Having a group of scouts from 21st Whitley Bay staying at the campsite this weekend didn’t stop Norman and I carrying on with work as usual. In fact, they even gave a hand.

Today’s milieu gave unexpected relief of the recent weather rich in humidity. The thunderous sky and wicked downpours made surprisingly pleasant working conditions. Work today consisted of felling both wild cherry and oak trees in an attempt to rid the woods of an outbreak of purse spider that’s plaguing several arias. The cutting down and burning of trees including oak and wild cherry has been quite a large price to pay in making an attempt to purge the purse spider for good. With all the extra help, work was finished really early. All that was left, was to burn the remainder of wood cut down on a big fire. Looked after by the scouts and their leader, it left me free to do other things like running round in the rain with my camera while others took shelter in the mess tent.

It’s been too long. Now that I’m back on the rock, I can’t begin to think how I coped with being away. After much doubt, my ankle has held out and since I have a climbing assessment at the end of the month, it’s just as well I have the confidence to climb on it. The assessment will show that I have experience as a climber and as a scout leader; I have the ability to teach young people to climb. There’s not long to go and there’s allot of climbing to catch up on.

It may not have been my ankle, but if there was something holding me back, it was the weather. Suppose I can’t complain, for the past week or so the watcher has been pleasantly warm but the sheer heat this weekend was extraordinary.

Today was the day of the annual Northumberland show at Corbridge, a show that’s mainly agricultural but also attracts a lot of the public seeking that bank holiday bustle. This year, like every other, my dad sits in a small stand promoting his livestock nutrition business and trying to attract more customers while I wonder round the show soaking up the pointless nostalgia. Its like being at the zoo, moving from one display to the next and every display you look at, pushes the memories of the last one out. Its interesting to see the 30 minute queues outside each of the men’s chemical toilet facilities when there is an equal amount of perfectly good tree’s and bushes.

Going to sound like a spotter now…

A Douglas C-47, the military version of the DC-3, serial no.ZA947 of the Battle of Britain Memorial flight, based at RAF Coningsby. Only one of these “skytrain’s” exists in great Britton and today it flew within a stone throw above our heads to mark D-Day.

The sun is out, the rain is holding off and once again I’m on site at the family camp in Plessy woods but still having to remind myself that I’m within a stone throw away from home. The scout group’s family camp is the one and only camp where a leader can get away with doing next to nothing. With the parents there of all the beavers, cubs and scouts, the work they do lightens the load for the rest of us. Jobs are finished earlier and its amazing how promptly the children do as they’re told when its their parents giving the orders.

In true scouting nature, the occupants of the camp have insufficient needs to fulfill the outfits potential. The bigger the field, the more they feel the need to fill it.

A snapped ligament in my ankle has held me back too long. Following 3 months of withdrawal symptoms I finally feel like my ankle is once again strong enough to continue climbing on a regular basis. Today was a refreshing reminder of how long it’s been since the last time I was on a climbing wall and now I can’t wait to get back.

I was however supposed to have the company of my dad at the wall in Newcastle but I have no problem climbing alone. Company’s great but once in a while its good to get away from the crowd, that way it’s more of an activity and less of an excuse to socialize, thus a chance to get more climbing done.

Once the climbing was out the way, there was still enough time to meet my dad for a pizza before I was urgently called upon to help out the scouts and the other leaders to prepare for a family camp this weekend at Plessy woods. All that was involved was packing small lorry with an outfit that was much more than just essential for 2 nights.

This Saturday, I expected to be sharing the campsite with 30+ Mormons who were camping on a family-bonding weekend, only Norman got the dates wrong. Instead, they camped out on Friday night and set off home just shortly before I arrived after work. I have to say I was a little relieved, their early departure caused the populace to be pleasantly narrowed down to Joss and Craig who always make good company.

By the time Joss had a good fire going, I had already begun to prepare my dinner. Finely diced beef fried in couscous with wild garlic (Ramsons) and mushroom collected from the riverside, one of my favorites. While I was done eating, the sun was beginning to set and despite the amount of cloud, the intense glow form the moon lit the forest floor well beyond midnight. Fearful of being cold in a tent on my own, I lay down in my bivi bag beside a well-stocked fire that kept me warm till Sunday morning. Nights like this are wasted by sleeping in a tent, everything there is to see is shrouded by the dull soggy canvass hanging above your head while bivouacking outside leaves you exposed to the sounds and of course the sights of the woods...

