The Planning Begins…

As expected, we’ve started planning and thinking about the year’s canoe and camping trips; with a 4 day weekend scheduled in for end of May (even Chris is coming along this time), a nights camping out somewhere to let Chris have his first night in a hammock and me and Michael to get back in to the swing of it, and trying to fit in a day or two messing about in the canoe at the QE2 lake.

For the canoe trip, we’re doing it a bit different this time. As there’s three of us and only one canoe (and Michael feels like doing some of it on his bike) we’re taking that up too. One person rides ahead with most of the kit in the kids trolley, other two paddle up to the camp site. Means we don’t have to take two cars all the way up, don’t have to worry about getting to a certain point and most importantly – don’t have to carry all the kit in the canoe! Light n Fast!! Aiming to get up to the bottom of Loch Ness which is only about 10 miles from Laggan, so nice easy one with plenty of time for messing about and enjoying the trip.

Goals for the trip;

1. Get used to hammocks
2. Generally mess about a bit more – hammocks, tarps, fires etc.
3. Make some bannock

It’s that time of year again……

Well it’s getting close at least; the weather is starting to look a bit warmer, the skies a bit kinder but I doubt the water in the Caledonian Canal is much warmer!! Certainly doesn’t look very warm.

But plans are definitely back in the forefront of our minds about when to go next. Should we head straight for Laggan and set off from our last stop? Going up to the bottom of Loch Ness in a nice gentle 2-3 day paddle… Give us plenty of time to settle back in, get used to the hammocks and hopefully stay a bit warmer than the Kielder trip! Or maybe we take things a little easier and ease back in with a couple of camping / bushcrafty type trips just over the border.

April sounds like a nice time of year for either, yeah.. April sounds warm!

Kielder v Hammocks

It was a back to basics, everything Kielder had to throw at us against tarp/hammock and two very unprepared blokes!

Back in civilisation again...! Last night went pretty well though, even with the 4 degrees cold overnight. We got up there about 5ish I think and found a decent spot hidden away in the forest in a little clearing. Car parked nicely off the road so it wouldn't be seen too much.

Got the tarps n hammocks setup, little groundsheet in the middle to make a bit of an area to sit and have our food. Learned our lessons from canoeing and got all the sleeping bit sorted first; so roll mat in the bottom of the hammock for insulation, sleeping bag inside (and unzipped), thermals inside ready for getting changed... So with all that sorted we got on to ration packs for tea.

They turned out to be a lot better than I think both of us imagined!! Even good in places. Chicken Tikka and rice was really good, the second curry portion of Curried Lamb on top of it didn't taste quite so good. But still definitely edible. Main courses over with we started on Pud. After a quick wash out of the mess tins Fruit Dumplings and Custard and Treacle Pudding finished us off. Fruit Dumpings were awesome... I'd live on those alone for a few days! Nice cup of coffee was all that we needed to close off a very satisfying (yet suprising) meal.

Now came bedtime.. Getting in the hammock was a job and a half by itself. Absolutely pitch black in the woods, getting inside a hammock & mosi net into a sleeping bag. Not one of the easiest things I've ever done. Got settled while Michael laughed at me, then I repaid the favour while he got in his. He had the insight of wisdom though and got in the sleeping bag first which seemed lot's easier. Took a while to get off to sleep.

I was awake 3-4 times so not too bad for a first attempt, got pretty damn cold during the night (weather said down to 4 degrees!) Every time you slipped a little off the roll mat underneath you'd get cold through the sleeping bag. Michael was up about the same, did have to get out and redo his hammock at one point because it was too high at one end. Slept till about 7:30 so obviously not too uncomfortable. Very different way to sleep which will take some getting used to, but loads more comfortable than the floor!! :o)

Got all packed up in the morning, had a cuppa coffee for breakfast before heading back down home. All in all a pretty successful trip out. We survied what Keilder had, and this was probably the coldest we'll ever really come up against for a while anyways. Would be nice to do it in Scotland and get a fire going too. Next time....

Hammock Test

So we're off to test out the hammocks on Saturday night and travelling really light as a test to what we need and what we can live without. When I say travelling light it started off as a tarp, hammock, sleepingbag and a knife... It's grown a bit since then when we actually got down to packing things - now added some food (always handy), a stove (another handy item), an axe (not quite so essential but worth having), first aid kit which will be in the car, some clothes! So as it turns out we're not quite as light as we first planned. But still a hell of a lot lighter than the canoe trip!

And that's the point of this one (and other trips between now and spring). We need to get a very well packed, well stocked but down to only essentials for the next leg of the Great Glen. Ration packs are being tested too as a light, simple alternative (maybe!). Mess tins instead of pans and plates/bowls. Just a spoon instead of knife/fork/spoon.

Who knows, maybe we'll think it's better to have more kit - possibly we've still got too much! Only one way to find out really. And it's only 1 night......

What's next?

Well being relatively warm/calm weather paddlers at this stage we've pretty much resigned to the fact that the next big canoe trip is going to be spring 2009 now. Hopefully we'll get a couple of day-trips out somewhere just to keep us going. Maybe Kielder again....

So in the meantime we're thinking about improving our wild camping skills, in particular;

• How to get everything setup and taken down a bit quicker
• Travelling a LOT lighter
• Finding a more comfortable way to sleep (ie. not on the ground)

We have some hammocks bought already (bargain from DD Hammocks) and planning on giving army rations a shot. Could be a Crocodile Dundee moment (You could live on it but....). Worth giving a go once as it would really make the food side of what we took last time loads lighter and easier to carry. Also cutting down on the tent now that we've got hammocks and tarps which will save some weight, and things like the axe which was hardly used, grilliput not used, smaller change of clothes etc etc.

Looking for somewhere to do one-nighters wild camping to get better at it all and learn a bit more about what we really do need and what we can do without. First trip soon and travelling ultra light. Should have an idea what is a MUST and what is a LIKE TO HAVE after that. No doubt we'll not take something that is majorly important but it's only one night!