Woodland Ways

27 Sep 2019

One of my hobbies is outdoor sleeping so I particularly enjoyed two nights of woodland camping in Leicestershire last weekend, on a Woodland Ways bushcraft course. The first night under a cosy tarpaulin, slung between two beech trees, and the second in a self-made shelter (pictured). I realise that I am a privileged outdoor sleeper: I’m doing this for fun, well equipped, safe in the knowledge that I’m returning to a nice warm, dry home at the end of the weekend. And the weather was kind, which massively helped. Still, it was quite exciting to be woken up by a couple of tawny owls having a hootenanny.

We didn’t hunt any of our food, but we learnt about foraging and came face to face with fish, fowl and fur, preparing and cooking each by fire. The cooking fire wasn’t started this way, but we also had a go at rubbing sticks together to make flames.

Tags: outdoor, sleep

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