It all started with a tweet:
For those of you not familiar, the term "microadventure" was coined by Alastair Humphreys to describe simple achievable adventures that mortals can do with minimal equipment & expense, the sort of thing that you can fit round work. His campaign on social media, along with backing from the likes of Osprey to sponsor competitions, has seen a massive increase in the number of people hitting the hills and woods of an evening, armed with a bivvi bag, to experience a night under the stars. To have a microadventure. Al is also responsible for why Alpkit seems to never have Bivvi bags in stock any more
.
So with that background, I was planning a trip out for this winters solstice. I sent the above tweet, and Al retweeted it to 22k followers. I didn't think anything more of it, and went back to studying maps, and pondering where to go, until my pocket made a cheep cheep noise. I had received a tweet. Someone across the border in Sussex had just bought a pair of bivvi bags (from alpkit, surprise surprise), and was interested in someone with experience taking them and their partner out for their first microadventure.
Sounded like a good idea. Meet a couple of strangers off the internet, head off into the middle of nowhere and bivvi for the night? what could possibly go wrong? Wait? isn't this how crime thrillers start?
If you mention to most people the idea of a woman meeting two strangers off the net they would start to get twitchy, mention it's to go camping, and the twitches become expressions of shock. I agree there is some risk in it. But I also think that this risk may be disproportionately viewed, due to exposure bias. This of course doesn't mean that precautions shouldn't be taken to mitigate some of the risk. I let a friend know where I was going, who I was meeting, what the plan was. I had my phone relaying a buddy beacon (which my friend quickly nicknamed a body beacon), so that people knew where I was. When I got in the strangers car, I made a record of the registration number where my friend would be able to find it if a search was needed. I sent regular text messages updating what was going on (subtext, "I'm still alive"). Right upto the point of "I'm on the train home". The reasonable measures I could take. Maybe I could have been more paranoid? But I was happy I was taking an acceptable risk.
So, to the adventure. We met in an Italian restaurant somewhere near the South Coast. Enjoyed pizza, conversation, and a detailed examination of the map as we came up with a plan. Meeting first for dinner was also part of the risk mitigation, it gave me a chance to get to know the strangers, with an easy bail point at the end of the meal if things weren't right. Dinner sorted, and plan made, we headed to the car. For a first adventure, I didn't want to kill them with a long march, especially as they didn't have the lightest of kit. So we took a car most of the way, and walked the last couple of km.
By now it was well and truly dark, the cloud cover was very high, so the bright stars shone through. Despite the lack of moon there was plenty enough light to find our way through the dunes towards our intended camp site.
We chose a site deep in the dunes, well away from civilisation. The site was also in a slight hollow, to protect us from the slight wind. The wind had been worrying me all week, when I first started planning the trip forecasts for weekend were 30kph winds, gusting to 46kph. Not exactly gentle weather. I added tarps to the packing list (2 tarps, as the two I was going with didn't have a tarp to use). Every day I checked the weather forecast, noting with relief that as the day approached the wind forecast got gentler and gentler, down to a respectable 15kph non gusting. As it happens, through our choice of campsite, we didn't use the tarps, opting to enjoy the view of the stars. I didn't regret this decision, tho as the dawn approached the wind changed direction slightly and did give a slight chill to the edge of the bivvi bag, but by then I'd already had my 8 hour sleep, so it wasn't a major issue.
We made camp, smoothly and simply, just sleep matt, bivvi bag and sleeping bag. I lay on top of my bag as the sloe gin was handed round and looked up at the stars. We chatted about the constellations, amidst mocking of the freudien slip when one of us referred to them as constipations... I started to get cold, so decide to climb into my sleeping bag inside my bivvi bag.
After getting thoroughly frozen on the last couple of trips with my old snugpak SF2 sleeping bag, I decided that It was time for a new bag, and thanks to a timely xmas gift, I embarked this trip with a new Mountain Equipment Laminina 20 sleeping bag. T-Comfort rated to -7°C (20°F), I was looking forward to testing it out. I snuggled down in the sleeping bag, and cinched the bivvi bag closed round it, leaving just my face exposed. By now it was about 2200, Laying back I looked up at the stars, marvelling at the campfires of the hunters who have gone before us. The next I know, it's 0438. I'd slept beautifully. Lovely and toasty warm. While I'd slept a heavy dew had coated everything with a film of damp, and the inside of my bivvi bag had a heavy coating of condensation. A good test for the water repellent outer of my sleeping bag. The clouds had cleared, giving an even better view of the stars. I lay there listening to the sound of the waves, the snoring of my camp mates, and the sight of the stars.
