garethw
18-07-2011, 09:04 PM
Just spent an overnighter out in the woods with my 15 year old son. The forest we chose was St Gobain in northern France, about 25 miles from home. It's one of the largest in the area at around 20,000 acres.
First off we hiked for about 5kms until we found a likely looking camp ground. Due to the numbers of mozzies and horse flies, we set up in a recently cleared area on a hilltop. This gave us a bit of a breeze in an attempt to keep the biting little swine away... worked too.
We set up my hammock and a ground dwell for Alex. He really enjoyed the outing, finding pieces of cut wood to make an impromptu chair and managing to get the fire going on his own.
Dinner was boil-in-the-bag pork with lentils and a side serving of chinese noodles.
The night was quite stormy, but they avoided our area. I must admit that as many of the surrounding trees were beeches I was worried about any falling boughs. None were visible above us, but as the winds got a bit stronger it left me a bit uneasy.
The rain though did come for a good part of the night, but we both slept fine. I'm really loving this hammocking so far this summer... Done over 20 nights since I got my DD Travel hammock. Alex too was fine under the tarp and poncho.
After a breakfast, this time knocked up on my pocket rocket... we set out for the hour or so hike back to the car.
A great 24 hours in the forest.
Here are a couple of snaps.
http://www.gwenllyn.com/gallery/woods01.jpg
The camp with the fire going...
http://www.gwenllyn.com/gallery/woods02.jpg
Alex in his make shift chair
http://www.gwenllyn.com/gallery/woods03.jpg
Robin hood with his coffee
cheers
Gareth
First off we hiked for about 5kms until we found a likely looking camp ground. Due to the numbers of mozzies and horse flies, we set up in a recently cleared area on a hilltop. This gave us a bit of a breeze in an attempt to keep the biting little swine away... worked too.
We set up my hammock and a ground dwell for Alex. He really enjoyed the outing, finding pieces of cut wood to make an impromptu chair and managing to get the fire going on his own.
Dinner was boil-in-the-bag pork with lentils and a side serving of chinese noodles.
The night was quite stormy, but they avoided our area. I must admit that as many of the surrounding trees were beeches I was worried about any falling boughs. None were visible above us, but as the winds got a bit stronger it left me a bit uneasy.
The rain though did come for a good part of the night, but we both slept fine. I'm really loving this hammocking so far this summer... Done over 20 nights since I got my DD Travel hammock. Alex too was fine under the tarp and poncho.
After a breakfast, this time knocked up on my pocket rocket... we set out for the hour or so hike back to the car.
A great 24 hours in the forest.
Here are a couple of snaps.
http://www.gwenllyn.com/gallery/woods01.jpg
The camp with the fire going...
http://www.gwenllyn.com/gallery/woods02.jpg
Alex in his make shift chair
http://www.gwenllyn.com/gallery/woods03.jpg
Robin hood with his coffee
cheers
Gareth