Taking camping in a totally new direction

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.

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.

What I took with me and how much it weighed.

A camping cuppa

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.

New tent and innovative food

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.

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.

This means you can lay in bed and look out at whatever the view has to offer.

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.

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.

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.

A 2am addendum

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

https://lighterpack.com/r/s0d3sv

Took a while, but finally in a tent

So I realise that I normally start these things with an apology for having not posted for so long. This time, however, I haven’t been camping since my last post, so nothing really to talk about.

Today was mildly sunny and looked like there were no plans for rain so I decided to come back to Ashurst, and spend the night in a field. when I left the train station at Ashurst, I decided to investigate what looked like a small path in the corner of the car park. Turns out that there is a small path that cuts straight into the field by the campsite for the last number of years I have consistently walked around and down the road and over a style to get to the same field. now it turns out I can get there in seconds.

I decided to pitch up my tent somewhere different for a change so I am currently slap bang in the middle of a field. The rain didn’t start until I had taken the tent out of my bag but hasn’t been too bad since I got here.

I have been lucky enough to see some birbs, they were cute.

I have cooked some noodles with new smaller trangia, and now just chilling with some Oreo biccies.

I will update you later with astounding news as it happens.

Nothing much to add

However, having nothing to say has never stopped me from saying things before now, so I feel now reason to change this.

Full English breakfast before going back to my room to chill before heading to train station. It was supposed to be a twenty minute walk, but even plodding along it seemed to be much quicker, so I sat for a while on the seafront. I don’t believe that the sea air makes me feel as good as woodland air; I may need to investigate further on this.

After a suitable amount of chill time, and a few photos of the sea and cliffs, which, incidentally, were glowing in the sunlight and the photos I took definitely did not do this justice, I went to the train station and headed home

I did warn you that this was not going to be that interesting, and I did not lie.

Christmas Camping

Well another fantastic idea, executed poorly. I found a campsite that is open 365, so in a huge burst of enthusiasm and lack of any kinds common sense, I am currently on a train to Weymouth. Weather does not look too bad, which is good because I do not think I have packed very wisely.

I am taking the tiny tent, and the minimal cooking set, so I may be relying on local restaurants for main meal tonight, although I we there is a dominos in town, so this may be an option.

Bus journey was nice and easy from train station to the campsite, although I wandered around looking lost for quite some time before finding the right bus. View was amazing and there were plenty of shops about, and once I had pitched and had a quick lay down, I went for pizza.

It was a cold night but I was pretty toasty in my sleeping bag, it was only a problem if I wanted to get out at any point. By and large it was a quiet night with nothing but the animals making any noise. When I got up the next morning I went for a walk to the beach, that actually turned out to be a puddle.

I had planned to stay at the campsite for two nights, but I was struggling with the fact that although I slept quite well in my sleeping bag, outside the bag it was bloody cold. With twenty minutes before I had to either depart or pay for another night , I decided to go to a Prem.

Booking was a bit of an issue, but was resolved and I was booked into Weymouth Prem. On my walk along Weymouth sea front I smelled the nicest fish and chips ever. When I had checked in, had a bath, and felt a little more human, I went off in search of fish.

The thing was huge and delicious. Took a slow walk back to hotel, full and tired. I had nothing to watch so had to accept the junk on freeview.

I went had dinner that was a perfectly cooked rump steak with onion rings. This basically filled me to capacity and I went and slept.

I will include some pics of the scenery and the swimming horses.

Hmmmmm, bad choices make life so much more fun

So I felt that a little camping trip with the Tagar 2 tent, the one I trialled in the garden before circumstances made me give in. I had company this time and they borrowed johnny underpants, my fav mid weight tent. We headed to hurst view in lymington, a relaxed site near the coast. I haven’t stayed here in nearly ten years, but little has changed. We paid, found our pitch and set up.

One of the rare campsites that encourage fires, so I had brought a firepit and the tripod grill that I had never used before. I sat and chopped some kindling with my travel hatchet. And we decided that it was time to go buy food. Of course by the time we had bought everything for a bbq, it was dark and had started to rain. And it pissed down. I am sad to say there aren’t really photos of the rest of the evening, as we struggled to start a fire, and then maintain the fire. Turns out I forgot some essential parts of the tripod grill, so had to macgyver something in the wind and rain. Neither tent has a good vestibule, so we had no shelter. Optimistically I had brought two chairs and a table, all of which are now soaked.

But happy ending, cooked a pike of chicken breasts and two burgers, and ate them with avocado and flatbreads, in the car, as we could no longer stand the wind and rain. As soon as we were in the car, the rain stopped.

Not sure how waterproof the tagar tent is (incidentally this tent has been named Billy), but I will find out during the night I guess. I think it’s too windy for any serious rain leakage to occur.

Eco de the pot quality of this post, it’s been a trying day.

It does seem that my blog is turning into a list of my mistakes.

So the bus replacement service should have been the clue. Looking at the train times and seeing that there was bus replacement should have settled it, really. But this could be the last chance to camp this year, so felt I could weather this minor inconvenience.

Incidentally, when I come to power in this country, I will make it illegal to charge passengers if they have to use bus replacement, and make them close lines for maintenance at night instead.

The traffic was so bad that I missed my connecting train in Southampton, of course, leaving me to wait for nearly an hour for the next one. I’d run out of water and had no snack foods, so was also starving hungry. When I got to the campsite I was surprised at how busy it was, considering all the weather warnings, so had to wander around to find a good site to pitch. To be fair, it was a stunning little pitch, even if it was miles from any water.

I immediately set to cooking. This is where I realised that I had not brought a mug, washing up stuff, foam mat, or shorts to change into, as it was very humid and hot. Cooked sausage casserole without the casserole, with some mash, and felt a lot better.

After eating, I made a nice bowl of tea, to get around the lack of mug, and got myself tidied up and comfy. I was looking forward to trying out this cute little gas lamp I got on Amazon, so lay in my tent, the cloud up 1 I recently bought, and watched the sun go down over the lamp.

I will get myself comfy and relax after the stress of the day, and see you all tomorrow, or as we all know is more likely, in a week or so.

Another spending spree

So I decided that a more lightweight tent option was in order, so I picked up a couple of new Naturehike tents. The cloud up 1 and the Taga 2. They both weighed exactly the same when they arrived, 1.33kgs, but the Taga is 2 person, in theory. The Taga is so light because it’s semi single skinned, so there’s a possibility of lots of condensation. Only way to really be sure is to spend a night in it. Soooooooo, here I am.

Obviously awful quality pic, but it’s very dark. As per the norm, it started raining pretty much as soon as I got in it, but so far I’m dry. I will update in the morning, but so far I’m optimistic.