Hi all, thought I'd share some piccies from a late summer camp out in my local woods. I love this time of year in the woods and this particular spot had a really nice feel about it (I appreciate how weird that may sound). There's such vibrant colours and it's great to listen to the wildlife at night. I'm looking forward to getting out as often as the missus will let me during the next few months!
As is often the case I had some new toys to play with on this camp-out in the form of a wood gas stove and very good it was too. I have to confess though that while I had no bother lighting it at home with dry wood, that wasnt quite the case when in the woods. We had a lot of rain during the run up to this camp, this is not to say the stove is rubbish but rather that I am incompetent at lighting fires! My saviour came in the form of some fatwood in my fire kit - that stuff is good! I definitely have some lessons to learn from that experience during the coming weeks and months but then that's half the fun isn't it? Best bit is that I can practice fire lighting techniques in the woodgas stove and not worry about leaving a fire scar.
So my camp mates and I are mostly soft southern hammock campers as we likes the comfort and the swing but one of my fellow campers decided that he'd been spoiling himself with his hammock on recent camps so thought it was time to go back to basics with his tarp and bivvy setup. I can't possibly comment on how comfortable his night was but I can well appreciate the sense of simplicity about laying down your bivvy and making it your home.
I had a glorious nights sleep in my hammock and would almost go as far as to say it was was a better nights kip than I get on my memory foam mattress back home. I might add that, being quite a warm sleeper, I only used an old foam mat for insulation as I'm too tight to get an underblanket so it'll be interesting to see how far into the colder months I can get with the trusty mat, fingers crossed.
Here's some piccies of the setups:
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And our upside down fire just getting going, it was lit using good old silver birch bark scrapings:
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And now for some target practice with the catapults, I must confess that I'm useless with them things so I prefer to kick back in my hammock chair (I loves my hammock chair, best £15 I ever spent!)
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Obligatory atmospheric photo of some campers contemplating life while the smoke disappears into the trees:
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Piccy of the view outside the woodland the following morning and looking across the North downs in Kent:
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Didn't get a photo of the woodgas stove but here it is being christened outside my man-cave. It boiled water very fast, left surprisingly little waste and cleaned up great:
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Finally a piccy of my NI patrol pack. Am well chuffed with this pack, I feel it's the perfect size for one or two nights in woods:
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Oh and of course we left no trace, just footprints:
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OK so there wasn't a great deal of bushcraft being practiced here but it was a great time to kick back, relax, enjoy the surroundings and feel sorry for everyone sitting at home watching crap tv..............its xfactor season..........aaaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhh!..........I'm not a celebrity get me out of this living room!
As is often the case I had some new toys to play with on this camp-out in the form of a wood gas stove and very good it was too. I have to confess though that while I had no bother lighting it at home with dry wood, that wasnt quite the case when in the woods. We had a lot of rain during the run up to this camp, this is not to say the stove is rubbish but rather that I am incompetent at lighting fires! My saviour came in the form of some fatwood in my fire kit - that stuff is good! I definitely have some lessons to learn from that experience during the coming weeks and months but then that's half the fun isn't it? Best bit is that I can practice fire lighting techniques in the woodgas stove and not worry about leaving a fire scar.
So my camp mates and I are mostly soft southern hammock campers as we likes the comfort and the swing but one of my fellow campers decided that he'd been spoiling himself with his hammock on recent camps so thought it was time to go back to basics with his tarp and bivvy setup. I can't possibly comment on how comfortable his night was but I can well appreciate the sense of simplicity about laying down your bivvy and making it your home.
I had a glorious nights sleep in my hammock and would almost go as far as to say it was was a better nights kip than I get on my memory foam mattress back home. I might add that, being quite a warm sleeper, I only used an old foam mat for insulation as I'm too tight to get an underblanket so it'll be interesting to see how far into the colder months I can get with the trusty mat, fingers crossed.
Here's some piccies of the setups:
And our upside down fire just getting going, it was lit using good old silver birch bark scrapings:
And now for some target practice with the catapults, I must confess that I'm useless with them things so I prefer to kick back in my hammock chair (I loves my hammock chair, best £15 I ever spent!)
Obligatory atmospheric photo of some campers contemplating life while the smoke disappears into the trees:
Piccy of the view outside the woodland the following morning and looking across the North downs in Kent:
Didn't get a photo of the woodgas stove but here it is being christened outside my man-cave. It boiled water very fast, left surprisingly little waste and cleaned up great:
Finally a piccy of my NI patrol pack. Am well chuffed with this pack, I feel it's the perfect size for one or two nights in woods:
Oh and of course we left no trace, just footprints:
OK so there wasn't a great deal of bushcraft being practiced here but it was a great time to kick back, relax, enjoy the surroundings and feel sorry for everyone sitting at home watching crap tv..............its xfactor season..........aaaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhh!..........I'm not a celebrity get me out of this living room!
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