Have you camped out today?

[Cudzoziemiec]

A thread to match the Have you been out today? one in Rides and Touring.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The bus to Keynsham (a town between Bristol and Bath) isn't usually a promising start to anything, but it was the beginning of a little camping trip to an Iron Age hill fort, Stantonbury Hill. I went out footpacking (it's like bikepacking but without a bike) up the River Chew, met a hare close to and was able to observe how un-rabbit like its feet are, talked to four kids (and their mum) sailing and sinking homemade boats from a bridge ("I put some Lego in mine and now I've lost the Lego"), before climbing the hill, walking along a bit of the Wansdyke (a defensive earthwork probably built by Celts for reasons unknown) and pitching my tent within the flat enclosed area, next to an area of maize. Then I made some tea, ate some food I'd made at home and walked home in the morning. No bus on the way back, just walked home. About twelve miles home, was quite tired at the end of it.

[Oscar's dad]

Please define "Camped out".

I'm guessing in the involvement of a caravan will fall outside the definition 

[Paul]

I have. Strictly, I still am. A site just outside the delightfully named Whatstandwell. Is there anywhere else with the word ‘hatstand’ in it?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have. Strictly, I still am. A site just outside the delightfully named Whatstandwell. Is there anywhere else with the word ‘hatstand’ in it?

Can you get a teapot in hatstand? 

[Wobbly John]

Please define "Camped out".

I'm guessing in the involvement of a caravan will fall outside the definition 

... also using a tent in own garden as I did last night (set up before I read this thread).

[Oscar's dad]

Please define "Camped out".

I'm guessing in the involvement of a caravan will fall outside the definition 

... also using a tent in own garden as I did last night (set up before I read this thread).

I think you did camping out! 

[Goldcrank]

I did the Essex way.  Left home at 17.00 on Friday. Tried to catch the 18.00 to Harwich from Liverpool Street but I hadn’t downloaded an app, so I missed that one and ended up catching the 18.30.   This meant I’d missed the connection at Manningtree.  Started the Essex Way at 20.20 and then traveled into the night. 

I slept in the corner of a field at 23.00 as the path was not visible through the field. 

Woke up at 5.30 and startled a jogger - he hadn’t spotted me until he almost trod on me.
Tried to make a coffee and found that I’d forgotten a lighter. Had breakfast in a pub at 9.45.


Carried on and finished the journey at 18.00 in Epping.

Warm bath and fell into bed

[Cudzoziemiec]

That was an early jogger and a microadventure with more adventure, less micro!

As for forgetting a lighter, I bought a lighter on the way to the bus station for my trip above, as I've found matches often don't work in the morning after a damp night. Couldn't find the lighter when I needed it, but the matches worked anyway. Once I got back to Keynsham, I spotted my lighter under a park bench I'd briefly sat on! It was definitely the same lighter: brand new, same brand name, same vicious shade of yellow.

[Tim Hall]

 Camped with some of my Scouts for the first time in ages. They were over there ->, doing their Expedition thing, while I and some other were over here <-, not getting involved.

I had a go at my first tarp shelter, which worked quite well. I'll do that again I reckon.

[Kim]

Didn't camp out at Darley Moor last night, because horrorlurgi.   

[mmmmartin]

Had to camp out the other night: incompetence and idiocy on my part meant that I'd utterly failed to reserve a bed in pamplona, the next town on my walk across Spain. An hour asking at places, all full, because festival, then walked on to next town, everywhere gone out of business because covid, then walked to next town, both places shut because covid. Out up tent in rocky ground near church in gale. Did get some sleep, i think, after the wind died down.

[Wobbly John]

Cheeky, 'school-night' camp-out last night to tryout my hammock-made-of-cheap - lightweight hammock with fly-mesh plus tarp for just over £20!    I have replaced the slings with better ones as the '1 metre strips of webbing' ones it came with were pretty useless.

I was very impressed. Extremely lightweight but strong and I had full confience in it. I didn't employ the tarp. I didn't have a hammock-underquilt - just a sleeping bag - a rather bulky 3 season 'Ozark trail' one that I bought unused with a Snugpak one for £10.    The warmer but bulky Ozark trail bag is a spacious bag, which meant getting into it in the hammock was easier than my tighter lightweight bags. It was still possible to fit bag, hammock setup and unused tarp into a single Ortlieb pannier.

 Having read other people's comments about the fly-screen sagging, I had made a couple of 'spreader poles' from old arrows cut down and 'ferruled', and these worked well. I also added mini caribiners to clip the fly-screen to the paracord rather than trying to thread it through the loops.

There isn't many places to pitch sling a hammock locally in the Fens, so I was in a small strip of woodland at the side of a main road, which meant I didn't get a huge ammount of sleep because traffic. The hammock was very comfotable though, and I am a convert! 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Spent the weekend at a Tilley meet. Tilley in this case being not Woolly's dog, Wowbagger's hat or even Kim's daughter*, but a paraffin lamp. Train to Gloucester, yomped up the Severn for seven miles and sat in a barn with people with Tilley lamps. Actually, I was the only one there who neither possesses nor is particularly enamoured of Tilley lamps, but they are very good on these occasions. Bright and lots of heat. Yomped downstream on Sunday, rudely interrupted by some barbed wire where a path was marked on the map. I crawled under it then through what looked like storage for a travelling fair. Fortunately the gate was open! I was clearly not the first nor the last person to follow this route. Very warm for December.

