So as not to overload you this will be in three parts. My mate Simon and I had talked about doing an overnighter for the last two years but for numerous reasons, it hadn’t happened. The weekend was looking good so this was it. I arrived early on Saturday and started some preparations. I was on bird-watch too. Nesting is at it’s peak now and I was keen to see which nest boxes were showing activity. I noticed two more since last time but there were two more bonus finds. A blackbird flew out from the back of my logshed, startled as I rummaged around. I thought there might be one nesting in the brash hedge behind it, so was surprised to see it was actually between some old standing logs and the shed.  There were four beautiful blue eggs in the nest. Yes you can only see three here!

I started to “reccie” the woods for a suitable second camping spot for a tent. My usual spot not being big enough for two and anyway you need a bit of personal space. While walking the woods, I spotted another nest wedged in the branches of a beech tree. I could just see a beak poking out of the top. Can you spot it? It’s to the left and pointing left. A song thrush flew out, disturbed by my presence.

It was near here where I found a nice little niche between several small oaks, not far from the main camp area. It was overgrown with brambles but had a nice feel to it and just big enough to accomodate a small tent.  I started clearing it, pulling as many as I could out by the roots. I have a feeling this might become a regular spot for an overnighter.

Simon arrived late morning and we discussed our plans. Although we both like bushcraft and the idea of wild camping, we are novices and the plan was not to make it too difficult. Minimalism was not necessary as we didn’t need to carry our gear far from the cars and we wanted to use the weekend to have some fun and try out various ideas and pieces of kit, using it as a learning experience and we achieved all of that. Just as we were enjoying our first coffee, it started to rain slightly. It reminded me that last time I camped, the evening turned wet and I had no shelter nearby to protect myself and my gear – the tent being too small for anything other than sleeping. Simon wanted to try his new tarp out and I wanted to see where a suitable location might be for future. We pitched the tarp and Simon put his new ex-army tent up. It started to look the business. My tent went up easily in the new location too.

The afternoon passed quickly, some neighbours popped by and we started to think about the evening. See part two for the next installment.