First Solo Camping trip

I’ve been wild camping for a few years now, but it was with some trepidation that I set off on my first solo camping trip back in September this year. The weather was relatively warm but changeable, the leaves were starting to change colour, things were starting to become rather Autumnal.

I’ve been wanting to do a solo trip for a short while now. I wanted to experience what it was like to be camped out in a quiet area of the woods where you can sit and enjoy the sights and sounds of the woodland, be it the trees blowing in the wind, the finches and tits wisping from branch to branch or the squirrels hunting for acorns. For me, this was also a time to relax, forget about work and concentrate on the simple pleasures in life.

There were also some bushcrafty skills to practice. I had all the ingredients to make a nice curry and intended to cook it on my small wood burning stove (the honey stove). All I needed to do was source some tinder and firewood.

I was camped in a fairly diverse woodland which was great as I could gather material from a multitude of resources. There were some pine which offered me plenty of pine cones for kindling (they were open/dry and thus great for getting a fire going). The bracken was starting to die back and makes for great tinder bundles. There’s also plenty of fallen silver birch trees so I harvested some bark. I snapped a couple of dead branches from the bottom of a pine tree knowing that its resinous content would help to get the fire going and then I collected a few dead standing branches (mostly hazel) to keep the fire ticking over. This sounds like a lot but I didn’t need to collect much to feed my stove. Indeed I was very impressed at how efficient the honey stove was and ended up stashing quite a lot of the wood away for my next camp.

Managed to light the fire using my traditional flint and steel kit and some home made char cloth. It's the third time I've been successful at this technique and it always puts a smile on my face when it works!

I had originally made plans to go simple and camp under a small tarp and in my bivvy bag. However, the weather forecast threatened rain so I thought I’d play safe and take my hammock and bigger 3x3m tarp. The lure of my comfy hammock is often too great to resist! This also presented an opportunity to test out my Snugpak Jungle blanket. I purchased this having been seduced by John Fenna’s recent review of said item. It was something of a bargain and I have to say that I was quite pleased with my purchase. It kept me warm when the temperatures dropped overnight (overnight forecast was 8 degrees) and I had no need to call upon the services of my down jacket. I think this blanket will stand me in good stead for the winter when I use it in conjunction with my 3 season bag, kind of like a wool blanket but without the weight and bulk!

So with  camp set-up and fire wood prepped I was left with some time to relax and put my feet up in the hammock chair. It was also good to do a bit of whittling and I practised making feather sticks, something that I’m finding is harder than it seems! I also took some time to make a windbreak around my honey stove as the wind was picking up a bit.

The gold finches and great tits flew happily about the trees by my tarp and reasonably close by I could hear squirrels rustling leaves and snapping twigs as they pranced around the canopy. There were times when I also heard a green woodpecker taking flight in the trees above my head but I’d be damned if I could see it (such illusive birds). As night time arrived, I started to hear the owls hoot, such a pleasure to hear them in the wild. One or two were definitely tawny owls but I could not make out the others (little owl perhaps). They’re so often heard but seldom seen, in time I’d like to learn of where they nest so that I can set-up my wildlife camera and capture some images.

And that was basically it, I was tucked up in my hammock by 9pm and just laid there for a while taking in all of the noises and looking forward to a decent nights sleep. The next morning, I woke up to a bit of rain (just as I was hoping to pack the tarp away dry!) and departed the campsite, leaving no trace.

One thing I noticed while solo camping was that time seemed to move slowly. This of course is no bad thing but was a stark contrast to my typical experience of camping with a group where an overnighter often seems to whizz by in a heartbeat. What a great way to spend time though, I can’t wait now until my next camp!