So I will most likely backtrack when I’m bored and fill in some gaps this year as I have been to two different countries and not mentioned it at all.
This one is still England and written whilst in progress.
I got a new tent, and a few new bits. Brockenhurst taught me that no matter how good my kit is, it’s still a small noisy bed that makes it hard to sleep, and I do like my sleep.
New tent has a bit more room, and now has kitchen, sofa and comfy double bed (with electric blanket).
Still seem to have forgotten stuff, but who needs glasses anyway, right?
Portland is usually blowing a gale so it feels weird that there’s no breeze at all. Not quite as cool and breezy as I’d hoped. Will go explore tomorrow maybe.
Well turns out the lack of food, hot drinks, warm clothing, or anything that would be useful for a night in a tent in April, makes a good night sleep a pipe dream, if I could dream.
On the bright side, it is so nice to be woken up by the dawn chorus. The view when I finally forced myself up made it nearly worth it.
Definitely needed a comb, as throughout the night, the condensation was dripping on my head, so I was not presentable, and in fact I probably scared people on my bus journey home.
On that note, I am kinda sold on the whole bus idea, I will see how much they charge me, as I tapped on tapped off. The route goes past Ashurst, so my two fav campsites on one route.
Yet again, seemed like such a good idea when I was at home, so packed up a bag and hopped on a train. To save weight I brought no warm clothes, food or water.
Wasn’t sure on where I’d go, but turns out the train to Brockenhurst leaves a few minutes earlier than the Ashurst one. Plus, last time I was in Brockenhurst, I had a horrible cold night and ended up having to get an uber home.
The walk to the campsite always feels like it’s twice as long as it should be, but it was a pleasant day.
Got to site and did the whole booking thing, then went to pitch up. Found a nice enough spot in the glaring sun, that quickly heated the tent to about 30°.
Actually I think I made a cuppa before I properly pegged the tent out; I was parched. Wandered about as usual and took some piccies and the occasional vid.
As I was lazing in the tent, it occurred to me how cold it was now the sun had gone. This was a continuing trend as it went into evening. I made a herbal tea and wrapped myself in my sleeping bag, anticipating the following 12 hours to be thoroughly unpleasant.
So no notes survive from today, which either means nothing happened or everything happened and I was too busy taking pictures to write any of it down. Judging by the sheer number of photos, I’m going with the second one.
Morning started with tea and porridge, then a latte from a local coffee place, which felt like the correct way to greet the day.
Spent what can only be described as an unreasonable amount of time at St Angelo’s Fort, mostly just taking in the views over the harbour and the yachts on every side.
Also found what I can only assume was some kind of art installation up on the ramparts, a chaotic stack of concrete blocks I have no explanation for and didn’t need one.
Made friends with a duck who had strong opinions about personal space.
Rounded the day off with pizza straight out of the box on the floor, because sometimes that’s just the correct way to eat pizza.
So the bed turned out to be uncomfortable as hell, and it was properly cold overnight, which means the heating is getting cranked up tonight whether the house likes it or not.
Made up for it with tea on the terrace and a proper wander round the house hunting down the view from every single window, which felt like a very reasonable way to spend a morning.
Did a bit of shopping, walked down to the fort and wandered back, then spent the afternoon doing precisely nothing before the concert, which in hindsight was the correct call.
Bus into Valletta to track down the venue, picked up a random woman from Portsmouth along the way who ended up joining us for the evening. Concert itself was bearable, which I’m counting as a win, and we followed it with a tour of the church and the ruins afterwards.
Managed to catch the last bus back and went straight to bed. Big day, in the best way.
I should just start with a list of what I didn’t bring this time. So this time I didn’t bring enough food. A decent power bank, or any idea how windy it was gonna be.
Admittedly, the last thing isn’t a thing as such, but might have prepared me for trying to get the tent up. As I am car camping, I very optimistically brought chair and table, although I now realise that they will blow away as soon as I am not sitting on one and resting my feet on the other.
It’s nearly 1800 and I’ve eaten my two meals and my biccies, and already starting to get hungry. I thought I had an emergency pack of noodles, but this is apparently not the case, so I will fill this post with pics of the gorgeous countryside, whilst avoiding thinking about my tummy.
