I had been granted a night out pass by Mrs. Big Bad Stu. My neighbour, Neil, had been talking about bivvying for a night in Mortimers Forest, Ludlow. His friend Ian wanted to take his little boy Oscar wild camping for the first time. Oscar is eight. We set off at around 5pm for the half hour drive to Ludlow.
I don't have many opportunities to bivvy out due to family commitments etc. I was excited and packed my kit on the previous Tuesday. Neil and his wife Deb spend much more time out so their kit is always almost ready to rock. Ian had taken a somewhat more relaxed approach by buying a £30 tent from millets and grabbing some sarnies from a garage and shoving the lot into a leather holdall.
This is at the start of the walk in, the walk itself was about 2.5miles of level track called "The Pipeline" - it houses the Elan Valley Aqueduct. Our destination was to be an isolated pumping station with some good level ground around it for tents and trees from Neil's and my hammocks.
For me it was a good chance to try out some new kit, note the shiney new bergan! Also a different way of bushcrafting, I usually car camp living out of the back of a 4x4. Carrying your kit puts a different perspective on it. I have to pare the kit down a bit, the bergan weighed between 25 - 30lbs (we had to pack water in!).
The sun was shining and we had an pleasant walk in lasting about 45mins. Oscar coping well, we redistributed some of his Dad, Ian's, kit amongst ourselves to make his bag easier to carry.
I had initially planned to go further but the pumping station provided all we needed and was secluded. I had a concrete plinth to put my firebox on to cook. There was level ground for the tents and plenty of well spaced pine trees.
Neil and I set up our hammocks on the edge of the path.
I used the group buy hammock underblanket and had a toasty night. The Henessey hammock and Hex Fly working excellently.
After setting up the hammock I pottered over to the concrete plinth and gathered some dry dead fern to act as tinder. I set my firebox up and lit it with my flint and steel (first time I might add!).
I had to blow a bit of life into the fire to start with with my natty copper pipe/pvc hose fire accellerator (very useful with the kelly kettle). After it was lit I built the fire up and let it burn down to embers before popping my "hungry hikers parcels" on for 30 minutes. They are minced beef patty with diced veg on top, they are sealed in tin foil and steam cook in the embers.
Neil and Deb tucked into their boil in a bag suppers.
Ian and Oscar, having set up their tent, made a bow and arrow and went for a mooch around the woods.
We sat and chatted and I tried to make bannock but it failed as usual! Then it was time for a good tot of sloe gin and bed.
I awoke at 4.15am and got up, I love to hear the forest wake up, the dawn chorus was superb. At 4.30am I was brewing up some nettle tea and relaxing and snaffling some mixed dried fruit. At six Deb rose and the rest of us appeared over the next half hour or so.
I made an omlette in a plastic bag for breakfast.
We had packed up and walked back to the car for 9.30am. On the way back we saw two deer, a muntjack and a fallow deer fawn who was a foot or so off the trail (I walked straight past it). It stopped long enough for Neil to get a photo and then left to find it's mum.
It was a great trip out in a short time frame. It was good to cook with raw ingredients rather than the usual army rations. The new kit all worked well and only one small kit breakage. That makes it a good result in my book!
Can't wait until we get out again.
Stewey.
I don't have many opportunities to bivvy out due to family commitments etc. I was excited and packed my kit on the previous Tuesday. Neil and his wife Deb spend much more time out so their kit is always almost ready to rock. Ian had taken a somewhat more relaxed approach by buying a £30 tent from millets and grabbing some sarnies from a garage and shoving the lot into a leather holdall.
This is at the start of the walk in, the walk itself was about 2.5miles of level track called "The Pipeline" - it houses the Elan Valley Aqueduct. Our destination was to be an isolated pumping station with some good level ground around it for tents and trees from Neil's and my hammocks.
For me it was a good chance to try out some new kit, note the shiney new bergan! Also a different way of bushcrafting, I usually car camp living out of the back of a 4x4. Carrying your kit puts a different perspective on it. I have to pare the kit down a bit, the bergan weighed between 25 - 30lbs (we had to pack water in!).
The sun was shining and we had an pleasant walk in lasting about 45mins. Oscar coping well, we redistributed some of his Dad, Ian's, kit amongst ourselves to make his bag easier to carry.
I had initially planned to go further but the pumping station provided all we needed and was secluded. I had a concrete plinth to put my firebox on to cook. There was level ground for the tents and plenty of well spaced pine trees.
Neil and I set up our hammocks on the edge of the path.
I used the group buy hammock underblanket and had a toasty night. The Henessey hammock and Hex Fly working excellently.
After setting up the hammock I pottered over to the concrete plinth and gathered some dry dead fern to act as tinder. I set my firebox up and lit it with my flint and steel (first time I might add!).
I had to blow a bit of life into the fire to start with with my natty copper pipe/pvc hose fire accellerator (very useful with the kelly kettle). After it was lit I built the fire up and let it burn down to embers before popping my "hungry hikers parcels" on for 30 minutes. They are minced beef patty with diced veg on top, they are sealed in tin foil and steam cook in the embers.
Neil and Deb tucked into their boil in a bag suppers.
Ian and Oscar, having set up their tent, made a bow and arrow and went for a mooch around the woods.
We sat and chatted and I tried to make bannock but it failed as usual! Then it was time for a good tot of sloe gin and bed.
I awoke at 4.15am and got up, I love to hear the forest wake up, the dawn chorus was superb. At 4.30am I was brewing up some nettle tea and relaxing and snaffling some mixed dried fruit. At six Deb rose and the rest of us appeared over the next half hour or so.
I made an omlette in a plastic bag for breakfast.
We had packed up and walked back to the car for 9.30am. On the way back we saw two deer, a muntjack and a fallow deer fawn who was a foot or so off the trail (I walked straight past it). It stopped long enough for Neil to get a photo and then left to find it's mum.
It was a great trip out in a short time frame. It was good to cook with raw ingredients rather than the usual army rations. The new kit all worked well and only one small kit breakage. That makes it a good result in my book!
Can't wait until we get out again.
Stewey.
