Pictures from a South Wales Bushcrafters Meet

[John Fenna]

As the title says
I got to the site early on Friday and spent a bit of time clearing blowdown from the paths and communal area after the recent gales, repaired my broken gear support tripod, pitched the soaking 'chute and set out my bed to dry - the gales had tipped up my storage system and filled it with water ... which was now ice!
The ice on my bed never fully melted over the weekend which meant my bed was a little chill... Stewart, Chris and Nick joined me on Fri PM and most of the day was spent sorting out the fire in anticipation of a cold night - which it certainly was!
Ice formed inside my tarp and the clearing nearby was totally white with frost, while waterbottles froze and my coffee filter froze solid.
It was still freezing hard at Noon.
Roly and Wendy joined us on Saturday and Dunx dropped in for a visit and most of us had a walk hunting up Birch Polypore and other fun stuff, checking activity around the badger setts and then sorting yet more fire wood.
Sat night was a lot warmer than fri night but there was still a good frost

 

[Goatboy]

Looks like fun though cold Mr Fenna. Nice set ups. That second fungi pic looks like a giant clam - could scare a few deep see divers with that I think. Refreshing camping at this time of year though, I like it.
Cheers for posting up.
GB.

 

[Clouston98]

Great pictures John! I do like it when it starts to get colder .

 

[Big Stu 12]

Nice one John.. thanks for showing.. ..

I Like.....

Thank you....

 

[Mesquite]

Looks like a good meet John. Thanks for sharing it with us

 

[dr jones]

Cheers John , we had a good time. Great to see good friends and new faces .

 

[1 shot willie]

What a great site, nicely set up, and well organised.
I can feel the heat from the fire just admiring the picture

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Toddy]

Ah, brilliant
Cold's a whole other ball game of comfort, isn't it ?
On t'other hand, all that frozen stuff means there's a lot less mud around and when the company's good and the scenery is beautiful around you, it all adds up to a really battery charging few days out

Thanks for the tale and the photos

cheers,
M

 

[ozzy1977]

Nice one, thanks for sharing

 

[markheolddu]

Looks like you all had a great time, thanks for the pics. I will be joining you as soon as life calms down a bit.

Mark

 

[Dunx]

Was good to see you and Roly again, and the new faces. Only disappointment for me was the limited time I had there

Perhaps I'll get longer at the next one.... all work and no play make me sad

 

[onfire]

That looks like a fantastic set-up. I love the look of the benches and lean to next to the 'chute!

 

[gowersponger]

great set up john looks like fun was had

 

[MartinK9]

Thanks for sharing John, lovely wood you have there.

 

[TinkyPete]

Thanks for sharing John, nice little camp set up there

 

[John Fenna]

We have been using the site now for a couple of years with meets every month or so.
Each time we go we do something to make the site even more homely
This last trip was probably the least "builder-ish" as all we did to the structure was to lower the height of the Alter Fire - so our knees and feet got some of the heat!
We have built bridges over the access streams, steps on the steeper ground, tables, benches and, of course, the lean-to as permanent feature but we have also built less permanent structures such as browse beds.
The woods have recently been "thinned" so there is a lot of brash about which makes wandering around quite hard work in places but the thinning has certainly let a lot of light in and made the site less gloomy
My bed lives on site - the fabric secured under the lean-to and we leave some cooking gear, the chute and water purifying kit etc on site as well so we do not have too much to carry in each time. There is nothing there that anyone would want to nick and if they did none of it is beyond replacement (the chute for instance is near its last legs!)
One thing we must get around to making is a comfortable and hidden long drop or composting loo - the slit trench has been dug, used and back filled several times now and it is a bore carrying in the spade ....

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice pics John, thanks for posting.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Looks very good, Mr Fenna