I've previously been on the hugely enjoyable Hatfield Forest wild camps, overseen as always by Woodlife Trails, and as the date got closer as well as kit I began to think about what food to take. As there would potentially be a fair few folk cooking by fire I made fairly simple dishes up and vacuum pack them. I was taken by this confectionery which I would of course offer Woodlife Trails co-founder Pablo when there. I also gave my Mora knife a quick tickle and got it to hair shaving sharpness and packed my new DD superlight tent which I've purchased to replace my Backpacking Light Sil Hex Peak tent.
The usual wild camp meet up time is 6:00 in the public car park but I got there earlier to get parked up in what is know as the Shell House car park (before the gate gets locked) and took the time to have a look around and get some snaps around the lake area before heading to the base camp to say 'Hi' to the guys and girls.
I pitched my DD tent, initially with a walking pole support but with the view to trying it suspended the next night. The view is out from under the communal parachute fire area into the surrounding woods in the general direction of an active badger sett close by.
Once everyone was in situ Pablo gave a welcome/ parish notices kind of talk and folk got on with settling in, chatting and getting some tea on the go. The National Trust ('the N.T.') campers were a little low in number because the dates only went up at the eleventh hour and even though I'd had a heads up I was close to making other arrangements thinking it wasn't happening.
That said this weekend is quite simply brilliant for everyone from complete beginners to seasoned outdoor folk...You have 1000 acres to play in (within reason of course). Woodlife Trails oversee the weekend on behalf of the N.T. who get the camp fees and despite being under no obligation at all to provide any activities they usually organise stuff for folk to do if they choose, especially as Woodlife Trails were using the weekend to do some diploma modules with it's students they had good numbers there. That's sausage cassoulet with sweet potato in the picture above by the way.
I brought my bridge camera because whilst you can't guarantee to spot specific species you'll always see something in this ancient woodland. However I would have been surprised and disappointed if I hadn't spotted some deer on the weekend when on a walkabout. I took an evening walk after setting up my trail cam near the badger sett I mentioned earlier and got this half decent shot of a fallow deer in an area called Eight Wantz Way despite the fact that the light was dropping sharply.
It can sometimes be hard to tell how many deer are potentially staring back at you, despite their wide range of fur shades and striking black and white rumps. I thought about half a dozen but when the bolted it was about double that. You can see that light is getting to the stage to be almost too poor to use.
I reached the camp as the night drew in and could see yet more fallow about two minutes walk away but with no chance of a shot I spent the rest of the night around the fire before retiring.
I got up fairly early and again, camera in hand headed off for a pre-breakfast bimble which was pleasant but only provided the quickest of quick deer viewings as they scarpered into deep cover.
I did however snap a female Scorpion fly and a nesting Blue tit which was nice. I then headed back, recovered the trail camera and stopped for a spot of breakfast.
I fancied kedgeree on the weekend so I jolly well took some! the camp kettle had just been refilled so I couldn't poshcraft further by doing a couple of poached eggs. I took a break from doing any bannocks this weekend which I love, instead I took some croissant dough which makes a fantastic rich sweet breakfast course.
After breakfast the other Woodlife Trails co-founder, Jon Paul Lamoureux took everyone through some knife safety with the view to N.T. folk having a go at carving, and if anyone had brought their own knife. Some hazel lengths were past around for tent peg carving which I readily joined in with as I had inadvertently covered some tent pegs with the inner mesh and was a little under pegged as a result.
Once I'd done my pegs my knife got a quick tickle on a strop before I headed off to spend time re-pegging my tent, suspending it via the loop in the top and generally doing a bit of camp admin and dinner prep.
Dinner consisted of a pre-made hedgerow soup and a Zataar spice covered manakeesh style bread. Instructor Richard is a whizz at bread making and gave it the thumbs up which was handy.
After clearing away it was a chance to have another quick scout around before dinner. There was a basic firelighting demo laid on for N.T. campers but as I'd done one with my Cub pack just two weeks ago I headed off into the forest again. I chanced upon a male Scorpion fly this time (look at the tail) and a sunbathing Speckled Wood butterfly and a Cuckoo, that we heard on Friday evening and Saturday morning started calling again.
I decided to head for the Cuckoo's location and chanced upon a style down a narrow path that I'd not been over before.
The narrow and muddy path was awash with Muntjac, Fallow and Fox sign. Indeed I had a Muntjac break for cover close to me and saw a few Fallow soon after that. This was the place that I would come back to with my trail camera later on. No sign of the Cuckoo however.
When walking I make a habit of regularly looking over my shoulder to see if anything has popped out behind me. I noticed the sun on an Ash tree that revealed five or six worked holes.
Waiting a couple of minutes paid dividends as a Nuthatch returned one of them, it's the hole to the left just before the trunk forks in the previous picture. I got some shots and headed off, mindful that I may spook the parents.
I came back rather filthy and after a chill by the fire it was time for tea which was chicken and chorizo in a tomato sauce, cooked atop my folding trivet,
with wraps which was followed up with Thai style rice pudding with mango and cardamom seeds.