I was woken a few hours later by an offer of tea. It must have been a weird sight, as only my mouth and nose were exposed from the bivvi bag. They asked where my cup was. I ventured forth a single arm from the opening, and dug about for a mug, milk and tea bags. Before retracting the limb into the warmth of my sleeping bag. A steaming mug of tea was placed next to my bag.
Now the dilemma. Warm sleeping bag, hot mug of tea... How long could the warmth of the bag keep me before I ventured into the cold for my hot mug of tea...
Eventually I sat up and stuck my head and shoulders out of the bag so I could drink my tea. This was the point I noticed that there was a light drizzle falling out the sky. I hadn't noticed it in my bag. I also noticed that most of the condensation from earlier had been disappeared from inside my bivvi bag.
We drank tea, we chatted about how well we'd all slept (me very well, them, a bit cold...), and I sent a text to my friend so they knew I was still alive. Turns out it was gone 0830, and I had missed the sunrise. Oops.
As it was raining, and the other two had packed already. I decided not to ligger any longer, and did a rather speedy pack up. Going from bivvi bag to packed and ready in well under 5 mins. Being careful what I packed where to minimise the amount of sand that got inside my sleeping bag and backpack. We hiked out down the beach back to the car to civilisation, and a cooked breakfast.
All in all, everyone enjoyed the trip out, they got to have their first taste of bivving, and I got to have a night out with some company.
This trip also marked a milestone for myself, when I went out for a hike in May, my pack was ~16kg, and I was cold. This trip, I was lovely and warm, and my pack was a very respectable 9.5kg (7.5kg dry weight). A weight shedding of ~7kg, complete with an improvement in terms of both carrying, and warmth when sleeping, whilst breaking the 10kg wet weight mark.
Finally, a rare photo of me, I'm curled up in the camo bivvi bag in the foreground...
Happy Solstice!
Julia
For those of you not familiar, the term "microadventure" was coined by Alastair Humphreys to describe simple achievable adventures that mortals can do with minimal equipment & expense, the sort of thing that you can fit round work. His campaign on social media, along with backing from the likes of Osprey to sponsor competitions, has seen a massive increase in the number of people hitting the hills and woods of an evening, armed with a bivvi bag, to experience a night under the stars. To have a microadventure. Al is also responsible for why Alpkit seems to never have Bivvi bags in stock any more
.So with that background, I was planning a trip out for this winters solstice. I sent the above tweet, and Al retweeted it to 22k followers. I didn't think anything more of it, and went back to studying maps, and pondering where to go, until my pocket made a cheep cheep noise. I had received a tweet. Someone across the border in Sussex had just bought a pair of bivvi bags (from alpkit, surprise surprise), and was interested in someone with experience taking them and their partner out for their first microadventure.
Sounded like a good idea. Meet a couple of strangers off the internet, head off into the middle of nowhere and bivvi for the night? what could possibly go wrong? Wait? isn't this how crime thrillers start?
If you mention to most people the idea of a woman meeting two strangers off the net they would start to get twitchy, mention it's to go camping, and the twitches become expressions of shock. I agree there is some risk in it. But I also think that this risk may be disproportionately viewed, due to exposure bias. This of course doesn't mean that precautions shouldn't be taken to mitigate some of the risk. I let a friend know where I was going, who I was meeting, what the plan was. I had my phone relaying a buddy beacon (which my friend quickly nicknamed a body beacon), so that people knew where I was. When I got in the strangers car, I made a record of the registration number where my friend would be able to find it if a search was needed. I sent regular text messages updating what was going on (subtext, "I'm still alive"). Right upto the point of "I'm on the train home". The reasonable measures I could take. Maybe I could have been more paranoid? But I was happy I was taking an acceptable risk.
So, to the adventure. We met in an Italian restaurant somewhere near the South Coast. Enjoyed pizza, conversation, and a detailed examination of the map as we came up with a plan. Meeting first for dinner was also part of the risk mitigation, it gave me a chance to get to know the strangers, with an easy bail point at the end of the meal if things weren't right. Dinner sorted, and plan made, we headed to the car. For a first adventure, I didn't want to kill them with a long march, especially as they didn't have the lightest of kit. So we took a car most of the way, and walked the last couple of km.
