Out in the woods - northern France

garethw

Settler
Just spent an overnighter out in the woods with my 15 year old son. The forest we chose was St Gobain in northern France, about 25 miles from home. It's one of the largest in the area at around 20,000 acres.
First off we hiked for about 5kms until we found a likely looking camp ground. Due to the numbers of mozzies and horse flies, we set up in a recently cleared area on a hilltop. This gave us a bit of a breeze in an attempt to keep the biting little swine away... worked too.
We set up my hammock and a ground dwell for Alex. He really enjoyed the outing, finding pieces of cut wood to make an impromptu chair and managing to get the fire going on his own.
Dinner was boil-in-the-bag pork with lentils and a side serving of chinese noodles.
The night was quite stormy, but they avoided our area. I must admit that as many of the surrounding trees were beeches I was worried about any falling boughs. None were visible above us, but as the winds got a bit stronger it left me a bit uneasy.
The rain though did come for a good part of the night, but we both slept fine. I'm really loving this hammocking so far this summer... Done over 20 nights since I got my DD Travel hammock. Alex too was fine under the tarp and poncho.

After a breakfast, this time knocked up on my pocket rocket... we set out for the hour or so hike back to the car.
A great 24 hours in the forest.

Here are a couple of snaps.

woods01.jpg

The camp with the fire going...

woods02.jpg

Alex in his make shift chair

woods03.jpg

Robin hood with his coffee

cheers
Gareth
 
Last edited:
Jun 24, 2011
6
0
france
That's a great place indeed. I Went there two years ago and spent one night in that forest . We could hardly sleep since we had the visit of a badger all night long.
@Muddy boots
Considering france as a venue for bushcraft is not a normal thought.The "bushcraft spirit" is not very usual in France especially in north of France. That's a shame but so it is.

( sorry for my english, I'm french)
 

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