I then proceeded to the woodland and set up my base for the night, my shelter was a DD 3x3m tarp and Tenth wonder hammock
T chill out in I used my hammock chair from UK Hammocks, the weather was predicted to be overcoats, mild and no rain
I brought a lot more kit then usual simply for luxury and carried it all in my British Army Bergen
Also used my Bahco saw leather sheath for the first time having been kindly gifted to me by Richard Miles, an up and coming leatherworker from the UK, his contact details are
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pang-Valley-Leather-1096052713754589/?ref=hl
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For breakfast I had cheese omelette cooked in my Bushbox XL flatpack stove from Bushcraft Essentials, utilised some fallen Ash wood as fuel for it
Afterwards I cleaned everything away using the water dispersed from my newly acquired MSR Dromedary bag I got from Heinne Haynes, this thing is awesome and I honestly don’t know why I waited to get one for so long as it makes carrying and dispensing water so much easier
I then ventured away from cap to forage some natural tinder, there was absolutely nothing around and what little there was was absolutely drenched from the inclement weather we’ve been having in the UK in recent months. Ended up taking a handful of straw from a Pig sty nearby, hope she didn’t mind!
Approaching summer the Mosquitos were out in full force so tried out my new mosquito repellant from …Avon, yes that same company they sell door to door, to early to tell if its good or not but for that one camp it seemed to work a treat, even if I did smell like a perfume store!
Then sat down to do a load of reading and note taking in my Bushcraft and Personal journals respectively, after which I took a much needed powernap in my hammock chair
For lunch I knocked up some pasta’n’sauce which is actually quite tasty and dead easy to prepare, afterwards I did a small bit of carving but not as much as i’d like simply due to spending so much time reading
I then processed the hay I had collected earlier to use as tinder bundle, once prepared I made the birds next and ignited some char cloth using traditional flint and steel. Once I had some ignited char cloth I placed it in the tinder bundle, usually it takes 30-60 seconds for it to ignite after some nurturing and during this time I quickly check my camera to change angles and see it’s still recording
But on this occasion it lit within seconds and burst into a ball of lames, which I quickly had to place on my fire pit and surround by kindling I had prepared from some fallen Ash, I was elated at succeeding in doing this as everything was wet, that was until I realised that my DSLR had stopped recording literally seconds after placing my char cloth into my tinder bundle …I was devastated!
It is what it is but I would have loved to have captured that on camera, not out of vanity but due to feeling proud I had managed to light it successfully in such adverse conditions
I then prepared some filleted rainbow trout and sweet potato sprinkled with some Old Bay spice, love that stuff, I followed this by some lovely hot chocolate
Food came out lovely and I slept on a full stomach feeling content at such a glorious day. The night was extremely mild so much so I pretty much laid on top of my sleeping bag, only between the hours 2am-4am did I get in the sleeping bag due to a touch of cold
I got up nice and early to sound of the morning chorus and packed away my stuff leaving the site just as I had found it
I appreciate you reading thus far and I have also posted some photos of my time out onto my fanpage, you can check those out by clicking the link below