Well, I did it on my own! Firstly, sorry for the poor pics. Weather was touch and go, so left the camera at home and used the phone.
I had planned to do my overnighter where I shoot, which is close to home. However, the area was water logged so I headed off to the peak district as there was a couple of spots I thought looked promising a while ago when walking there.
Weather was cloudy and warm, parked the car in a pub carpark (a pint and a packet of crisp sealed the deal for being able to leave it there overnight) and headed off. Its about 6 miles from the pub to the spot I was heading for.
The trail being pretty dry and easy going. I never saw anyone else for the first hour and then came across a couple arguing over who had forgotten to change the batteries in the now dead GPS and how the hell where they going to find the carpark. I ask if they had a compass and they looked at me like I was a alien......
So I left them to it and continued on my way into the forest, which was eerily deserted and beautifully calm.
I love waking through here, its so easy to get lost and yet really easy to find your self again due to the hill the forest is on. I remember about 20 years ago whilst day hiking getting the fear because I had become lost having wandered from the trail. After about 20 minutes of blind panic I remembered I was on a hill and thus it wasn't rocket science to find my way out!
As it was still only 130pm and I had time to kill I decided to stop for a brew.
This seems a good a tiime as any to show my day walking kit, which works for me. I hate having things on my belt and load of heavy kit, bulky stuff etc. The Aplkit 13lt dry bag is just perfect for me.
I can get a days food, cook kit, first aid, Personal bits, Space blanket, Poncho, mini shovel and still have room to spare in it.
As I was overnighting, it lived at the top of my rucksack for easy grabbing, but usually its all I take on a day out.
This is my knife and compass load out - again no massive compass or GPS. I pretty much know the area and for day or overnight trips the SAK and Ritter do all I need. I don'd need to cut anything huge as I am passing though and not really constructing. I guess as I am getting older I am carrying less and less kit. Yeah, its great to sport an S4 or Woodlore - but do I really need them for short trips?
Anyways, harking back to old survival tin days I still carry a mini kit - this lives in my pocket most of the time and takes up no space.
It hold all I realistically need now. Medication, money, plasters, fire starting, repair stuff, marker tape, knife and saw. Again its not a life survival kit, just something that helps make the day more fun. (I recently left my knife in the car and used the Ritter RSK5 and the wire saw to great effect on a day trip)
Anyways, enough of the kit porn!
I needed to stock up on water, this looked fresh flowing and I figured it would be fine with a good boil. I'm still here to tell the tale, so I guess it was!
I always deviate my route to go past this place. A derelict house from the 1800's which must have been fab in its heyday.
Still walking though the forest in a meandering kind of way I stopped at this pond for a rest. I remember it used to be a swimming pond and have recollections of people swimming. Now its desolate with "No swimming, deep water" signs. I would have thought deep water was good for swimming in?
So eventually its out of the forest and into the fields, another 2 miles and I will reach my spot. A secluded area of a field with no roads within easy distance and no gated access.
Hiding my bivi and tarp close to the bracken in a remote corner of the field worked well. With my discreet colour scheme, I just blended in nicely........
So I settled myself down and made tea - a rather repellent looking veg stew. Someone forgot the bacon!
Pretty soon it was dark and I crawled into my bivi with just my cheapo candle lantern for company. The Alpkit Hunka XL is a super roomy bivi. Even with a thermarest and sleeping bag inside, there is still loads of room. Oh and the £4 candle lantern with citronella tealights keeps the mozzies at bay.
The sounds of zombies, werewolves, mad axemen and virgins being slaughtered in the next field kept me awake for a short while and then I fell asleep.
And slept till nearly 8am!!!!
Bugger, time to get up and get everything packed away!
Oh and make some breakfast......
Then It was time to retrace my steps and head back to the car. I took a more direct route this time as I wanted to get home to research new kit and new overnight venues!
Thanks for reading (if you made it this far) and thank you for all your support.