*That's my pink-haired neighbour Kim, not Kim otp, just in case you were getting confused.

[Oscar's dad]

Spent the weekend at a Tilley meet. Tilley in this case being not Woolly's dog, Wowbagger's hat or even Kim's daughter*, but a paraffin lamp. Train to Gloucester, yomped up the Severn for seven miles and sat in a barn with people with Tilley lamps. Actually, I was the only one there who neither possesses nor is particularly enamoured of Tilley lamps, but they are very good on these occasions. Bright and lots of heat. Yomped downstream on Sunday, rudely interrupted by some barbed wire where a path was marked on the map. I crawled under it then through what looked like storage for a travelling fair. Fortunately the gate was open! I was clearly not the first nor the last person to follow this route. Very warm for December.

*That's my pink-haired neighbour Kim, not Kim otp, just in case you were getting confused.

So people who love Tilley lamps are sufficiently impassioned and organised to fix meet up!  Amazing! 

[Cudzoziemiec]

There were precisely four of us! And I was there because I know the other three, not because of Tilley lamps. But apparently previous meets have attracted more Tilley fans.

[Oscar's dad]

There were precisely four of us! And I was there because I know the other three, not because of Tilley lamps. But apparently previous meets have attracted more Tilley fans.

Love it 

[andrew_s]

Was it this barn?
https://goo.gl/maps/vpAJJRNngPYJqcdq7
If so, the paucity of attendees may be because the nearly adjacent pub is probably an ex pub.

The fairground storage yard means you followed the riverbank too far. You should turn right about 100 yards after passing under the A40, then under the railway, after which the path is obvious.
Having consulted the proper map, it appears that it's a case where the OS is wrong/out of date, even on their "live" online maps. The current line of the PROW is marked by green diamonds (on 1:25k).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not quite as grand as that one! And I'm not sure the National Trust would look too kindly on Tilley lamps in its five-hundred year old barn (nor would the farmer, most probably).

I didn't realise the pub (the Boat, IIRC?) had closed. Did that happen during lockdowns?

[Wowbagger]

There were precisely four of us! And I was there because I know the other three, not because of Tilley lamps. But apparently previous meets have attracted more Tilley fans.

I have two Tilley lamps hanging in the garage. One was bought new by my brother in the 1970s. I picked the other up second hand somewhere much more recently - probably about 25 years ago. I don't think either is in working order. Perhaps I should try to overhaul them.

[andrew_s]

I didn't realise the pub (the Boat, IIRC?) had closed. Did that happen during lockdowns?

Yes, the Boat.

It closed before the first lockdown (late Jan 2020), ostensibly due to floods.

As I understand it...
It was a family owned and run pub for something like 400 years, so only had to generate a decent family income, without any rent, mortgages etc to be paid. It was also a seasonal pub, with the bulk of the income over the summer.
The landlady died (cancer), the next generation (2 daughters) were married, new families, decent jobs, and didn't want to take over, at least until their kids were older. The family ran it anyway for 2-3 years, but then leased it out.
The first licencee could pick and serve good beer, but in other respects, like cleaning, paying for heating, paying bills etc, was a bit of a dead loss. Shortly before the end of his lease, he did a bunk, leaving a load of bad debts behind, and after having lost a reasonable amount of the previous customers.
The next licencee was a nice enough chap, and full of great ideas, but wasn't a businessman, and wouldn't take advice. The notion of planning income & expenditure was foreign to him. The grand idea that killed the pub was taking on the Haw Bridge inn as well, and when that failed, taking with it all of the landlord's funds, the Boat was basically trying to fund new stocks of food & beer out of the previous week's takings, which gave a steady decline, and no chance of recovery from the flood in Jan 2020.

Since then, it's just been sat empty, with no news of any sort.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Oh, that's a bit sad. Especially if it means the Haw Bridge ferry is no longer running, as I've never actually got around to using it (never been the right time etc)  .

[andrew_s]

Oh, that's a bit sad. Especially if it means the Haw Bridge ferry is no longer running, as I've never actually got around to using it (never been the right time etc)  .

I take it that you mean the Lower Lode ferry at Tewkesbury? In general, it was summer season, pub hours, so people in Tewkesbury could walk down and cross to the pub on the other bank. What it's been doing this last summer, I don't know, as I'd generally just ride round via the A438.

There's been no ferry at Haw Bridge since the early 19th century (the clue's in the name).
I don't know about the Boat - there was a ferry in 1919, and no recent memory of it when I arrived in 1990

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yes, I was thinking of the Lower Lode ferry. And yes, the clue about Haw Bridge is in the name  .

[Cudzoziemiec]

The fairground storage yard means you followed the riverbank too far. You should turn right about 100 yards after passing under the A40, then under the railway, after which the path is obvious.
Having consulted the proper map, it appears that it's a case where the OS is wrong/out of date, even on their "live" online maps. The current line of the PROW is marked by green diamonds (on 1:25k).

There was a path there in 1919! And the fairground storage yard was a boatbuilding yard back then.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17&lat=51.87287&lon=-2.25846&layers=206&right=ESRIWorld