So after very limited sleep, mainly due to a deflating sleeping mat, I actually felt pretty good and very much enjoyed my morning cuppa. I managed to use the cooker under the awning setup, and launched into my breakfast.

I had packed sausage, bacon, black pudding and hash browns into a cool bag with a freezer block. They were all frozen when I left the house. So hopefully stayed within safe temperature by the time I cooked them this morning. It was a stunning brekkie, but was too much for a camping breakfast I think. I just wanted to sleep when I finished it.

Quick shout out to my awning setup here.

I have tied para cord to the door flap, run it out to a peg you can see in the distance, and then run back to the tent, to another peg that I could tie it off. This means that without leaving the tent I could pull the door out like an awning to cook, and then untie it to close the door afterwards.

After eating and washing up, there was a rain pause, so I started packing up. Had to cram tent into a bag as got close to train time. Made it to station just as train arrived. Was pissing down with rain when I got off the train. Seemed like a very long, cold, wet, windy walk home.

Good news was that after checking the mattress for leaks, although it was the valve leaking, it turned out that it seemed to have a small thread through the stopper. I think this was causing the air loss, so will hopefully be fine.

I’ll end with a pic of the pitch and how surrounded with water I actually was. I was half expecting Shrek and Donkey to start shouting at me to leave.

So here we are again, another field, another tent, and yet another bad life choice. So I had debated hitting the canvas on Friday, but after a rough week, felt a day doing nothing but lazing was probably on the cards. I had packed bags though, so when I felt the call of the wild, I was nearly ready to jump straight in. However, I had planned to use a different bag, so by the time I was supposed to head trainwards, I had decided that it wasn’t gonna work. So one quick repack later I was aiming for the next train. As has been my previous experience, as I got if the train at Ashurst, it started drizzling. As per usual, it waited until I climbed the stile into the field leading to the site until it bucketed down.

Gave up on waiting for it to stop. Headed out to pitch. As I unrolled the tent, I realised I’d brought the wrong damn tent. This has to be the world’s smallest tent. Originally managed to pitch where there was a huge puddle just outside the door, so had to shimmy the tent a few feet to avoid falling in a pond when I left the tent. Currently everything I was wearing is soaked, and although I managed to cook, I still feel hungry, and it’s nearly impossible to cook as there’s no vestibule.

To clarify my accommodation, I have decided to name the tents.

Vinny was who I meant to bring, as its huge dry vestibule means it’s perfect for rainy camping.

So-called as it looks from inside with both the doors open like the view if you’ve got a pair of Y-fronts on your head.

The name says it all.

I will update you tomorrow on whether I survived.

So waking up was a bit of a nightmare as it was ridiculously early and bloody cold. I heated up the penguin water and went back to sleep for a bit. Breakfast was eggs sarnie with black tea, as I had not brought any milk.

I went for a wander to take pics of trees and any available horses, but felt that my home bed was calling.

I left the forest to commune with my pizza and nap, but got another great ass pic on my way out.

This is a fairly short post add I feel I have covered most of my week in the other posts. Stayed tuned for next weeks instalment.

After waking up on Wednesday morning, it was cold. Like really cold, and had the realisation that I pitched up way too far from the toilet block. Was obscenely cold, but looked stunning.

Concerned that the gallery won’t have added the photos correctly, but fingers crossed. When I got back from my dawn walk and micturation, I managed to blag a teabag and some sugar and made breakfast. Sadly, whilst trying to fry my eggs, the frying pan fell off the stove and threw my egg all over the floor. I cooked more but I was left with an eggy mess on the entrance to the tent.

I tried to get a bit more sleep but became aware that there were noises coming from the vestibule of my tent. Turns out great tits were hopping under the canvas and cleaning all the food off my plates. One of them was also eating the egg, which feels wrong in some way; cannibalistic in some way.

Anyway, it was really cold, and only looked like getting colder, so I called it a day and made my way home.

Two days later and I’m here, this time with some new bits of equipment and most importantly, a hot water bottle.

I had a hotdog for snack when I got here and have just cooked a super rice that does not live up to its name, so I am prepared to try to get some sleep. As before I will update you if I survive.