Not long now and I'll be getting married!.. so it was
inevitable the stag-do had to be organised. As others suspected I had plans for
something different; personally I didn't fancy your normal stag-do, Seriously...
venturing into a drunken/violent town, spending a horrendous amount of money,
listening to music so loud I cant hear my friends speak and then probably
bordering on ill when I got home, if I got home at all! Nah that's not for me!.. So instead I
thought I would organise a large-camp. Pull-out a few close friends who don't
usually come camping and have a nice weekend in the woods. In beautiful
Cornish countryside, 10 close friends, food, drink, campfire & music with a
volume I could control!
The camp would be a large one to accommodate the group, we
setup a couple of large builders-tarp's (cheap-polythene ones), the main one was
6 meters long and covering the main fire, I wanted this so that the group would
still be comfortable if it were to rain. I would like to thank Scott for his
help in preparing our campsite a couple of days prior, we both did a lot of
bramble strimming and setting up tarps, shifting gear etc. and thanks to Nathan
for lending us tools and sawing a lot of dead wood!
I was looking forward to it being a great opportunity to
get my friends out camping, some of which haven't been out camping in years and
I knew they would enjoy it. Oh and my Dad was coming on the trip which I was
also greatly looking forward too!.. It'd be the first time I had ever been out
camping with him and at the same time I had the very exceptionally rare excuse
to get him drunk! We had some Archery, Air-Rifles & a Lake for fishing to keep
the lads entertained.
As you can imagine being a manly event all meals were very
meat orientated!.. We had a large BBQ with about 30 sausages
and
15 burgers! The meat itself was from the very land we were staying on, the wood
was surrounding by the fields of
Woodland Valley
so the meat was locally and organically farmed and tasted bloom'in hansom!
For the evening meal we had a Rabbit Stew planned on a
larger scale than normal, we had 6 Rabbits a ton of Veg and a 15 litre cooking
pot lined up. We had so much meat
and
veg that it didn't all fit in the 15-litre Army cooking pot we just bought so we
also had two additional Billy-cans on the go.
The Ex-MOD cooking pot has to be the largest cooking pot
I've ever bought, but it was perfect for what we needed, it had two lids and a
mechanism on the handle that locked the lids in tight turning it into a pressure
cooker almost! This monster of a cooking pot was purchased for a reasonable
price at
www.tentsplus.co.uk
As you can imagine the pot-hanger we used had to be more heavy-duty than normal to take
this immense weight of stew!.. It was dewily tested prior to the pots going on
and yes it held my weight nicely :)
The
stew was a great evening meal to make, it was very much a communal meal with
most people helping out in one way or another whether it was peeling veg,
preparing the rabbits or collecting firewood, it all got done. A few of the
group were sceptical about trying Rabbit, but in the end everyone loved it! The
stew went down very well with all, with everyone going back for more, there was
so much of it we kept it on the edge of the fire all evening, keeping nice and
hot slowly reducing down more and more! It was still being consumed by some at
3am by which time it was reduced to a stunning soup!
The weather turned out superb, all weekend it was nothing
but sun, no wind, surprising considering the summer we've had, even the entire
night was dry and still.
Some of the gang, from the left: Gerry Cawley, Rich Cawley, Scott Dursley,
Ashley Cawley, Karl Wakefield, Dan Streeter.
You can see the entire photo collection
of this event (356
photos) here:
Camping with my Friend at Woodland Valley
- August 17th 2008
Well so far this summer has been pretty dam wet! And myself
and a friend have been gaging to get out in the woods, whether it was wet or dry
we were off for a couple of days at
Woodland Valley
in Laddock, Cornwall. We were very lucky, a miracle break in the weather, two
dry days and a perfectly still night, with a clear sky and a bright moon. Here's
a look round our camp...
This was my first solo camping trip to Dartmoor. I planned
for three days, unfortunately I had to cut it short and did just two days. A
servre-weather warning was issued just a few hours after I was dropped off, it
wasn't forecast before I left! At about midnight it started coming down with
torrential rain and it never stopped until I left the moor the next day!
