Yesterday was my second visit to the woods since the lockdown rules were eased and I went to meet a good friend for a nice chillout day. He’s an expert bushcrafter and fellow spirit of the woods and nature. He’s suffered much stress and anxiety and I know how a day in the woods surrounded by all it’s natural goodness gives us a boost. I know he loves to sit around a fire, boil the kettle and have a brew and chat. So that was the main reason for the visit and pretty much what we mostly did. It was a beautiful sunny day. The birds were singing their little hearts out and for a while, all seemed good and wholesome. A world apart from our fear-ridden, uncertain and restricted lifestyles that we are having to deal with at the moment.

I had an objective too. My wife bought me a new tent for my recent birthday. It’s unique in style, having no poles to thread through awkward loops etc. It’s basically a fine mesh tent with a specially shaped tarp to cover it. It seems the perfect all round solution to camping solo in all seasons. The mesh tent allows maximum ventilation whilst keeping flying, biting insects out, but also allows clear vision out into your surrounding if you want, by lifting one half of the tarp. It can be configured in lots of variations and seems easy to erect. Before embarking on my first camping trip with it, I wanted to do a dummy set-up run just to see if it would fit my my preferred location (between several oak trees) and accustom myself to how it all fits together and what extra pieces of kit I might need to get it right.

So while I cleared the area of brambles, dead leaves and branches, I left my able friend to make a fire and get the kettle on. As a bushcrafter and wild camper, it’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of starting your trip. The smell of the woodsmoke, the flames dancing on the black kettle is sure to trigger some feelgood.  Photo above is the area for my tent after some serious clearing work. Here’s the tent roughly set up. We had a few issues figuring out how some of the fancy tensioning clips worked on the guy lines, so it’s not fully set up here but it was mainly to see how it would fit into the space and I’m pleased to say it just fits nicely and has a good feeling to it as a place to sleep.

This will be the main entrance. I like the positioning of the three trees there. The flaps on the tarp can be stretched out to form a small canopy so you could sit in the entrance with a small stove and cook or have a brew, nicely protected from any rain. What I really like is that the long side seen on the first photo, can also be lifted and with the use of two or three poles, create a much larger canopy. The mesh tent inside (you can’t see it here) will unzip too opening the whole side of it up. If anyone is really interested to see the whole thing in it’s various configurations, this is a good video to show it off.

Not much else to tell you, just how good it felt to be back in there enjoying my little piece of woodland.