What a weekend :D

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masongary44

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Aug 6, 2004
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Leeds, England
After a lot of planning and a bit of investment I finally got the chance to get away in North Yorkshire, into a secluded area of woodland covering quite a significant area. I have tried fro the last 4 months or so to identify the land owner and been passed between forestry commission areas with no avail. Disappointing, someone clearly owns the place as it appears to be maintained with pheasant feeding and worming points… That aside, the place is by far big enough to disappear into the middle of for a peaceful trip out.
I managed to find a nice spot between two clearings and along-side a fast flowing stream running with clear, colourless water. Perfect. I took some new kit with me on this trip, the Hennessy hammock that my wife bought me for my birthday and a Katadyn Vario for my water supply.
The Hennessy set up was blindingly quick. I got some snake skins and pre-fitted them before the trip. I was amazed at how well the set up worked for me. At times the Velcro opening in the bottom proved to be a little awkward, but, in an environment full of biting insects the benefits far outweighed difficulties.
For water, after doing some digging around the forums I decided on the Katadyn Vario and combined it with the Katadyn MicroPur tablets. It is the first time in a long time I have managed to get water in the outdoors that is anywhere remotely tap like or at any speed. I was very impressed. Iodine is out for me from now on (I now have a pre-mac, that has not really been used that much, that I will be getting rid of ).
Before the trip I tried to keep weight down by eliminating most of what I wouldn’t use. In the end the only bit of kit I could have happily lived without would have been my Billy can. Since I was unsure of the capability of the Katadyn and MicroPur tabs I took my billy to give me a large boiling container to finish off the purification. Because I was not sure how viable a camp fire would be before sun down I took 3 small fuel canisters with me to enable me to cook / boil. As it turned out, the ground was permanently damp and there was plenty of dead wood on the trees in the area of my camp so fire was not only safe but pretty much smoke free. This meant that I was able to boil water / cook over the fire so I only used half of one of my fuel canisters. It was in the second day before I tried the MicroPur tabs and was really impressed at how little a chemical taste they gave the water. From that point filter and tabs were all that were used to clean the water making the billy can redundant. Next time out I will take less fuel and no billy cutting down the best part of 1kg weight form the pack.
Overall the weather was fantastic as was the area. I had to maintain a fire for almost all the waking hours just to keep the insects down. The days and evenings were spent listening to the birds and wildlife over the gentle sound of running water while feeding the fire and reading. One of the most relaxing breaks I have had for a long time. To top it all off after spending all weekend digesting the last of the Harry Potter books, I sat at the arranged pick up point waiting for my good lady to come and pick me up. Well into the last chapter I noticed a build up of people, camera’s and to a cry of ‘the steam train is coming’ I looked up to see the Hogwarts Express thunder through the hills and over the viaduct. An amazing sight and a brilliant close to a great weekend!!
I have a few pics that I will post when I get the chance.
 

masongary44

Need to contact Admin...
Aug 6, 2004
127
0
48
Leeds, England
I also took a tarp with me to set up a cooking area / shelter to use during the day should the weather turn out to be wet. In the end this was also unnecessary so I could have saved some more weight there too. :). I replaced my usual heavy weight cordage with para cord for this trip as I was not sleeping under the tarp and would need no protection from things falling during my sleep (that helped save enough weight to counter balance some of the food I took with me and didn't eat. I think my biggest area for improvement now has to be planning my food..
 

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