Woodlife

Taking advantage of the good weather, I decided to stay over night in the local woods.

I like going to meets and seeing other folk but I also love staying in the woods on my own.

I took my Snugpak bivi bag, Exped synmat and a thin sleeping bag. I wanted to be low-profile in case the deer came close. As it turned out, I only saw them on the other side of the path about 50 yards away.

I took my mini trangia, the saucepan of which was good enough to heat up some rice and chicken while the little frying pan was sufficient to do a couple of rashers of bacon on edible plates (tortillas) for the morning’s breakfast. Of course the crusader is never too far away and serves to boil up water as well as a secondary cooking pot if necessary.

The heaviest item in the bag was 3 litres of water in an MSR Dromedary.

After looking around for night-activity (only more fallow and barking muntjac were seen) I came back and lit a token fire using my fire steel and some pine tree dust mixed in with maya stick scrapings.

There was no sign of the expected early morning deer activity at 4.30, so I had no option but to go back to sleep.

After the aforementioned bacon and egg and a cup of tea, I meandered around the woods and photographed anything of interest like these snails…

…this cardinal beetle…

…this speckled wood butterfly…

…and I think this is yellow pimpernel.

In the main, the wildlife stayed at a distance, but that didn’t stop me having a great time on my own in the woods.