I’m not long back from the BCUK Xmas Moot. And what a great couple of days it was. The moot (an old English word for meeting) was in well managed woodlands which turned out to be Swynn’s (the main organiser) local wood where he actively help manage the land. Consequently, the woods contain a large variety of trees and plant life. Our space was a small wooded area at the back of a farm, latching on to about 300 acres of the said woodland.

After a quick recce, I decided to pitch the tent as opposed to rigging tarp and hammock, although most people had hammocks and tarps up. It wasn’t long before introductions were made and the ‘inspections’ of other people’s areas took place. My Vaude Ferret tent actually attracted quite a bit of interest. I was interested to compare the different tarps and hammocks. Most had the MagiKelly’s BCUK group buy hammock from bali with under blanket or a Hennesey. Those who had stayed the night before had differing views about how warm the under blankets were from ‘toasty’ to ‘b***dy freezing!’ I was impressed by the 3m x 3m tatonka tarp. That’s definitely one for my upgrade list.

The communal fire was soon underway. My colleague, Paul and I decided to take a wander through the woods. The weather was absolutely great with a temperature of 5 degrees C and clear, clear skies. Although I couldn’t identify most of the trees, I certainly appreciated the wood’s diversity. We were delighted to spot a Red Kite gliding at low level over the local village green, but apart from that, we only saw the odd squirrel and the noisy Jay.

After a bit of lunch, we watched a demonstration of pheasant skinning (the proper way to do it) which subsequently went into the pot for the evening’s stew. Rich was doing his usual rolling tutorial on fire by friction. How that guy can get a coal in this weather in such a short time continues to amaze me. Rich demonstrated other friction methods including flint and steel and bow drill. George (THE font of all knowledge) showed us atalatal skills and how to make them. I don’t think that I’ll be entering this if it became an olympic sport, but it certainly whet my appetite to make one myself and learn to throw it properly.

Around about 4 o’clock, the sun went in and the temperature plummeted. The pheasant soup warmed the belly and the mulled wine (and mulled cider and home made mead!) warmed the soul. I spent the evening hopping from the communal fire to the barn where, apart from the bushcraft tales and talk, there was a suitcase full of sharp, shiny things for us all to get our hands on. I at last handled a Stuart Marsh knife, finding it quite heavy. I was impressed by the Brusletto Norron and the Kellam Wolverine. Perhaps the larger 4mm knives are too thick and heavy for for me. I also tried out a Granfors mini hatchet. Now that is nice little tool, allegedly made by the Granfors smithies in their  lunch break.

The owner of the suitcase had a Bark River PSK around his neck, saying that it was his ‘knife of the moment’. I didn’t need to question him anymore about how it performed when this was his EDC out of a suitcase of upwards of 50 very expensive and varied knives.

The mulled everything soon got the better of me and I retired to the Vaude. I woke up 3 times with the cold, even though I had a Thermarest, sleeping bag and fleece liner. I came to the conclusion that my ‘cigarrette-paper-thickness-£30′ sleeping bag was to blame. Another upgrade to add to the list! I finally went into a deep sleep and dreamt of Kellams and Bruslettos on my belt and a mini hatchet in my back pocket.

Next day of the moot soon.

I eventually climbed out of the Vaude tent about 9 o’clock, which was late for me. I normally wake just after dawn whenever I’m in the woods (no matter what the season). Perhaps the interrupted sleep due to the cold had something to do with it (or maybe the mulled wine). I even missed the hard frost that apparently covered everything in white. The sun was now streaming through the trees promising at least a fine morning. I hadn’t checked the temperature during the night, but at the moment it was about 4 degrees C. Cold enough to numb the fingers and toes.

I certainly reaped the benefit from base-layer clothing and fleece material outers. An ideal combination for dry, cold conditions. After the usual breakfast (the obligatory tin of ‘All Day Breakfast’) and sweet tea with a drop of rum, we went for another wander in the woods, purely to warm up.

This time we were a little more aware of our surroundings and managed to identify a few more trees that Swyn was talking about around the fire the night before. We also saw the indentations of the stray stick of bombs dropped by a German WW2 aircraft.

The communal fire was going full throttle on our return. George challenged us to figure out how the Wimmie Diddle worked (no, I couldn’t find it on Google either). It’s apparently based on a Native American toy. The photo shows the propeller spinning and the idea is to change its direction without stopping the scraping action that caused it to spin in the first place. Confused…we were! Anyone with more information on this, I’d be glad to hear it.

