happy to report my new rucksack makes my clutter weigh of nothing (thank you to the person here who sold it me). I was in two minds about camping out, but in the process of unpacking so much ice formed on my sleeping bags I noped right out. Bit worried too about driving home in snow the next day. But leaving camp is always a horrible feeling. One wants to pick a direction and walk on forever. I used my trusty bag for life to heap everything into so as to save time on repacking, and scuttled back to the car.
No thanks to my head torch which immediately gave up the ghost,and not for the first time. I've never regretted torch redundancy.
Here's to the first adventure of the year!
The sky was hazy, and meteors were few. The ground looked as if it had been spray glittered. When you read memoirs about disasters on big mountains, often people in distress will be so near to the base camp and yet unable to see it, and vice versa. I was stunned how, in the dark, and in a place I knew well with few complexities, it was trivial to miss our camp even five meters away unless someone signalled with a torch.
Unusually, some other people came by, which is a first for me there.
Disenchanted by the stargazing, I got the Kelly kettle out for some amusement. This is the first time I've made hot water for friends on an adventure, so the stakes were high. Cheers to Pattree for the fire starting kits, a very reassuring thing to have on hand. It was so cold matches wouldn't stay lit, but I put my friend to work splitting down sticks & thanks to a large dollop of vaseline, tea was done in no time. Plus, the process of making it warmed us up some. Then I popped my toes over the fire pit.
I'm still not in love with my kettle. The fire pit is so small. When I poured out the water, tall sticks still burning in the chimney obviously fell out onto the ground. Whenever I blew or fanned the pit, sparks and chunks went everywhere. At one point I knocked it and put a hole in my ground tarp with a glowing coal. The places I camp get flammable during summer and there's simply no way I can use this in good conscience, even if I was inclined to risk it. I'm going to try and knock together a tall-walled windshield to at least catch the sparks.,and maybe look at the design of the lil stand as well.
Happy to report my new rucksack makes my clutter weigh of nothing (thank you to the person here who sold it me). I was in two minds about camping out, but in the process of unpacking so much ice formed on my sleeping bags I noped right out. Bit worried too about driving home in snow the next day. But leaving camp is always a horrible feeling. One wants to pick a direction and walk on forever. I used my trusty bag for life to heap everything into so as to save time on repacking, and scuttled back to the car.
No thanks to my head torch which immediately gave up the ghost,and not for the first time. I've never regretted torch redundancy.
Here's to the first adventure of the year!
