three men a badger and a big piece of pork go camping in the rain(pic heavy)

[Man of Tanith]

So last weekend I had my first camping trip since the birth of Jake.
To mark this Alex (xander) decided to buy an absolutely mahoosive piece of pork for us to eat, I also invited pete my sister's other half along as he has been saying for a wile he was keen to come out and do some ''basic''camping instead of the car camping he usually does with my sister.
So off I trundled with my dad as driver and set up the communal tarp that would also act as the sleeping area for Alex and myself.

I sat around for a while and tried out my anniversary present from Lisa a nice shiney woodlore knife, Boris my mascot is in this photo but honest I did the work not him.

Still on my own I dug the pit to cook the piggy in. I also drank several cups of tea and enjoyed just being in the woods its been a while since i was last out so was nice to get out.
Then Alex and his ladies turned up

Shortly followed thereafter by Pete

I got the fire going in the trench to cook porky in and Pete set to with a hell of a lot of enthusiasm getting some fire wood cut

I thought it might be wise to actually look at the pork and was a little stumped bout how to go about it

Eventually we decided to wrap it in silver foil and then bury it and see what happened

Alex and I then worked on something Mesquite who was meant to join us until he fell ill suggested a voyageurs cooking set up

Alex got the cooking fire going soldiering on bravely despite a broken wrist(not done on the camp I hasten to add)

Boris watched all of this with great interest

We soon got some water on for a brew those who are interested one of the pans is from the Swedish army trangia set up the other is a mors kochanski pot I picked up a while ago

And then it was the waiting game so I whittled some pegs for Alex's new bivi bag

Pete had a brew and Alex took the photos

After four hours (22:00hrs) we wrapped a convenient plank to act as a chopping board then unearthed the pig

as you can see from this photo the pork wasn't cooked enough but we had considered this as a possibility and had a cunning plan up our sleeve

and that cunning plan was sharp pointy sticks! to hang the meat over the fire

so back to the waiting game watching it cook over the fire shooting the breeze and having a beer
this was our evenings viewing

finally at midnight i snapped and decreed i was going to eat it cooked or not (I had had a bacon sarnie at 11.45 in the morning and nothing else I was famished)

turned out really well moist and succulent and oh so tasty
then we wrapped the remaining pork up in foil and chucked it on the embers to carry on cooking to the morning and went to bed
in the morning we rescued the parcel from the fire unwrapped it

and had a pork roll for breakfast

before packing up and going our separate ways
hope you've all enjoyed the photos and found it interesting
in future if cooking in the ground i think i shall completely surround the meat in coals rather than only have them beneath the piece of meat buit all in all it was a very successful evening

 

[warthog1981]

excellent thanks for sharing looked fun

 

[xander]

BIG THANKS TO SAM AND PETE as one handed camping is not an easy task lol
we had a great time setting the world to rights and chopping wood and burning it make tea and coffee and testing out all my new kit and of course cooking and eating a small bit of pork

 

[Mesquite]

Nice one Sam... looks like I missed a great time I'm gutted I couldn't make it.

As for the hangi I think I know where you went wrong... did you have any big stones in there being heated up prior to putting the pork in? If not then next time try getting hold or a load of engineering bricks and line the pit with them before putting the fire in.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Nice one Sam... looks like I missed a great time I'm gutted I couldn't make it.

As for the hangi I think I know where you went wrong... did you have any big stones in there being heated up prior to putting the pork in? If not then next time try getting hold or a load of engineering bricks and line the pit with them before putting the fire in.

No steve we had charcoal briquettes and that was it
i shall try and get my mitts on the engineering bricks you speak of
the offer for a camp is still there when you are hail and hearty mate

 

[drewdunnrespect]

looks like an ausome camp and looks like some ausome food was had now the title on the othe hand the way it reads i reckon could be a
title of a comedy sketch anyways thanks for sharing

drew

 

[Man of Tanith]

thats was half the intention drew

 

[Man of Tanith]

Here Mesquite where wouldi get some of them there bricks?

 

[Mesquite]

No steve we had charcoal briquettes and that was it

There's your problem... as soon as you covered the pit over you starved the briquettes of oxygen so they wouldn't have kept burning.

Here Mesquite where wouldi get some of them there bricks?

Builder merchant would do them.

If you go in and tell them what you're after and have they got any broken ones you ought to get a good deal on them

Engineering bricks are best because they're fired at a higher temperature than ordinary bricks to make them waterproof

 

[Man of Tanith]

nice one
i feel a trip a coming on

 

[Shewie]

Great stuff lads, looks like a right good weekend that


on the pork

 

[woodspirits]

great pics and storyline thanks for posting sam

steve

 

[Man of Tanith]

no worries mate i do my best to write it as it happened so i can copy it into my journal when i get the chance
shewie the pork was bliss although the long wait might of helped a little

 

[I_Camp_@_Butlins]

Pete here... thanks to Sam and Alex for my bushcraft introduction, three men with five arms between us managed a damn good meal... Oh and I nearly killed Sam's badger but retrieved him from the fire before he was cremated!...

might even venture out if the tent next time and go under the tarp...

Cheers

 

[Man of Tanith]

try the tarp pete its a much better experience
mooch over to the intro section and say hello to everyone mate they're a friendly bunch

 

[JonathanD]

Great stuff. I always find that looking at things with no idea what to do with it works really well after a while Especially at that point when you get bored looking and just try anything while you go and do something cool.

 

[Man of Tanith]

i have a few cunning plans in mind for future trips JD leg of lamb is one but i want to make two fire trays first and dozens of other ideas bubbling around in my little head

 

[gsfgaz]

great post ,, that pork looked tasty ... great camp set up , cheers for sharing ...

 

[MartinK9]

Great pics Sam, thanks for sharing. Nice to see the knife being used too.

 

[Man of Tanith]

told you it would be a user mate