All too soon it was time to pack away. The clouds were coming in from the south west with the promise of forecasted afternoon rain. A few others had the same idea which was at least pack the gear away before any downpour occurred. Weather-wise, it had been perfect conditions for a moot. Cold, crisp and dry. The company had been excellent and the knowledge sharing beyond reproach. Another great moot.

Continuation from Saturdays entry

… I had tracked the deer and spotted 5 of them on the outskirts of the wood. I originally identified them as Fallow but sitting under the poncho in the rain, I wasn’t so sure. The distance between us was about 50 meters, it was raining hard and even though one of them stood staring at me for a good two minutes, I was not convinced she was a Fallow deer. More likely a Roe. The easiest way of identifying between the two is to have a look at their rumps. Unfortunately, the deer I was looking at was side on. The Fallow has a striped effect rump (white and black rump with a black tail), while the Roe has a white rump (as shown in photo courtesy of museums.ncl.ac.uk). The Roe is smaller and is in fact the smallest of Britain’s native deer. They have become scarce in some areas of Britain. It seems nobody knows exactly why, but I believe they are becoming more widespread again. Certainly in this area of the country, they are quite abundant (except of course in these particular woods).

The more I mused, the colder I got. I had rearranged the poncho to stop the rain pouring through the hood (yes… a good idea to tie up the hood!) and I had angled the poncho to let the rain run off to my right. I had already had a good drenching because I had forgotten to do these simple tasks. It was not particularly cold, but I realised that a combination of damp clothes (what I was wearing had done a pretty good job so far), the lack of activity and the wind-chill was all having an effect of making me cold through to the core (or seemed that way). It was time to act and that didn’t mean walking to the van which was about a minutes walk away.

I gathered a few damp pieces of wood and tried to make a couple of feather sticks. I used my new Companion II knife for the first time and was pleased to say that it performed well. I, however didn’t and the feather sticks were not a great success. I pulled out the tinder from my shoulder bag and after making a small platform of wood and shavings, I lit the tinder with the fire steel. This wasn’t very successful either, and it was a good 5 minutes before the tinder caught. By this time, the shavings and feather sticks were damp again and it was extremely difficult to keep the fire going. The wind had also veered without me realising it at the time and was making matters worse by blowing strongly on the exposed part of the fire. On reflection, I should have a) kept more out of the wind by selecting a more sheltered spot and b) kept the tinder and kindling in a drier state.

All was not lost and at least I did get a small fire going. The fuel was very damp though and it soon petered out. It was certainly not enough to get warm and I considered that if I would have had to stay out longer, I would have needed to prepare the wood much better. Even though I was pleased with the knife, I certainly missed the axe for doing these wood chopping duties.

As it was, I had had enough. I had been out for 4 hours and I was getting colder and colder and wetter and wetter. My gloves were soaking and it was all I could do to take down the poncho and pull on my day sack. As with the axe, I certainly missed the tarp. Even the remnants of the flask of tea weren’t enough to warm me up. I retreated to the van and gratefully drove the short journey home.

An hour later, with feet still thawing even after a hot shower, I thought about the highs and lows of the day. I was delighted I had found the deer, but I wasn’t too pleased about the way I went about trying to ‘survive’. I had made a couple of fundamental mistakes setting up the poncho, the location of my site (nearly facing the wind and on top of a rise), and the lack of preparation for the fuel for the fire. I had nevertheless, actually got a fire alight even for a short time. I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that this time last year. I hadn’t panicked when things went wrong nor become frustrated and given up. Some of these things I might have done in the past. Still lots to learn though.

The forecast was for clear skies, no wind, no rain, but cold… very cold. Minus 5 degrees C was predicted. The moon was also going to be full. What more can a Bushcrafter want? I rushed home from work and after a false start of putting the kit into the 55 litre rucksack and then remembering I would have to take 3 litres of water, I re-loaded the kit into the Karrimor Sabre 75 and rushed out to the woods. I would have just one hour before dusk to sort out the camp and prepare for the ice cold evening.

I had packed the hammock and smaller tarp. I had debated on sleeping on the ground in the bivvi bag, but I hadn’t used the hammock for a while, so hammock it was. Strangely, I put the hammock up first which was something I don’t normally do. Normally, it’s the tarp and I instantly regretted my decision as I had to muck about getting the hammock straight and the tarp at the right height. (The photo below was taken the following morning). I was losing daylight fast and I still hadn’t gathered any fire wood. At last the tarp and hammock were sorted and the sleeping bag was laid over the Thermarest. One of my aims tonight was to see how my cheap sleeping bag would stand up to the cold and whether I could justify getting a four season one. I had brought a fleece blanket, but that was all. This bag hasn’t got a rating, but I pretty sure it’s only two season. I wasn’t exactly warm at the December moot and that was in a tent.

