Although we had work right through this winter, the season doesn't feel as though its truly started until you have slept out under the stars on a bush craft camp. Last weekend saw the first camp of the year and although it started off a little stressful with the Navara blowing its turbo on the motorway up there at 7.00 in the morning and us arriving three hours late to meet the clients, we pulled it back though with the help of Phil from Coniston Boating Centre
Adventure21 - Coniston Boating Centre coniston The Lake District
who explained our problems and gave the lads a brew.
After a brief session on what to take on the trip, we packed our barrels and boats to make up the time with a swift paddle down Coniston Water. On arrival at our bushcraft camp venue the lads got stuck into building the shelters that they were to spend the night in. With the weather being fine but cloudy it was idea conditions and it gave the team plenty of time to create what can only be described as fantastic first attempts.
Each structure slowly took shape and the group worked with the environment, only taking small amounts of moss from a wide area of woodland so as to minimise the environmental impact and allowing the moss to be able to grow back easily.
With the shelters built the lad's had a short break and a well earned brew before the wood collection for the evenings fire.
Dinner was cooked by the whole team (except for me) and enjoyed by all four of us. We had a large selection of meats and vegetables from which the lad's made a great beef stew and could have fed about twenty people never mind four!
After a bottle or two of red wine the team retired to there shelters for the night and woke to a light dusting of snow to start the day.
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| Snow on the hill's early morning. |
During the early hours of Saturday morning we had gusts of 80 mph winds that thrashed the camp, blowing out the parachute shelter and totally extinguishing the fire with driving rain.
The lad's stayed warm and dry in the self built shelters and after packing up the camp we packed the canoes and set off back to Coniston.
We all enjoyed a full English breakfast at the Meadowdore Cafe
Lake District, Coniston, Meadowdore Cafe
before starting the days session of knot tying, fire lighting and knife, axe and saw work.
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| You don't get bigger smiles than that now do you. |
The full English is usually cooked over the fire in camp, but due to the weather and how hard the lad's had worked we treated the group which i think was greatly appreciated. After breakfast we started on a few bushcraft skills starting with some knot tying and tarp erection.
The lad's also got to grips with peg making (You can decide for yourselves who made the best peg! but they all worked great and are very handy for drying socks and other clothing when camping.)
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| Three fantastic looking clothes pegs, where's the lucky heather boy's? |
and made great first attempts at pot holders for over a fire.
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| A proud man with his cooking pot holder. |
Although it was really wet and we couldn't complete all the fire lighting section of the program the lad's did mange to create fire by using the flint and steel on birch bark. Don't forget to practice boy's!
Well i think we all finished happy and enjoyed a drink in the Sun Inn
The Sun Coniston | The Lake District
and a laugh about the events of the two day's. Thanks for a great camp fellas and for your patience, all i need to do now is unpack and dry the kit. I hope to see you all again in the near future.
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| A tired but happy bunch in the pub |
Bush craft camps run all year round, if you would like information on them please send an e-mail to info@adventure21.co.uk.
