Woodlife

Friday afternoon saw the start of another 24 hour excursion. Well, 21 hours actually. There were three main objectives: Ground dwelling, testing out the new Nanok bag and Birch tapping.
The afternoon started off fine. I left the hammock and tarp behind and armed with only with the SA Trangia, Crusader cup, axe, bivvi bag, Nanok sleeping bag and Thermarest (plus some food and water) I ventured into my normal woods. I’d taken a few things out of the rucksack. No wash kit, no hammock, no tarp and only 2.5 litres of water. The bag didn’t actually feel much lighter, but it certainly all went into the 55 litre rucksack.

I found a nice dead tree to lean against or sit on and I’d set everything up in an hour including gathering fire wood and preparing the fire. As darkness fell, I settled down for a pre-made stew, and the obligatory cup of tea. The Thermarest and Nanok were inside the bivvi bag and I must admit, I was tempted to get straight in. But – there were Badgers to watch, and it was a great evening to do so. I’ll write up about this next time.

After returning from the Badger watch, the first thing to do was light the fire. Strangely, not as easy as when I did this last time, after all I should be used to the firesteel by now. I kept my cool, took a deep breath and after a few minutes the Birch bark caught. Up went the fire…and down went the Brandy. The new Nanok bag was calling and it wasn’t too long, despite my efforts to enjoy the moment, before I was overcome by sleep.

Even though I woke a few times during the night, I don’t think it was because of the cold. It was more due to me rolling off the Thermarest and on to the hard ground. I felt my hips begin to ache. Even with the Thermarest, I wasn’t used to hard surfaces. This ground dwelling isn’t all its cracked up to be, and I reflected that maybe I ought to stick with the hammock.

The night time temperature was no lower than 5 degrees C so I don’t think it’s fair to comment on the bag at the moment except to say that it was comfortable and you felt as though it was looking after you!

After breakfast, it was Birch tapping time. After an initial false start where I went to the wrong side of the tree so that the sap trickled everywhere except in the bottle, I managed to fill a good size container in about an hour and a half. I’ve posted a short video on Pablo’s Video Channel. It had a wonderful taste, slightly glucose but mainly a tasting of pure refreshing water, albeit slightly thicker than normal. I was really pleased to have done this as I’ve read a lot about it. My method wasn’t really conventional but it achieved the aim and the tree was stopped at the end to prevent ingress of infection.

As the wind increased I decided to call it a day. My legs were starting to ache from getting up and down from the bivvi bag on the ground. It had been an experience to sleep on the ground with no cover, but I have confirmed what I always thought. Tree dwelling in the hammock is the one for me.

Next post…results of the Badger watch.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.