3 weeks is all the time that is left until the first year of my college course comes to an end and it is only until today when I had my first practical session. A whole years worth of theory and enough math’s to burn a hole through the brain has led up to this one laboratory exercise, which turned out to be rather disappointing in a way that it was easy peasy. It was simply to design and construct a wane bridge oscillator circuit using a 741-operation amplifier.

Today’s relaxation has done me good, it’s helped me regain my physical consciousness in a way that I can get back to my usual energetic temperament. This week has left me with a big scar in my exuberance, so many conflicting measures has led to a phantasmagoria of infatuation, grief, fear and finally breakdown. Today’s reposed activities gave me sudden relief in spite that only the minority of situations has improved.

For most of the morning the rain held off, in which time Norman and I leisurely erected a small flagpole. Completing the job with plenty of time to spare before dinner, I had a chance to reap some wild garlic spotted previously. This made the main ingredient to what would be the highlight of my day.
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One of the most important things I’ve learned when going camping is how much we think to be necessary is actually superfluous. How few things are essential, and just how essential those few things are. When putting together a suitable outfit for camping in the wilderness, I do not take anything elaborate, heavy or space consuming. I try to adapt it according to the climate and the nature of the activities I undertake. Eventually, it gets really easy to follow one simple rule; K.I.S.S-Keep It Simple, Stupid. The scouts on the other hand must follow a rule to the exact opposite extreme.

This weekend a group of cubs, scouts and explorer scouts from whitely bay were staying at the campsite in Pigdon. Every scout group takes plenty of equipment when on camp but the guy’s in Whitley bay believes in anything but traveling light. For some reason, the leaders thought it would be fitting to bring 2 ford transit vans worth of equipment and supplies. Among lots of things were 6 giant orange tents big enough to sleep 4 but only used by 2, fleets of folding tables, enough crates of food to cater the cast of Annie for a month and garden furniture!

Its been rather an extraordinary day. Rain has been pounding down right from the start then typically lifting up just after everyone had packed away, I taught a small group of scouts how to light a fire using only Burch bark, several people came onto me (one of which was gay) and Norman just couldn’t help but shove a chainsaw in my hand to cut logs for the fire.

Had been looking forward to camping out at Pigdon woods tonight since there would be a lot of people including 30+ scouts from Whitley Bay. However, my sister made plans to take the family out for a meal at a restraint in Newcastle to celebrate my mum’s 60th birthday, only no one told me about it until the last minute.

The venue of tonight’s deterrent was a Japanese restraint by the name of which I can’t remember but arrived their to find that the food was cooked on a big hot plate in the middle of the table. As the chef (Jacky) prepared and cooked the food, he made it somewhat of a performance by juggling eggs and setting the food on fire by igniting it into a big explosion. On the way home, we stopped at the Barrington, a Stakeford pub that Wayne regularly attends. Their, we met one of the other regulars who we had no other choice but to sit next to. Completely off his head but making everyone smile, reminding us of the fun we had.

In the picture, you’re looking at the newest addition to my kit list. It’s the Woodlore knife designed by Ray Mears, made in England by Wilkinson Sword. This morning it was waiting for me along with 3 Japanese water stones when I returned from my driving lesson. Frustrated at not being able to find the ideal knife to suit the demands of bushcraft, Ray resorted to making his own and went into production in 1990. It is expertly crafted from O1 high carbon tool steel, which is strong, sharpens to a very fine edge, and has a full tang sculpted scale handle in black Micarta.

Later on in the evening, I was pushed into attending another leaders meeting, which like all discussion meetings, turns into a ranting session of which I am the only one who is never a part of.

For another Sunday of which the weather was even better than last, I was stuck indoors yet again. Feeling even more bitter and resentful, I was summoned to count resistors of which after having been counted, their numbers were in 6 figures. The counting was all part of a full annual stock take in the shop, only this time it had never been so well organized. Thanks to masses of little yellow stickers and some hand held computers, the counting was finished much sooner than expected, thus leading to the part timers (including me) being relieved early.

By now, I’m really looking forward to next Sunday. Norman has planned a small money making scheme at the campsite consisting of activities for the campers in light of the mayday celebrations. A hard hat and chainsaw won’t be necessary this time, however my help will be needed from the crack of dawn so I’m leaving work on Saturday afternoon with my camping gear and spending the night under canvas. If I succeed in finding company, I’ll be camping out on Sunday night too. Because why not?!

