Time to get last bits for my next adventure, with my favourite youngest son
.Got up and first thing was to get to the shops and get some deet spray, been to Wales when the mozis have been rife and wished I had some then
, P de Fitter saved the day last time 
, well have to deal with that myself now.Next up Tarp and Hammock, (well you can’t get these things in a shop(at least not locally)), so had better fill up the car and drive for hours, not helped by crappy sat nav
(orange mobile) being read by not so crappy wifey nav 
, we eventually arrive at a house and a guy called Mr D (who some of you may know) answers “hellos “ all around and in we go, the first thing I notice is Mrs D tapping away on a laptop then I see he has a bow with (I think it’s called) a quiver of arrows on the wall, (hehe) I was only talking with wifey about getting something like that yesterday.Anyway back to subject, sort out transaction and Mr D very nicely throws in a few hats for HatMan
and sons, (who are all well happy with all our kit thanks Mr D), and we leave, in the car wifey turns to me and says “he’s a dish” followed by “did you see the photos of his kids, the all have the same smile and eyes”.Well Mr D can’t say I noticed your eyes or smile (it that way) but did see the photos of your kids and they look adorable.
When I got home I waited for the son to get in and then we packed our packs, it 3 hours took (hehe).
Boys and their toys.28-04-11
As my youngest son (Beef) and I am off today, thought I had best check out E-Weather , it says 20% chance of precipitation
(well Google time) apparently it means weather falling from the sky, and sunset is about 20:30.Collect Beef from school at 17:00 and listen to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
(Radio Series) on the way (always a pleasure), and arrive at the car park at 18:30.Wack on our packs and away we go, past ant hill bridge and all that, and we try to find the site I went to last time with PDF, after about 45 mins I decide it is unlikely that I will find the place again
(no bag hanging in the air for a start) and we have a scout around for a nice looking spot, and after another 30 mins we find a likely looking place (or at least a place without widow makers and it had trees).It will be dark in about 45 mins, hmm now I know that I am not uber fast at setting up camp being my 2nd time and I have Beef who is setting up for the first time,
so we set to rigging up his camp, with me showing him every knot then undoing it and making him do it again.Now I really am up against it, 15 mins left till sunset and the woods are getting dark (oops, did not take the woods into account for losing light)
, and I have my new DD tarp and hammock, never set those bad boys up before (well they pretty much hang themselves , again thanks Mr D) had them up without needing to get the head torch out 
.While I put up my DD stuff, Beef collected a load of wood and we were able to sit straight down with a fire and literally as the fire goes on so does the head torch (well around the neck),
have a brew and Beef asks for some jokes, I could not believe it he knew more jokes than me (he had been researching with a “1001 jokes book”), then it was time for bed (hammock)29-04-11
When we woke I got our the hobo stove and put on a brew and breakfast coffee and porridge (well breakslow, the stove does not work very well), while doing this we got the map out and had a look at where we thought we were, and after breakfast had a scout around.
We confirmed two things we were very close to where I thought we were but did not realise we were only about 25 paces from a path (oops) but still could not be seen from it even in daylight.
Back at camp we thought we should get the work out of the way so that we had the afternoon free, so it was time to make a bushcraft toilet (which we both used
) and collected firewood for the evening and show him how to break it down and made a new twatting stick.As we were doing this, I had a brew on and a woman walked along by the stream with about 10 dogs who obviously found us (grrr) so when the chores were complete we set out to find another camp for the next visit, and off we go following the natural(ish) contours of the land, the stream (or what is left of it) it’s getting very dry.
I am very pleased to be able to point out exactly where we are on the map a few times, and when we walk a little further and find some fallen trees with cover two sides,
the times get exciting, I walk around and explain to Beef why this could be the spot, back down to the stream we leave a marker so finding it should not be a problem again.When we got back to the camp again we relaxed for a bit, before breaking down more firewood using new twatting stick (Beef loved doing this
), and started to clean up a couple of walking staves we had found (unfortunately still not very good with trees, so can’t tell you what wood 
).Then dinner (couscous and sausage
) more bad jokes and bed.30-04-11
We both woke and just lay in the hammocks quietly contemplating the world (what a life this is, eh), sorted out some breakslow (porridge again, but this time with a mix of nuts and dried fruit, Mmm). We then packed up our kit and began to break camp.
We then walked the bits that we had made to the new camp (crapper and twatter), which we found no problem,
(feel like I am getting the hang of this compass business 
) (looking forward to learning more), went back and collected the rest of our kit and began the trek home.Beef commented “It’s odd that the packs are lighter but the walk seems longer”
.When we got in we cleaned the knives and axe then unpacked everything else.
Lessons learnt
• My hobo stove has problems, (being from Sean Mulhall’s thermos design) it’s too top heavy with the base being too thin (very unstable), and not enough air holes (think that’s my design flaw).
. Sunset happens when the sun goes below the treeline.
• Need to research how to hang the DD stuff quicker, with the equipment I have (i.e. no carabineers).
• And finally PRACTICE MORE (always a pleasure, never a chore).
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