Barney's Bimbles and Adventures

I thought I'd share a short video that I made while out on a day camp in my local woodlands. In this video; Des and I set-up our tarps, drink lots of tea and cook up some fine food. I hadn't planned on doing any whittling, but ended up carving a spoon from a lovely piece of seasoned Ash. Unfortunately I didn't get around to finishing it off as I left my crook knife at home, but it will be finished off in my shed or when I next venture out to the woods. I'll keep this blog post nice and short because I do sometimes have a tendency to go off on one and waffle about every last detail. Let me know what you think of the video, it's not a skill set that comes easily to me, but I'm working to improve and may start to post a few more videos up here. Happy New Year to you all

Ooh I love backpacking at this time of year, there’s the crisp fresh air, none of those annoying insects, the wondrous vistas and the gentle reminder that I’m maturing in years as I wrestle my fully laden rucksack onto my back! This time, I’m in Essex catching up with my camping buddy, Des (link to his excellent youtube channel below) and our plan is to camp at a nearby spot that he’s found. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t looking great and the location was fairly exposed to the elements so it was essential that I packed the right equipment. Every time I organise my winter camping kit, I convince myself that I’m packing relatively simple and lightweight kit. But yet I am astounded when I find myself having to shoe horn everything into every available crevice of my 70 litre rucksack. It’s the sleeping bag that does it, my three season sleeping bag seems to dominate the space available in the main compartment of my rucksack. I could gamble and pack my lighter summer sleepi