I gathered the fire wood choosing only the driest pieces and laid them down in order of size. After learning some harsh lessons recently about not preparing a fire properly, I took my time to lay down a small cooking fire with the intention of lighting it when I came back from my ‘night safari’. A nice piece of birch bark from a dead tree went into my trouser pocket to dry out.

After a Trangia cooked bolognaise, I went out for a walk in the woods. It was about eight o’clock and it felt like midnight. The moon was astonishingly bright and sent an ethereal light through the woods. I was amazed at how the tracks and trails stood out in this light. I rarely use a torch in the woods, although I had my Tikka XP head torch (with slide-across red filter) for use in an emergency, but I could quite clearly see my way. I always use a walking stick for extra stability when walking at night in case of unseen holes and I walk even slower than my normal tracking pace. Despite these precautions, I still managed to find a deep hole filled with water. Luckily, the water didn’t reach over by rubber boots and I was spared a night of freezing feet.

I ended up at the badger setts and sat down in the vain hope that I would see one. The wind had dropped taking the wind-chill factor away from the temperature and I reflected on the decision to come out tonight. The howling owls and shrieking foxes followed by long periods of silence together with the amazing moon light made the whole experience fantastic.

About 10 pm I moved back to the tarp site. I had only seen a hunting tawny owl and, of course, no badgers. I scraped the birch bark for use as tinder and used the fire steel to set it alight. I had never done this in the dark, although I couldn’t really say that tonight was exactly pitch black. Fourth strike and away it went. The tinder went straight under the thin twigs used as kindling. Dry, dead plant stalks were added and the fire was well under way. Just shows what a bit of planning can do. I soon had a moderate fire on the go which, although not particularly physically warming (the temperature was now minus 2 degree C) it was certainly heart warming. So was the brandy!

After stoking and staring at the fire for 2 hours – can’t believe how time flies in the woods – I was ready to turn in. I entered the hammock by my tried and tested method (climb into sleeping bag standing up and gently fall into the hammock) and then fought to wrap the blanket around me. Although not an easy task, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought, and after much wriggling (which included starting over because I had forgotten to blow the candle lantern out!) I was settled. The silence of the woods enveloped me and I drifted off to sleep.

I only woke twice. Once at 2:15. My back was cold and I realised that the blanket had moved off my back (I always sleep on my side). I also noticed a gentle breeze had got up and was blowing directly from the north onto my back. I should really have made the tarp’s back edge at least cover this side of the hammock against any northerly wind. After a bit of reorganisation of the blanket, the cold spot was covered. All was quiet and it wasn’t too long before I was asleep again. The second time, I needed to pee. Again, it wasn’t too long before I was asleep.

Dawn came and I woke to a heavy frost. Everything was white, and I was warm! Maybe I don’t need that other sleeping bag after all, however that was without any wind to add to the freezing temperature. I spent the rest of the morning walking through the woods watching the squirrels, blue tits and my first sighting in these woods of a Gold crest. I finally cleared up the site, had a last mug of tea, packed up and made my way to the van. 21 hours after leaving the house, I wandered in with a satisfied but tired smile on my face. It had been an opportunity too good to miss.

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.

I thought it would be fun to do a post from the woods. So here it is. No pics as this is email to blogger and not a mobile blog. I’ll cheat and add one later.

I’ve been playing with my new pocket cooker and have made a video of this and some other cooksets to post later on.just seen a fox wander by. Gave me a strange look and went on its way. Saw a weasel earlier. Not seen one of these elusive creatures for years.

Bright sunny at the moment but wind still strong from the NE. Warm enough for my favourite bushcraft past_time… a good doze in the hammock! Until later…This is Pablo from a wood in Essex

I’ve had a day catching up on emails, blogs and sleep after returning from Majorca. Naturally, I spent a couple of hours in the local woods seeing what was new. A few clumps of Lesser celandine was growing well and several bright yellow Brimstone butterflies were out and about.