Something like 15 hours of continuous rain up until the point I left (and it was
still raining then!).
The fact is it was getting uncomfortable; The non-stop rain
was stopping me from doing things I wanted to do! I planned to cook,
learn/tracking and move camp to another wood. I also acquired a small injury to
my hand being tired and wet the day before. I couldn't foresee being able to
pack up all my camp and move myself and kit a few miles to a different wood
without getting all my kit drenched! So with it all going down hill I thought I
would call it a day and left the moor early.
I managed to get the camera out for the first day as the
rain held off, but it didn't come out once on the second day.
Click on the album on the right for photos and videos of
the trip.
Watching
Foxes - 23rd May 2008
This evening was a magical evening. What started out as a
casual stroll down the local estuary with the point and shoot camera turned into
a wonderful nature watching experience. Walking along a luscious over-grown path
I had spotted fields and woods on my left and the Gannel estuary down on my
right. As I came to a wooden gate on the path I noticed the field on my left
looked more wild than the rest, spotted with Gorse, Thistle and Dock. It didn't
take long to spot a rabbit or two.
With
a good tree line around the field I decided to sit under a beautiful oak tree at
the bottom corner of the steeply-sloping field, I thought I would wait quietly
for 20-30minutes and see what I could see. Well it started with a few large
rabbits and then just a minute later I heard cherps from a bluetit, there she
was right infront of me, staring straight at me and occasionally hoping from
branch to branch, she flew off and then came back with a big juicy caterpillar
in her mouth. Soon joined by a second they were dancing around me in the tree,
trying to get closer and closer, as I soon twigged they were trying to get to an
upright log right infront of me. After 10-15 minutes the birds became accustomed
to me and built up the courage to land on the oak-limb just feet infront of me,
as soon as they landed on it, it was obvious it was hollow and I heard half a
dozen tiny cherps!... There was a bluetit nest in the hollow stump and yes the parents
were back and forth feeding their little ones.
Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted in the field what I thought were more
bunnies hoping about, but these were a little larger and more playful! They were
infact fox cubs! A fair distance on the slope of the steep field they were
chasing each other amongst the spotted Gorse. Between myself and them was the
occasional Gorse bush, perfect for me to creep between and get closer to them!
These were the first fox-cubs I had ever seen in the wild, so I patiently
watched ands tried to capture some footage on my point and shoot camera. I did
manage to compile a short video that I enjoy, I managed to get real close in the
end...
I have been back a couple times since and have enjoyed some lovely evenings
waiting and watching nature go by, however I haven't spotted my fox family again
(yet!). I've had a few russels very close to the earth and me, defiantly the
foxes and found fresh Scat but just missed them.
Of course after submitting my video to YouTube I checked out Pablo's latest
videos as I usually do and found out that he'd beaten me to it! Well done Pablo,
you
Article
Created : 14/06/2008
Last Updated :
04/10/2008
plans for
something different; personally I didn't fancy your normal stag-do, Seriously...
venturing into a drunken/violent town, spending a horrendous amount of money,
listening to music so loud I cant hear my friends speak and then probably
bordering on ill when I got home, if I got home at all! Nah that's not for me!.. So instead I
thought I would organise a large-camp. Pull-out a few close friends who don't
usually come camping and have a nice weekend in the woods. In beautiful
Cornish countryside, 10 close friends, food, drink, campfire & music with a
volume I could control!
burgers! The meat itself was from the very land we were staying on, the wood
was surrounding by the fields of
and
veg that it didn't all fit in the 15-litre Army cooking pot we just bought so we
also had two additional Billy-cans on the go.
The
stew was a great evening meal to make, it was very much a communal meal with
most people helping out in one way or another whether it was peeling veg,
preparing the rabbits or collecting firewood, it all got done. A few of the
group were sceptical about trying Rabbit, but in the end everyone loved it! The
stew went down very well with all, with everyone going back for more, there was
so much of it we kept it on the edge of the fire all evening, keeping nice and
hot slowly reducing down more and more! It was still being consumed by some at
3am by which time it was reduced to a stunning soup!
Watching
Foxes - 23rd May 2008