Help and advice of what I could do differently and kit would be much appreciated!
I had planned to do my overnighter where I shoot, which is close to home. However, the area was water logged so I headed off to the peak district as there was a couple of spots I thought looked promising a while ago when walking there.
Weather was cloudy and warm, parked the car in a pub carpark (a pint and a packet of crisp sealed the deal for being able to leave it there overnight) and headed off. Its about 6 miles from the pub to the spot I was heading for.
The trail being pretty dry and easy going. I never saw anyone else for the first hour and then came across a couple arguing over who had forgotten to change the batteries in the now dead GPS and how the hell where they going to find the carpark. I ask if they had a compass and they looked at me like I was a alien......
So I left them to it and continued on my way into the forest, which was eerily deserted and beautifully calm.
I love waking through here, its so easy to get lost and yet really easy to find your self again due to the hill the forest is on. I remember about 20 years ago whilst day hiking getting the fear because I had become lost having wandered from the trail. After about 20 minutes of blind panic I remembered I was on a hill and thus it wasn't rocket science to find my way out!
As it was still only 130pm and I had time to kill I decided to stop for a brew.
This seems a good a tiime as any to show my day walking kit, which works for me. I hate having things on my belt and load of heavy kit, bulky stuff etc. The Aplkit 13lt dry bag is just perfect for me.
I can get a days food, cook kit, first aid, Personal bits, Space blanket, Poncho, mini shovel and still have room to spare in it.
As I was overnighting, it lived at the top of my rucksack for easy grabbing, but usually its all I take on a day out.
This is my knife and compass load out - again no massive compass or GPS. I pretty much know the area and for day or overnight trips the SAK and Ritter do all I need. I don'd need to cut anything huge as I am passing though and not really constructing. I guess as I am getting older I am carrying less and less kit. Yeah, its great to sport an S4 or Woodlore - but do I really need them for short trips?
Anyways, harking back to old survival tin days I still carry a mini kit - this lives in my pocket most of the time and takes up no space.
It hold all I realistically need now. Medication, money, plasters, fire starting, repair stuff, marker tape, knife and saw. Again its not a life survival kit, just something that helps make the day more fun. (I recently left my knife in the car and used the Ritter RSK5 and the wire saw to great effect on a day trip)
Anyways, enough of the kit porn!
I needed to stock up on water, this looked fresh flowing and I figured it would be fine with a good boil. I'm still here to tell the tale, so I guess it was!
I always deviate my route to go past this place. A derelict house from the 1800's which must have been fab in its heyday.
Still walking though the forest in a meandering kind of way I stopped at this pond for a rest. I remember it used to be a swimming pond and have recollections of people swimming. Now its desolate with "No swimming, deep water" signs. I would have thought deep water was good for swimming in?
So eventually its out of the forest and into the fields, another 2 miles and I will reach my spot. A secluded area of a field with no roads within easy distance and no gated access.
Hiding my bivi and tarp close to the bracken in a remote corner of the field worked well. With my discreet colour scheme, I just blended in nicely........
So I settled myself down and made tea - a rather repellent looking veg stew. Someone forgot the bacon!
Pretty soon it was dark and I crawled into my bivi with just my cheapo candle lantern for company. The Alpkit Hunka XL is a super roomy bivi. Even with a thermarest and sleeping bag inside, there is still loads of room. Oh and the £4 candle lantern with citronella tealights keeps the mozzies at bay.
The sounds of zombies, werewolves, mad axemen and virgins being slaughtered in the next field kept me awake for a short while and then I fell asleep.
And slept till nearly 8am!!!!
Bugger, time to get up and get everything packed away!
Oh and make some breakfast......
Then It was time to retrace my steps and head back to the car. I took a more direct route this time as I wanted to get home to research new kit and new overnight venues!
Thanks for reading (if you made it this far) and thank you for all your support.
Help and advice of what I could do differently and kit would be much appreciated!
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