After tea instructor Hannah got awarded with her instructor silver feather by her husband Pablo who in turn was presented with his 'Pug sweets'.
I'd had a slightly earlier tea to give me more sunlight and I chose a quicker ingress into the woods than I did the previous day to save a bit of time. It was one of those lovely still sunny evenings with plenty of insects on the wing.
Several key paths are temporarily closed due to them being very wet and prone to footfall damage so my route was a little bit of a zig-zag. I disturbed a couple of Muntjacs from cover and they were rather comical as they bounded away as their erect white tails bobbed in unison.
As I turned for home I briefly saw some Fallow, maybe eight or so which included a handsome young male with dappled markings.
I headed into camp but decided to just go back to the spot where I saw some Fallow in the twilight on the Friday as I had a bit of light left to play with. Bingo, I could see some deer a little further to the left in the edge of the trees. There was a small stand of mixed trees which I used as cover to make up ground and saw a path through it to stay completely unseen.
As I reached the opening I saw a plethora of dry twigs, nettles and brambles preventing me from reaching my chosen viewing point. I elected to get the camera ready, slowly break cover and snap them before they headed off. To my surprise the two on show just stared at me with indifference to the point where they went back to a mixture of grazing and watching.
Then they were joined by a third darker coloured deer...
And slowly but surely their numbers grew...
Until they decided to split with me thinking that there were about six or so.
This picture shows them spread out running across the ride and there are ten in this picture with around another five or so already in the trees. Even at this distance you can see how big their ears are on the deer looking at me. All in all I did in excess of nine miles according to my pedometer.
Sunday morning was showing all the signs of being a glorious day to finish off the camp. I went and retrieved my trail camera from the newly discovered muddy path and once out of that bit of wood a Muntjac barked in the very area I'd just left and made me jump out my skin as it was so close, I could still hear it as I got back to the camp to dump my trail camera before again heading out for an early morning breath of fresh air.
If you like rabbits you can pretty much rely on seeing loads of them in the early morning, this shot was taken about a minutes walk from the base camp.
Just past the rabbit sighting, (near the Scots Pine stand if you ever attend) I discovered a plant that I had not previously seen in the forest, namely Sorrel.
My breakfast, and final food was a traditional cooked breakfast which is made easy with my Primus non-stick saucepan. I also had plenty of my favourite coffee pouches with me too as instant doesn't cut it for me.
We had a slow morning to pull our kit together and strike our tents or tarps. I had brought with me the measured and cut pieces of leather to make a possibles pouch as practice for making one with my fish skin leather. The box of basic leather tools I had brought with me didn't have thread or needles in as I thought it had so I had a quick impromtu bowdrill set building session. I used what was already laying around close to camp and this was an Elder drill married up to a Clematis hearth, not perhaps a usual combination but it's one I've used before.
I haven't used a bowdrill yet this year due to having a pull in the joint between my clavicle and shoulder so I didn't got full tilt at it. Whilst I didn't get an ember I had the drill end and hearth depression smoke copiously after stopping so I was pleased with this blowing the cobwebs away effort.
I suggested a group shot before everybody took their kit to the vehicles which everyone was pleased to be in.
The kit was loaded in as the Woodlife Trails team set about dealing with the fire and chute and returning the area to nature. The kit was then driven back to the Shell House car park as Pablo lead us off on a tracking/ nature walk to our vehicles.
We saw plenty of flora and fauna on the walk and to be honest I've left a lot of shots off as it would increase the length of this blog exponentially. Suffice to say if you are ever in this forest bring a camera.
We chanced upon deer couches...
Feeding sign, learning why a hazelnut that a squirrel consumed is scratched on the outer shell...
Pablo asked us what had this prey was and what killed it. I correctly guessed the prey and killer but there was, quite literally, a twist to the tale which Pablo had spotted.
I noticed some woodpecker marks on a tree. We'd seen all of this within sight of the base camp entrance by the way.
As well as plenty of deer prints we also spotted a Badger and Fox print too. Pablo and I spotted the latter at the same time and nearly bumped heads as we bent down to look.
The final significant spot was not far from our cars. This scrape had not only Rabbit droppings in but Hare droppings too so it was good to see the differences in size, shape and colour.
And so we had arrived at the cars around mid dinner time. I packed my kit and said my goodbyes, I hadn't seen the Woodlife crew for a while so it was good to catch up. The only disappointment has been my trail camera which seems to have a fault where the inner screen illuminates but doesn't then show any information so no nocturnal shots of the woodland beasties to show...Or so I thought. I decided to have a look at the SD card just in case and whilst it wasn't well it had, perhaps randomly, fired off half a dozen times or so over the two days.
The above shot from the Friday night near the sett features a badger only briefly but I've included it for the intense morning chorus which it's worth turning the volume up for.
And this clip was of a young Fallow deer which made it's way across the screen in just enough time before the camera stopped. Actually I have to give Bushnell a mention here and flag up their excellent customer service. I emailed them about possible solutions re the poorly trail cam and they asked me to post it to them. It obviously was a bit sick because they sent me a brand new one even though it was out of warranty.
