Took a day off today. The weather was so good. It was too good to miss a day out in the woods. Friday 13th? Pah! No worries. I prefer going to Broaks Wood during the week as there are fewer people and dog walkers. I don’t mind dog walkers, in fact when my black Labrador, Ben, was alive, we used to go there often. But dogs do disturb the wildlife. These thoughts came apparent as I had a break in the small valley.

After about 10 minutes sitting in the sun, I spotted a mutjac deer about 20 yards a way. I scrambled for the camera but hit the wrong settings. A wasted opportunity but at least I was able to see it wander off casually down the valley and up the other side of the hill. A couple of seconds later, I heard barking, which I assume was the deer I’d seen.

I’d always wondered why the wood was called Broaks Wood (Brock is an old English names for Badger, but it might not be this) I had never previously seen any signs of Badgers in the woods. This changed as I climbed to the highest point of the wood. I spotted a track mark pointing to a dip in the wood. After guessing where the owner would go, I came across a huge sett with a number of entrances, scratching posts and latrines. It must have been extremely old judging by the scratch marks that had healed in the wood.

I continued up to the highest point of the wood and had lunch. I had dispensed with the trangia today and had just brought sandwiches. I knew I was going to do a bit of walking and wanted to travel light. In fact I only had my sit mat with me. The axe was swapped out for the walking stick, the trangia for ham and cheese sarnies. The view from the top of the wood was wonderful. Looking east, it appeared the epitome of the English countryside with undulating hills, farmland and wood.

On the way back via a different route I discovered a Hornets nest. Not so much discovered as someone had put up a sign, warning of the impending ‘danger’. I spent a while filming the nest actually getting quite close. They appeared not to be too bothered by my presence. I did start to worry as suddenly quite a few came out from the nest at once. I think if you panic in these situations, it just makes things worse and even insects smell your fear, so I got up slowly and walked away.

My last encounter was with fallow deer on top of a hill. Again, I only just managed to catch the deer on film before they ran over the top of the hill. They must have seen me approaching as at that time I wasn’t walking particularly quietly. Most of the trip I had been. I have learned a technique of walking in the woods so as not to spook wildlife. You basically walk toe to heel instead of t’other way round, keeping the feet pointing forward and s l o w l y does it. I also roll my feet out to in. This is quite hard work and can’t be done for long periods, especially if you’re not wearing the right footwear. I tried to follow the deer but they had a greater head start. There were so many tracks in the mud, I didn’t know which ones to follow.

I finished the trip at one of the small ponds, where I spotted a few more dragonfly. You all must be getting fed up with these dragonfly pictures, but I do find them fascinating. Actually, I made an identification error with the previously shown ‘red-dragonflies’. They were in fact Common Darters (but still red in colour). The variation of the Common Darter colour is this brown colour and probably means it’s a female.

Okay. Now here’s something I want to try out. By pressing the wrong button on my camera, I activated video mode which I very rarely use in the woods. I got home and mucked about a bit (a lot actually) and came up with a video of the excursion. I know my technique needs a bit of work and the image isn’t as clear as I thought it would be, but see what you think. It’s about 3 1/2 minutes long and there’s no audio. I might do something on a more bushcraft type subject at a later date.

A bit late posting this one, as I went out Friday (see last post) and Saturday. I wandered back into my usual woods. I’m so delighted to find the ‘secret clearing’. If it doesn’t get flooded in the winter, I can see this being one of my favourite spots. I will be careful not to frequent the spot too often. After a while an area does look ‘lived in’ and I don’t intend that to happen in any of the areas I visit. I couldn’t resist though making it a little more comfortable for future visits.

I dragged a couple of loose stumps over from another area. I think it’s quite important to have somewhere to sit on (even though I use the hammock as a seat) and a good solid stump to do some knife and axe work. A smaller stump would do as a stand for the trangia. I call this basic site furniture. Ideally the stump for the knife and axe work should have a ledge at the rear of the stump to rest the wood you’re working on. If it hasn’t been cut through properly then it will have ‘barber chaired’ which will act as a natural rest.

A bit more foraging and enough wood for a some basic tools was found. A baton is always useful especially if no axe is available. This in turn leads to a couple of pot hangers. I practiced battoning until I had made a notch in the pot hanger in about 45 seconds. Next came a couple of ‘Y’ shaped standards and cross pole for a cooking fire. Finally I made a tripod. This could have a number of uses, but primarily I use it as a rucksack holder (for larger rucksacks that can’t be hung on a branch). Another use is as a tripod stand for cooking where, instead of a cross pole, the pot hanger is put on a long pole and balanced on the tripod. The pole can then be varied in height (by using a cantilever method) to raise and lower the pot hanger, hence putting the billy can closer or further to or from the fire.

I had a bit of wood left over and carefully stashed it away for future use.

Before I left the site, I cached the tools and furniture so as not to make it obvious that anyone had visited the site and also to try to keep the wood dry for my next visit.

On the way back I bumped into this little chap. As you can tell he wasn’t too pleased to see me! For those not sure, it’s a Devils coach horse and isn’t as harmful as it looks. The threatening posture is enough to put anyone off though. According to Irish folklore, it is a symbol of corruption and eats ‘sinners’. The raising of the tail casts a curse. If that’s not enough, if we were lesser animals or birds, we would be on the receiving end of some foul smelling chemicals emitted from anal glands. Nice!