By now it was well and truly dark, the cloud cover was very high, so the bright stars shone through. Despite the lack of moon there was plenty enough light to find our way through the dunes towards our intended camp site.
We chose a site deep in the dunes, well away from civilisation. The site was also in a slight hollow, to protect us from the slight wind. The wind had been worrying me all week, when I first started planning the trip forecasts for weekend were 30kph winds, gusting to 46kph. Not exactly gentle weather. I added tarps to the packing list (2 tarps, as the two I was going with didn't have a tarp to use). Every day I checked the weather forecast, noting with relief that as the day approached the wind forecast got gentler and gentler, down to a respectable 15kph non gusting. As it happens, through our choice of campsite, we didn't use the tarps, opting to enjoy the view of the stars. I didn't regret this decision, tho as the dawn approached the wind changed direction slightly and did give a slight chill to the edge of the bivvi bag, but by then I'd already had my 8 hour sleep, so it wasn't a major issue.
We made camp, smoothly and simply, just sleep matt, bivvi bag and sleeping bag. I lay on top of my bag as the sloe gin was handed round and looked up at the stars. We chatted about the constellations, amidst mocking of the freudien slip when one of us referred to them as constipations... I started to get cold, so decide to climb into my sleeping bag inside my bivvi bag.
After getting thoroughly frozen on the last couple of trips with my old snugpak SF2 sleeping bag, I decided that It was time for a new bag, and thanks to a timely xmas gift, I embarked this trip with a new Mountain Equipment Laminina 20 sleeping bag. T-Comfort rated to -7°C (20°F), I was looking forward to testing it out. I snuggled down in the sleeping bag, and cinched the bivvi bag closed round it, leaving just my face exposed. By now it was about 2200, Laying back I looked up at the stars, marvelling at the campfires of the hunters who have gone before us. The next I know, it's 0438. I'd slept beautifully. Lovely and toasty warm. While I'd slept a heavy dew had coated everything with a film of damp, and the inside of my bivvi bag had a heavy coating of condensation. A good test for the water repellent outer of my sleeping bag. The clouds had cleared, giving an even better view of the stars. I lay there listening to the sound of the waves, the snoring of my camp mates, and the sight of the stars.
I was woken a few hours later by an offer of tea. It must have been a weird sight, as only my mouth and nose were exposed from the bivvi bag. They asked where my cup was. I ventured forth a single arm from the opening, and dug about for a mug, milk and tea bags. Before retracting the limb into the warmth of my sleeping bag. A steaming mug of tea was placed next to my bag.
Now the dilemma. Warm sleeping bag, hot mug of tea... How long could the warmth of the bag keep me before I ventured into the cold for my hot mug of tea...
Eventually I sat up and stuck my head and shoulders out of the bag so I could drink my tea. This was the point I noticed that there was a light drizzle falling out the sky. I hadn't noticed it in my bag. I also noticed that most of the condensation from earlier had been disappeared from inside my bivvi bag.
We drank tea, we chatted about how well we'd all slept (me very well, them, a bit cold...), and I sent a text to my friend so they knew I was still alive. Turns out it was gone 0830, and I had missed the sunrise. Oops.
As it was raining, and the other two had packed already. I decided not to ligger any longer, and did a rather speedy pack up. Going from bivvi bag to packed and ready in well under 5 mins. Being careful what I packed where to minimise the amount of sand that got inside my sleeping bag and backpack. We hiked out down the beach back to the car to civilisation, and a cooked breakfast.
All in all, everyone enjoyed the trip out, they got to have their first taste of bivving, and I got to have a night out with some company.
This trip also marked a milestone for myself, when I went out for a hike in May, my pack was ~16kg, and I was cold. This trip, I was lovely and warm, and my pack was a very respectable 9.5kg (7.5kg dry weight). A weight shedding of ~7kg, complete with an improvement in terms of both carrying, and warmth when sleeping, whilst breaking the 10kg wet weight mark.
Finally, a rare photo of me, I'm curled up in the camo bivvi bag in the foreground...
Happy Solstice!
Julia
Good memories 