I thought of the difference between these woods here and the woods I visited in Majorca. S’Albufera woods are squeezed between the sandy coastline and the wetlands of the National Park. They are covered mainly by conifers and the area is obviously well managed with tracks and trails to follow. Some areas leading to the dunes were protected to prevent erosion. I spent a day winding in and out of the smaller trails, foraging on the beach and photographing anything of interest. This amounted to a number of different plants that I’ve yet to identify and general views of the area. The woods floor was generally sandy based and covered with pine needles

inter-dispersed with low bushes and grasses. In some areas the foliage was quite dense, while other areas were sparse with just the conifers standing alone and eerily angled and shaped by the northerly wind. The two different types of areas gave the woods a bushcrafters dream for sites. Some of the denser areas provided natural shelters out of the foliage without the need to build and the conifers would have provided more than enough choice for rigging tarp and hammock.

If out bushcrafting for any length of time, water and natural food would have been a problem. There was no flowing water and I saw little evidence of mammals. Smaller rodents maybe (judging by a couple of chewed pine cones) but few rabbit droppings and certainly no larger mammals like deer. Bird-life was a different matter and I spotted a number of species common to UK areas, like the Wrens, Blackbirds, Pigeons and Thrushes. My aim to get a photo of the wonderful Hoopoe failed. I saw a number of them but I was too slow with the camera.

Fire would not have been a problem. Of course in this tinder dry area fires are forbidden, but some areas were littered with deadwood. A forage on the beach would also have provided more than enough drift wood. Tinder was also abundant with the dried grasses and sedges cropping up in the areas bordering the dunes.

All in all, it was a good day’s exploration. I’ll describe the other excursions to the wetlands, mountains and bronze age Taliots over the next few weeks.

Pablo.

The last week I’ve managed to have a few great days out finishing off my holiday nicely. I’ve visited all the local woods and spent Friday night out with a 24 hour excursion.

I didn’t really have a particular project, but I wanted to make a few changes to my 24 hour kit. The idea was to try and make everything fit in my new 30 litre bag. The first thing I changed was to swap out the SA Trangia for a simple Trangia burner, Hexy cooker stand and Crusader cup mix. This cut down on a lot of bulk and weight. I decided to take the larger tarp, as I’d not slept under this before. Again took the trusty DD hammock.

The other change I made was to split the utility bag into two, putting tarp pegs, bungees and cordage in one while putting the headlamp, sharpening stone and water purifier in the other. Not exactly saving weight here, but more manageable. I also decided to take just 2 litres of water in two water bottles instead of 3 litres in the water carrier. This would also save space in the bag. The result was that indeed, everything fitted nicely into the 30 litre bag (except the Nanok sleeping bag). My shoulder bag took the usual additional stuff including the new GB mini hatchet.

It was a standard night out: The cacophony of the Rookery at dusk; Badger watch with no sign of a Stripey at all (!); a nice open fire to end the evening with warmed up soup; woken by barking muntjacs at 3am; woke at dawn and climbed out of the hammock as the sun warmed the wood at 10am with a squirrel staring at me from about 3 feet away.

I also decided to try Seorus’s idea of putting the Thermarest inside the sleeping bag. The Nanok bag has a zip each side, therefore it was quite easy to slip the Thermarest inside it, get in the bag while the bag is in the hammock and zip it up (instead of getting in the bag before ‘falling’ into the hammock as I usually do). The system worked well and as stated by Seorus, the Thermarest didn’t slide around in the hammock. Usually I wake up with the Thermarest a 45 degrees to the hammock and the foot of sleeping bag pointing out at the same angle the other way! I’ll certainly try this method again.

I realised that by leaving the Trangia behind I’d also left my spork, which would make eating my lunchtime tinned Ravioli a bit awkward. So I quickly fashioned a simple fork using the Opinel. Ha! This is what Bushcraft is all about. Adapting to the situation (as simple this might be on this occasion). It was only the thought of a decent dinner waiting for me that I left the woods in the middle of the afternoon.

Today was an ideal day for taking a walk around Broak’s Wood, with temperatures in the 20′s C and clear sunny skies. These ancient woods never cease to amaze me and I’d quite forgotten that this time of year yields a spectacular display of Bluebells in the older part of the wood. English woods have some of the best Bluebell displays in the world and account for 20 per cent of the world population of the flower. One has to be aware that there are hybrids; the native Bluebells interbreeding with the introduced Spanish variety. To tell the difference, follow this link. You must be there to smell the wonderful sweet-scented fragrance of the Bluebell wood. Absolutely wonderful.

Other flowers in bloom were Red campion, Primula, Cowslips, Wild strawberry, White deadnettle, Ground ivy and Dog violet. I was pleased that I could identify these without looking them up. Speckled wood, Brimstone, and Peacock butterflies were quite abundant as well.

Oh well, back to work tomorrow!

Pablo.

