At last, the late frosts have finally gone it seems and as predicted, a few warmer days, a few rain showers and the ground and trees seems to have sprung into life. Of course the wakening of the woods starts far earlier but it isn’t that obvious on the surface. There is actually growth to see now on the trees and on the floor of the woods.

Todays walk found me batting away flying insects, coming across two bumblebees and a fritillary butterfly. I also noticed a nuthatch and a willow tit. I even heard the sound of spring. The woodpecker’s hammering echoing through the wood. Before I settled down for a brew, I noticed a movement in the undergrowth and came across a young rabbit trying hard to remain camouflaged in the leaf litter. It remained stock still as I approached and I was able to get very close to take some photos. This moment was spring personified. The sound, the smell, the visions of spring.

With the arrival of spring came the arrival of my hammock from DD hamocks. This was the last piece of kit to make up my basic Bushcraft items. My main project today was to rig the hammock and try it out with the tarp. It was all quite easy and not as complicated as I feared. The tarp went up first (as it had just started to rain) and the hammock was slung underneath. I had researched into various types and makes of hammock. Hennesey Hammocks being the favoured it seems, but I just can’t justify £80. The DD came in at exactly £20. The tape ties are a bit strange as they are like draw strings. Thus there are two ends to tie around the tree. I ended up tying them as one piece and this worked quite well, but this method didn’t allow a great distnce between the trees. I will have to check this, but it worked ok for today and at least I didn’t collapse the hammock when I got in it.

The rain provided another situation and that was whether the tarp was long enough to cover the hammock. It wasn’t, therefore for severe weather, I would have to rig the tarp diagonally. The good thing about this hammock though is the double layer. I can slide in extra insulation or (as the photos on the website show) I can use the second layer as a cover. As it happens, there is enough spare material to almost wrap another layer around you anyway.

After rigging the tarp and hammock, I fired up the Swedish Army Trangia, had a brew and warmed through some baked beans. (Ok ok, not quite there with the wild fare yet!) It was so pleasant just to chill out, that my final task of finding some wood to make a couple of cooking utensils went by the board. Before packing away, I tried another few combinations with the tarp including the diagonal configuration. This did cover the hammock completely.

Verdict for the hammock…a resounding success. I think this beats tent and groundsheet my a long way. Wht didn’t we use this when I was in the Army? (Probably ‘cos we had to dig and dig and dig!) I still have to put it to the ultimate test though. The sleep out test!