I had planned to go on Sunday but the thought of just working was putting me off. There’s a huge stack of big logs from last winter that still needs cutting up, splitting and stacking but I couldn’t face it. I remind myself now and then, that the reason for buying the wood was to have a private place to practice bushcraft, wild camp, observe nature etc and not just to be a lumberjack. There were a few small jobs to do but I decided I would give myself the luxury of “playing”. I’m wanting to have some mini adventures back home too. I plan to have some local walks into woodlands, moorlands etc, take a small cooking kit, set up a mini camp and cook a modest meal – just for the fun of doing it and as a learning experience. I’m no Ray Mears, the likelihood of an extended bushcraft trip to Alaska or Northern Sweden is zero. It doesn’t mean I can’t have fun and practice some survival skills though. It just means I have to be realistically modest with my ambitions.

I’ve been toying with buying a Trangia cookset. A lovely piece of kit based on a simple alcohol/spirit burner which sits in a windproof shield and comes with various pans that pack up neatly and can be popped in a ruscksack. Then I remembered my £3 car boot sale find – a Swedish ex-miltary cook set made by Trangia. Not quite so comprehensive but basically does the same job and built like a tank! So far I had only used it to boil water for a brew. I wanted to try cooking with it. It would test it’s usefulness and give me some practice at cooking in the wild with minimal facilities. I made a plan to pretend I didn’t know my woods, not use any of my facilities like tables, seats etc but find a suitable secluded spot to set up my mini tarp, brew coffee and later cook a small meal. I shortlisted three possible locations. I needed a log to sit on and some suitable small trees to attach the tarp to. I settled on this one, liking the bowed branch that might be useful and sort of frames the scene.

It needed a little tidy up to remove brambles and create a clear space to work. Time for a brew. Here’s the oval shaped cookset which comprises a large and small billy can, a windshield and spirit burner. It’s boiling some water for my Vietnamese filter coffee maker. I featured this when I bought it a few months ago and can report that it is a fantastic bit of kit for making really nice coffee.

I tried the mini tarp and after a few variations, managed to get it to cover enough of the log for me to sit on. There was little chance of rain but it was an exercise and actually proved useful at keeping falling leaves and debris off me while cooking.

The meal was to be packet noodles boiled up in the large billy, mushrooms, onion, garlic and veggie Quorn pieces fried in the small one to go with it. I set the noodles to boil in the large billy while preparing the veg. Once done, I set it to oneside and fried the veg, then combined both in the small one to heat up again.

The kit worked well. The food didn’t stick to the bare aluminium surface as I suspected it might do and the food was good. An enjoyable and useful learning experience and what a fantastic location too. I cleaned and packed everything away before heading off to do my small chores and more exploring. I liked the location and will use it again but next time will try one of the others.

There were some amazing flushes of fungi, mostly growing on dead birch trunks.

Had a fantastic day and will do this exercise again. At the start of my day I retrieved my trail camera from it’s new location. What would it reveal? Come back in a day or two for part two and a few short videos.