Paul's 2014

[Rasputin]

[Paul De Fitter]

The new stealth camp sounds interesting mate I look forward to seeing it.

If you can find it mate, you can have it

[Midge_Fodder]

Sounds like you've had a grand time. Shug

[Paul De Fitter]

10-12 March

I'd arranged to attend a pub meet with some people from the BCUK forum on Mon night 10 March.
They are wanting to get a Kent group together for meet's Etc.
Also I arranged to meet James on Tue for an overnighter, James phoned me to see if all was well with the plan, yep all's fine.
He then asked why I'm not going out on the Mon as usual, so I told him about the pub meet.
"How about I come with you to the pub then after the meet we can go to the woods & get 2 nights in"
"Now that's a plan"
So James & I turned up at the pub by 8.30, we got a pint in & sat down at the table with the new Kent group, we had a bit of a chin wag, downed our pints & set off to the woods before it got too late.

We arrived at the car park at 9.30ish & set off to find our stealth site.
"will you find it in the dark" says James
"I reckon so, & if we don't we'll just set up camp wherever we are!"
"Cool, lead on my man"
We found the site with no problem, mainly due to my superior navigation skills...& a bit of luck
We set up our tarp's Etc, collected some wood & settled down for a bit of fire watching.

We awoke next morning at about 8 & had a leisurely breakfast.
James looked at the shambles that was his set up.
"I think I'll re-hang my hammock"
"yeah, try doing it with your eye's open this time"
He set up around the corner a bit, to get away from the snoring...I never heard any snoring.

At lunch time we made a Sweedish fire log thing, not the whole log split but the one you make with a bunch of small branches.
It worked fine till it fell to bit's, luckily we saved the lunch from falling in the dirt.

We also made a pot hanger so James could cook up a risotto for the evening meal.

We had a scout around by the stream after collecting some water, James spotted something sticking out of the bank.
"ere wot's that"
"look's like some sort of man made thing"
So we got down on our hands & knees to have a look.
"Looks like a bottle!"
10 minutes later we had dug it out, it is a old bottle with a screw top, not with the cap on the outside but with a cork/lid that screwed into the neck, it was at water level about 2 feet below the surface of the land, we think it might be victorian or maybe a 1930's beer bottle that some bloke bunged away after a hard day's work.

Last time out after I aired my kit I noticed that I didn't have my big Swiss army knife I searched high & low for it, with no luck.
I told james about it on the way in to the woods.
Later that day James said.
"Hold your hand out"
"why ? have you got a dollop of poop to give me"
"hold your hand out"
"ok"
So I put my hand out & James put my Swiss army knife in to my sweaty palm.
"Arrrr you beauty, thanks mate, where was it"
"Just there, looking at me"
Needless to say I am very happy to get it back, this is the knife that I used for the one knife challenge that I set myself in 2012, it was like losing my right arm, so now I find myself checking my pocket every 2 min's.

What else ?..
We had a trip back to the car to check up on it & also stock up on our beer ration for the night

James had with him a small axe that he had cut down to make a tomahawk, so he set about putting it to the test, cutting dead wood, splitting, feather sticking Etc
All went well till the head fell off, or more precisely flew off, straight up into the air, we had to run & keep our eye's on it at the same time.
"Might need a bit of work on it yet" said James
"Yeah ? why's that then"
"Oh you know, tweaking and that"

After sun down James cooked up the evening meal, we drank our beer, watched the bushcraft TV then bed.

Next morning we got up at about 8 & again had a slow breakfast.
We packed camp & was back to the car at midday.

This was a fine trip, the time just flew by & we had a great time.

Paul

[simonc]

Hiya mate,
Looks like you had a good time yet again "WHERE'S THE VIDEO"? Now you've got a camera there's no excuses.
Good news about your knife, is that the one with your name engraved on it?
All the best fella

Simon

[headshot]

crackin posts,look forward to more...after you get permision from the wife lol...atb kev

[Paul De Fitter]

Hiya mate,
Looks like you had a good time yet again "WHERE'S THE VIDEO"? Now you've got a camera there's no excuses.
Good news about your knife, is that the one with your name engraved on it?
All the best fella

Simon

Oh yeah, the video, well, I must remember to bring the bleeding camera.
Yep that was the knife, I nearly cried when I noticed it gone

Thanks headshot, I don't need permission from the wife, I do the telling in this house............don't let her know I said that

[ian c]

That is a good write up and enjoyed reading it, my Mrs tells me to go then moans when I get back but at least I get to go.

[Paul De Fitter]

22-23 March
Hi guys
I arraigned to meet up with MarvTommo from the pub meet I went on the other week.
After a few PM’s & texts we met up at 10.30 at my house, we put our kit into my car & set of for camp.

At camp I set up the tea hut tarp, rain was forecast for most of the day so we needed a shelter soon as, to put our gear under.
MarvTommo has had a bit of practice with his set up but wanted to be shown how to do the job properly, shame he only had me to show him the ropes.
I set up my hammock with Marv watching every step then the tarp with knots etc explained as best I could.
Marv has a new DD jungle hammock that he got for Christmas, & a very nice piece of kit it is, a review with pics can be found here ... http://theultimatehang.com/2014/03/d...system-review/

We set his hammock up then the tarp, Marv has a British army basher that was just too short to cover his hammock properly, so I swapped the tea hut tarp with the basher, the tea hut tarp is 3m long & the basher is 2.8m long, so my tarp covered his hammock a lot better.
By now it was time for lunch, so it’s out with the cook set’s, then lots of talk about cooking Etc, I had my canteen cup cook set & marv had his hobo stove, tranger burner combo.
After lunch we went off to the stream to collect some water, with a bit of navigation practice thrown in, back at camp we set about collecting fire wood for later, we then had some axe & knife skill practice, splitting, making feather sticks, bashing the hell out of the axe Etc.

The next thing we know is that the sun is going down & it’s time to get the fire going, of course Marv wanted to try his fire kit, he got the fire going using char cloth & fero rod aided by some birch bark & dried ferns, we soon had a good cooking fire going, after we had a bed of coals I set about cooking up some steak & onion tortilla wraps all washed down with lashings of coffee.
Later we got the fire built back up, cracked a few beers & talked bushcraft for a few hours.
Marv was looking forward to using his hammock for the first time & jumped into bed the second the beer ran out.

I got up late in the morning, I slept like a log, Marv was all ready up when I dragged myself out of my hammock, he was very pleased with his hammock system & was raving about it, and it looks like he is hooked.
After breakfast we struck camp & was ready to leave by 11.30ish.
Just as we put our packs on, it started to rain for about 5 mins, & that was that, so much for the forcast.

[simonc]

I was starting to get worried reading that, the beers wern't mentioned until right at the end looks like you were almost trying to hide something.

Glad you both had a good time, ya know I'm sure I could feel my ears burning that night I bet it was something to do with big fires and Camp Blaze

If you are going to have a fire make it a bigun!!lol