I mean there’s not much more to add, conversation-wise, but I’m definitely loving the peace and quiet here.
So after yet another collection of bungled decisions, I find myself in a campsite just outside of Stockbridge.
Original plan was to get a train to Winchester, meet a friend, get a bus to Stockbridge and walk to the campsite. When I double-checked the bus times, it turns out there are only two a day, one going in, one going out.
This meant that I had to contact my friend to tell them that I could no longer meet them, throw everything that I needed into a bag, forgetting a few essential items, of course, and then jump on the next train. The bus journey was terrifying, although well worth it when I arrived at Stockbridge. I have always loved the village and was very tempted to spend an hour browsing one of the local pubs.
Duckies
The walk to the campsite was up a hill that looked a lot easier on a map. There were so many bumblebees; I genuinely think it’s the most I’ve seen in my life. I will add a quick vid of them although I recognise it’s not a very good one.
Site is small and basic, but was worth the walk. Pitched up next to a picnic bench and made some more of the dehydrated chilli and rice. Now laying in the tent listening to the birds and the occasional car. Been a little rainy, but nothing too extreme.
First camp using the tempest rucksack. I can fit everything into a 30l rucksack, as long as I leave out the things I forgot.
All in all, I quite like this site from the hour or so I’ve been here, but I think I’d prefer a bigger tent and a car to get me here.
This is not going to be a very interesting post. It is, however, going to be a step-by-step guide on how I made a cup of tea this morning. Again, I did warn you it wasn’t going to be interesting.
First, you need to assemble, fill, and light the stove.
Then fill the pan with just enough water to fill your mug.
Lid on the pan to help it boil faster.
Now just to clarify, I have not been bleeding on my teabags. On my camp last week, I had brought with me normal teabags and decaffeinated teabags but realised that you cannot tell the difference between the two, so this week I have put red food colouring on the leaded and green food colouring on the unleaded.
While the water is boiling, I use some milk powder and water to make a small bottle of milk. This works slightly better than just putting the milk powder directly in the tea. 
The water is boiled, apply water to mug.
Apply milk to mug, grab biscuits, and enjoy. This concludes my TED talk.
So after my last camp, I very much enjoyed having a much lighter pack, so I decided to lighten things up a bit. I purchased some titanium cookware and smaller, lighter stoves, and a lighter rucksack.
Conversely, I also purchased a heavier tent, but it’s huge and has so many vents and openings that it’s a miracle of tent engineering. I will be adding the link to the kit used for this camp at the end of the post.
Just a cute tree
Got to site and found a pitch that would take advantage of the front opening of the new tent, currently named ‘The Villa’. Basically the vestibule has a door on each side, and the front can be unhooked and rolled up.
Outside looking in
This means you can lay in bed and look out at whatever the view has to offer.
Inside looking out
I have also purchased a dehydrator, so made chilli and rice yesterday which I dehydrated overnight. This was a test to see how easy it was to rehydrate and if it still tasted okay.
Dehydrated chilli and rice portionsTitanium pots and Trangia mini
Food was a triumph, even if I should’ve bought extra bowls to be able to rehydrate everything. Finished my dinner, did some washing up and then made myself a chocolate drink, then lay here watching the sun go down.
It’s getting slightly colder and I’m expecting it to rain in the morning, so it’ll be interesting to see how the tent holds up. It has been very windy and it was a pain in the arse to try and pitch the tent even with the slight wind.
Sunset from my bed
As is the norm, I will update this when I can’t sleep through the night, when it starts pissing with rain, or when the tent collapses.
So after noodles, a pint felt like a good idea, so I went to the nearby pub to grab a beer and maybe some more food.
After a bowl of chips and another into keep the first company, I returned tentward, for a potter about and to setup the new campfire.
Not exactly the roaring camping focal point the marketing suggested, however it was quite pleasant. Lazed for the afternoon and evening before settling in for the night.
2am and I’ve woken up, and cannot get back to sleep, so thought I would add this update and get a pic of the tent with the string lights on.
Two posts in 24 hours, aren’t you lucky ducks.
As I cannot find a way to embed this on here, I’ll include a link to my kit instead