S’Albufera National Park in Mallorca was originally a lagoon separated from the sea by a chain of sand dunes. Over the centuries, this has filled up with sediment to create an extensive floodplain and wetland area of Spanish national importance, harbouring a wide variety of wildlife.

The variety of the vegetation is dependent on the wetland area which in the main remains flooded most of the year. A large part of the water comes from rainfall reaching the area by seasonal streams and springs from subterranean aquifers known locally as ‘ullals’. Although the proximity of the sea water entering the area is relatively small, there is an impact of this on the flora and fauna alike.

The main vegetation is the reed and saw-sedge which grows to huge proportions. Amongst the smaller canals and ‘llisers’ (small lagoons) the fennel pondweed and hornwort grow while in the more brackish areas the rush and glasswort can be found. Amongst the dryer areas and woodland the white poplar, elm and tamarisk provide a haven for larger tree nesting birds. In the sandy areas the sea daffodil, and extremely rare ‘peu de mila’ and prickly juniper are found.

As for fauna, the fish and amphibian species do well with the eel, the Iberian frog and the European pond turtle in abundance. Small rodents can be found as well as 8 different bat species including the rare barbestelle bat. 300 moth species have been discovered as well as dragonflies, spiders and beetles.

The differing ecosystems are highly productive offering an abundance of bird life. To date some 271 species have been sighted with 61 species breeding in the area. It’s a popular wintering ground with large flocks of shovelers, teals, pochards and wigeon. Different species of heron and are among them. Other migrant species also visit such as swallows and sandpipers. The last group are ‘wanderers’ who make random visits such as cranes and the green ibis.

I started my ramble through the woods on the opposite side of the road and managed to enter through the ‘back door’ of the park. I was grateful of this, as I missed the noisy tourist entrance. I immediately started snapping away with the camera. By entering at the opposite side of the reserve it unfortunately meant that I missed obtaining the bird list at the visitor centre (until the end of the walk) and not having a Mediterranean Wildlife Guide book with me, I hadn’t a clue what I was photographing. I was however, able to sit and move on at peaceful leisure watching the antics of the wildlife on offer. It wasn’t long before I noticed a great white egret gracefully lifting from amongst the reeds closely followed by a purple heron. A later disturbance in far trees with a high branch almost bending in two could only have been a large raptor.

Speaking to one of the Rangers later, he said that it could easily have been a Marsh Harrier or even the escapee Golden Eagle that had been spotted recently. Unfortunately, despite watching for over half and hour and not managing to get closer because of one of the lagoons, I didn’t get another sight of what-ever-it-was.

I could go on and on about what I saw (at least what I thought I saw) but I wouldn’t be 100% definite on the sightings. What I would say is that this provided one of the highpoints of the holiday and I returned to base after walking about 11 kms around the reserve tired but satisfied. If like me, you find yourself on the on the island slightly perturbed by the prospect of overpriced tourist shops, beetroot-red North European visitors, and lack of significant Bushcraft time, I could only advise you to take time out to visit this wonderful area.

Pablo

I spent Saturday afternoon in the woods and achieved…well not much really. I managed to get a couple of nice pics of the Early purple orchid growing on the south side of the wood.

Sunday brought yet another fine day (hardly any rain in the UK for a month now) and I decided to seek out my next venture, which is to hire a canoe and explore the rivers around Cambridge area. On the spur of the moment, Mrs Pablo and I set off towards Cambridge (Mrs Pablo came on the assurance that I wouldn’t attempt to get her in a canoe!)

After a short journey (40 minutes by car) we ended by the banks of the River Cam itself. With no address for the canoe hire company (apparently they drop off the canoes at selected points) we were on to a loser from the start, however being such a wonderful day, we decided to stick around for the whole day, wandering up and down the river bank, exploring the college architecture and having a go on one of the punts. Hardly Bushcraft but highly enjoyable nevertheless and great fun.

It was quite inspiring and relaxing to punt up-river under the university bridges thinking of those who had studied at the different colleges that make up Cambridge University. Isaac Newton, Bacon, Babbage, Turing, AA Milne, and Darwin.

My post-compulsory academic career started just 7 years ago, only recently obtaining a Masters degree and I reflected on a missed opportunity of studying at such fine institutions when I was younger, although I wouldn’t have swapped this for the life experiences I gained in the services. The whole place put me in a philosophical frame of mind. It was nice to drift and dream. Dream of earlier days, what could have been and what inevitably was. “From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge” as the non-literal translation of Cambridge University motto goes. I could almost feel it seeping through the bricks and into the river itself.

I’ll be back mid-week with that Companion Mk 2 review.

Pablo