The woods are surrounded by fields, but it doesn’t take long to walk along the edges and access the wood. The first thing I noticed was the similarity to my normal woods. No woodland management, a whole load of fallen branches, and little undergrowth because of the dense tree canopy. There is some evidence of coppicing, but only on the outsides of the wood.

Having a quick look around, I noticed plenty of deer tracks (probably Roe deer) and fox. I also discovered that someone had built a watch ladder. I guessed that no-one had used it for a good 5 years judging by the growth around it and the general state of the structure. The rope had decayed, so I quickly set to work making it safe by renewing the rope. It wasn’t long before I was sitting at the top with a great view of what appeared to be a crossing of 4 animal trails. Someone knew their stuff when they built this.

I had lunch near the edge of the wood. It was a fine day, and I made use of a couple of fallen trees as rests. I tried out how the tarp would fit around the area and slung my hammock. Looking around, I thought this might be an ideal area to construct a semi permanent shelter. A good winter project. This was an exciting prospect. New woods, plenty of fallen wood and trees, and plenty of wildlife to track.

As my attention turned to lunch, I wandered what everyone else has in their ration bag. I take the same sort of stuff every trip (not very adventurous). I always have enough for 24 hours which includes, a tin of beans, a tin of fish, tea and sugar, packet soup, condiments (salt, pepper) packet porridge, cereal bar, nuts and raisins, home made jerky, hygiene wipes and a spoon. I normally take a piece of fruit with me as well. Sometimes I add fresh meat and vegetables, but then I would take the civilian trangia to actually cook on (as opposed to just heating up the food).

For these day trips, I would probably get away with a packed lunch and a thermo flask of tea, as I’m out for only 6-8 hours, but I actually like using the trangia (or where possible an open fire – even better).

I finished the trip with what has now become standard procedure on my small excursions. I fell asleep. I woke up to see a grey squirrel sniffing amongst my belongings. It was so close I could touch it. Out of the many definitions of bushcraft, one has to be being close to nature. Well, you can’t get any closer than this. Ok, so it’s only a squirrel, but I actual felt that I was part of the wildlife in the wood, not just a visitor. Maybe this was a sign that I was welcome here.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the first Essex Group Meet weekend. We arrived on the Friday and set up in a narrow piece of woodland backing onto a water-filled old quarry. This was a great backdrop to what turned out to be an excellent weekend.

The fire wasn’t easy to start as everything was very damp. With a little persistence, we were soon cooking up an evening meal on a greenstick barbeque and, of course, a few kuksa’s full of the obligatory port went round to ward off what little chill there was. It was really pleasing to see the owner of the wood, Peter, come and join us for a while around the fire. What a breath of fresh air to see a land-owner who understands bushcraft and is willing to make their land available.

Saturday saw a leisurely start to the day with a huge communal fry-up followed by a few fire-lighting skills. The abundance of cramp-ball fungus in the area complimented the bow-drill skills on show (not mine by the way!)

We took a foraging walk through the nearby orchard and through the larger woods to the north of the site, coming across some large parasol mushrooms which were duly collected for the evening’s stew as were some sweet chestnuts. Rosehips replenished the vitamins drained out by overindulgence the night before.

Mark’s tree identification proficiency was joined later by Les’s wild foods expertise. Les was a warden for the woods and is setting up a Bushcraft school in the area called Wildcrafts.

Even though we were a little too noisy to spot wildlife, I did pick up a couple of Muntjac tracks crossing the paths that criss-crossed the wood.

The evening stew was prepared by Mark and John. Stewing steak, mushrooms, chestnuts, burdock roots, small potatoes, carrots, turnips et al went into what proved to be a delicious stew. Les provided the “bush-style” bread and a little later, John (junior’s) shoulder of lamb that had been cooking hangi-style was dug up. This turned put to be as tender as any meat I’d had. Stuart’s pigeon was next on the menu. This was the first time I’d had this meat and it certainly proved tasty enough if rather strong.

The whole meal was a prefect example of cooking from fresh in the field with additional foraged ingredients. The food was washed down by even more port passed around in a traditional drinking horn. More than a few “toasts to the woods” were made.

Mark and Les showed their talents on the guitar and others including me showed their talent-less singing accompaniment. By midnight, the hammocks were calling. The calls of the owls were drowned out by 9 snoring bushcrafters.

A gloriously fine day greeted us when we awoke. After breakfast, the sad chore of packing up came and went. The others pulled out bows and arrows, while unfortunately I had to head back. This was another great weekend where shared knowledge and skills came to the fore. As with previous group meets in other areas, it is the comradeship of people sharing a common interest around the open fire that makes gatherings like this such a special event.

Many thanks to John who organised the meet and to Peter who owns the land. Here’s to many more… AHHH!! No more toasts!!

Pablo.