It was nice to get back to the woods this weekend, especially as the temperature has soared to 31 degrees C. The woods were cool and it was great being back. It seemed as though it was even too hot for the crows, who were eerily quiet. These aren’t exactly what I would call pretty woods. They are not managed, there’s no rivers or streams but…there are no people. Apart from the tracks made by a vehicle that very occasionally go through the centre of the woods, it’s what I imagine truly wild woods to be. The woods floor is now covered with nettles which are chest high. The tracks are impossible to follow, and it’s only because I know the area that I can find my way through the west side. I did my usual walk from west to east, but even if there were any mammals, the chance of seeing them would be slim because of the height of the foliage. The swamp in east wood has completely dried up.

I wanted to do two things on this excursion. The first was to configure the tarp to a bivvi. I know I would rarely have a need for this, as I would either use my hammock or I would just kip down in a bivvi bag. If I went anywhere where there were no trees at all, I would probably take a tent anyway. But just in case, I thought I would see how it went. My second objective was to try out the civilian trangia in the field. I had only tried it out in the back yard.

I found a nice area of the wood on the south side of East wood. It was quite near the edge of the wood and there was enough grass to make a ground bivvi camp. The sunshine through the canopy mottled the floor, making the whole area nice and cool. Looking closer at the site made me think that it was also suitable for a hammock as well. So I named the site (well numbered it) No 5.

First mission then. I had brought an expandable bivvi pole with me to give me a start and also some tent pegs. I initially (and stupidly) put the bivvi pole on the front of the tarp. This made the whole thing too unsteady to fix out the guy ropes. I rectified this by moving the pole further out to the front. I finally straightened out the bivvi by pegging out the tarp and making it reasonably taught. I don’t think it would have help up to any great wind, but it would have kept off a bit of water had there been a shower.

Food time! I had brought makings of a full English breakfast with me. Mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs, bacon and beans. The trangia worked as expected. In fact it was too efficient as the flame got incredibly hot and was burning the beans. I then remembered about the simmer ring. I placed it on the burner and it immediately subdued the flame. I was also pleased that I had swapped out the standard frying pan for a non-stick version. All the utensils I had previously made and I was pleased that they were also effective as cooking utensils. The result was a great breakfast and a pleasing result from the trangia.

As I sat back and relaxed I spotted a tree creeper working it’s way round an oak tree. The cool of the woods again made me feel grateful that I was able to have access to these woods. On the walk back I noticed some Rosebay willowherb stretching its long stems to the sun.