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Bivi bag overnighter.

GaryHW

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This weekend was planned for my monthly overnighter, time as always was tight so I could only manage a single night but the weather looked good so I thought I'd go out and just bivi up. There is something profoundly wonderfully and almost liberating about the experience of just rolling out your sleeping bag and bivi with no tarp or other fixings. It is for me one of life's little pleasures.

So Friday morning off I trotted with my LK35 and the bear minimum of kit. The sun was blazing away as I tabbed across the moors, about 5 miles or so to my favorite spot. Having just come off a night shift I have to say the heat along knocked me for six and what is usually a hour or so hike took me twice as long. Fortunately Dartmoor never lacks watering holes so keeping hydrated isn't a problem but still I struggled on, every hill felt like a mountain.

Eventually around lunch time I reached camp, had a well earned brew, rolled out my bed and promptly nodded off for a couple of hours!

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Waking up to a bit of a chill wind I got my butt in gear and went about the usual chores of setting up a camp, for a late lunch I cooked up some noodles (in my new zebra billy can) before cracking on prepping a fire place and gather wood etc. It was a lovely day and I was so thankful for the great weather - usually on the moors the weathers a challenge no matter what time of year - so I have to say I did feel blessed.

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By evening I was comfy cosy, with a small fire on the go and my billy hung. Evening meal was a tin of Staggs Chilli and rice washed down with a coffee or two. Then as the sun started to drop and the temperature with it I scrapped a thin willow wand free of bark and made myself a salami kebab to cook over the embers. If you've never had this try it, it's my gift to you as it's one of the most wonderfully snacks in the bushcraft recipe book, the hot meat, sizzling fat and salty after taste is, ewwwww, to die for.

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I was one happy teddy bear as I crawled into my sleeping bag and, just as a added bonus, gazed up at the stars in a crystal clear sky. Sleep wasn't look in coming and I slept like a baby. 12 hours of unbroken sleep!

Waking up the next morning the sun was warming my bag, as I'd deliberately set up with a easterly facing camp to catch the morning warmth, it was glorious and I thanked God just for being alive!

I pottered about for the morning, before tidying up camp and making sure the fire was out and no trace was left, rested and refreshed I tabbed out a new man compared to the worn out wreck of the previous day.

Sometimes after a cold and wet weekend I wonder why I do it, but after this trip I remembered exactly what I love about bushcraft and being out alone in the woods. Roll on my months trip!!
 

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Ditto what Paul (G1Zmo) said. I cut my teeth on Dartmoor and love the place, so I can completely empathise. šŸ˜Š
Cheers Paul N, I cut my teeth in Epping Forest as a kid, so grew up with Beech and Hornbeam, deciduous woodlands hold my heart, wasn't really until posted to German and later doing bushcraft stuff in Sweden, Norway and Finland I came across pine forests and have to say even now I find the Pine forests on Dartmoor quiet sterile places - I do miss the deciduous woodlands of my youth, that said I am still glad to have the Moors on my doorstep. In the pine forests on a sunny day I am often transported back to Scandinavia and some really great memoirs for sure!
 
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