Intentions for today were to use Leigh’s computer to back up one of my hard drives but as I stepped outside ready to mosey on down to his place, the warm weather told me not to waste the day by sitting in a cramped room observing progress bars crawling along a computer screen. Leigh and I decided to make good use of today’s nice weather by taking a walk to the beach. Sitting on sandy bay all day would be boring so we had ambitions to light a fire…one way or another. With not having a knife sharp enough to feather wood for kindling, I could only use a small pile of bark shavings pulled off some driftwood. To make fire, I attempted to make sparks using my flint stick. Being unsuccessful, Leigh whipped out his Zippo and got a fire going with some newspaper. Once I get my new blade, the Woodlore knife by Wilkinson Sword, I’ll be unstoppable.

The sandy bay caravan park’s chip shop wasn’t far away and the hunger and temptation to pay a visit was too overpowering to ignore. After tossing down chips, cheese patty and a free spam fritter, we returned to the fire where we passed away the hours until sundown by, amongst many things, taking photos.

Seeing the sun shine outside made me feel incredibly bitter and resentful of the fact that I was stuck in an adult training session for 8 hours. When instead, on such a nice day I could be soaking up the sun and letting rip with a chainsaw in the woods. The climate of today’s venue was dislocated from that of outside in that it was extraordinarily cold. Managing to grin and bare it warring only a cotton t-shirt, I was forced to endure hour after hour of section leader administration and international training.

Something good actually came out of the day. With my lift failing to arrive at the end of the day, I made arrangements to seek solace within my dads company, a visit neither of us was expecting.

What an evening! For a long time I’ve always wanted to meet my role model, Ray Mears (pictured right). Ray is a leading pioneer in bushcraft survival and tonight I attended his lecture at the Tumbridge wells assembly hall theater where he talked about his latest adventure. Today’s experience was somewhat emotional. I never expected to even talk to him yet alone end up shaking his hand.

The day started at 9:15am where my dad and I set off in the car for a long trip down to Tumbridge wells in Kent. We were making really good time, the traffic was without its stereotype charm so we indulged on an extended stay at the services in Nottingham where we masticated a shepherds pie and chips. Arriving in Tumbridge wells just under 6 hours of setting off, we consulted the local tourist information desk to inquire about accommodation in the aria. We chose the New Wellington where I’m currently sitting in a room lit almost entirely by a flood lamp outside. It has to be said that the cost is completely overkill for a twin room of which is lacking even the most basic of characteristics. Arriving early, we had lots of time to kill. So to kill it, we browsed shops, drank coffee and ate pizza until after which there was time enough to collect the tickets from the hotel room and make our way over to the assembly hall for 7:30.

During the 2 and a half hours that ray gave his presentation, he showed slides and talked to us about his experiences during his most recent expedition to different parts of the world learning about the ways in which different cultures employ the skills of bushcraft. His talk included some stories that never made it to the television series including the spiritual rituals preformed for a boy to rid him of his troublesome behavior, a helicopter accident in America in which he was lucky to walk away from and also the fact that there was a MacDonald’s on the edge of the rainforest that he visited in south America.

After the lecture, Ray sat at a table in the bar where people queued for his book signing session. Approaching the table to begin talking to him was bizarre, he had a smile on his face and I’m sure mine was even bigger. I took with me my copy of one of his books “Essential Bushcraft” which I asked him to sign, using the correct spelling of course. Ray was quite talkative, I asked him for a book recommendation that I should reed in preparation for visiting the jungle. The expression on my face must have told him that I could never remember what he was telling me so he tore off a piece of paper and wrote a list for me. After never even expecting to talk to him, I shook his hand and walked away with memories of an unforgettable experience.

Well, this is a pretty long entry, provoked by a combination of time to spare, an extremely dull hotel room and the presence of my PDA. Time’s getting on and I’m being pressed into going to sleep, here are some pictures…

Its hard to think that 5 days ago I was talking about how brilliant the weather is. Today when I stepped out the front door to make my way to the post office, an unseasonably cold weather front took me by surprise. It was incredibly windy, so I just put it down to wind-chill. While walking to the sorting office, I noticed snow-like flakes in the air. Turns out it was snow. This was the scene right outside of college in the afternoon.