Camping In The Cold

The weekend was a camping trip with my brother and nephew in the wood. We had already tried it in the summer so we thought we should give it a go in winter too. We each had our own tent too with my nephew camping out solo in his own 1-man tent for the first time.






The afternoon was active to keep us warm. It was a good opportunity to tackle a windblown tree that I had wanted to sort out for some time. The involved cutting the base and using the winch to drag it back. I stupidly got the bar stuck at one point as I hadn't thought through which side was under compression but we managed to free it and carry on. You learn from your mistakes
I guess. Removing the base was just the beginning and it took a lot of winching to finally free it.


Once it was down we trimmed it up and left it in long pieces for use in a later project. While we were doing this we met a lady from the nearby farm who was out walking two of her dogs. One was a rather playful labradoodle which was incredibly sweet.

After that was done it was back to camp for a hot drink. It took us a while to get the fire going well but it finally got some heat going. Rather than make life too uncomfortable in the evening we retreated to the warmth of the nearby pub for dinner. Pudding was toasted marshmallows back on the camp fire before turning in for the night.

Sleeping was a little uncomfortable in the cold. It seemed that my nephew slept the best in his new sleeping bag, which was designed to cope with winter temperatures. My sleeping bag must be over 10 years old and my brother's more than 20! Neither kept us particularly warm so I think new ones would be needed for any more winter visits.


Morning arrived and some hot drinks and food were needed after the chilly night. The fire was soon restarted and before long the kettle was boiling, beans were bubbling and camp smelled of sizzling sausages. After warming up it was soon time to load up the cars and head home.

Winter has some plus points. It's a better time of year to have a roaring camp fire and it was only sleeping that was a little uncomfortable. With a more adequate sleeping bag I think it would be good to go again.