Back from camping.
We had a good time... R and I turned up on time, to find S had arrived at J's early... after a while, H arrived, rather late and under-equipped... and we eventually set off on the walk three hours later than scheduled, and heavily overloaded, having begged a lift (two trips) from H's mum. Yeah, we're a bit crap at organising.
Anyway, we eventually arrived at Site Alpha to find that all our firewood had been used to explode some Lynx cans... and the cleared space for the tent (a huge thing) was now occupied by some kind of Ray Mears thing. So, we set out to clear and get firewood; in the course of cutting firewood, I blistered my thumb. Then we got the fire going, and held out for tea, then got the tunes going (provided by yours truly and his MP3 player; The Arrogant Worms and the Poxy Boggards proved popular for a booze camp.) and did some more clearing and marshmallow toasting.
Later, it got dark, and we went out of the woods to set off the fireworks. M arrived, watched the display, and we sat round, chatted and listened to most of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, until the batteries ran dry (dangit; they should've been good for another hour at least) and then headed for bed. H had actually departed while it was still light, and M headed home, so there were four of us by this point.
Three of them slept. I got nary a wink.
Anyway, this "morning" we got tidied up (leaving the site in a nicer state than we'd found it) and tabbed out, eventually wending our separate ways home, and now we're reckoning we need to do that again, but with more warmth, less tabbing and better organisation.
I just hope next time's ratpack has a main meal I'm willing to eat. Most ratpack food is OK these days, but MoD "Lamb" "Curry" didn't appeal. The "Beans and Bacon" breakfast (nicknamed by squaddies "Man fat and glow beans" due to the shocking Hunter Orange hue of the "tomato" sauce) was lovely. Although with typical MoD forward thinking, the retort pouch is too large to fit in your mess tin and so is a pain to boil in the bag...
Anyway, we eventually arrived at Site Alpha to find that all our firewood had been used to explode some Lynx cans... and the cleared space for the tent (a huge thing) was now occupied by some kind of Ray Mears thing. So, we set out to clear and get firewood; in the course of cutting firewood, I blistered my thumb. Then we got the fire going, and held out for tea, then got the tunes going (provided by yours truly and his MP3 player; The Arrogant Worms and the Poxy Boggards proved popular for a booze camp.) and did some more clearing and marshmallow toasting.
Later, it got dark, and we went out of the woods to set off the fireworks. M arrived, watched the display, and we sat round, chatted and listened to most of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, until the batteries ran dry (dangit; they should've been good for another hour at least) and then headed for bed. H had actually departed while it was still light, and M headed home, so there were four of us by this point.
Three of them slept. I got nary a wink.
Anyway, this "morning" we got tidied up (leaving the site in a nicer state than we'd found it) and tabbed out, eventually wending our separate ways home, and now we're reckoning we need to do that again, but with more warmth, less tabbing and better organisation.
I just hope next time's ratpack has a main meal I'm willing to eat. Most ratpack food is OK these days, but MoD "Lamb" "Curry" didn't appeal. The "Beans and Bacon" breakfast (nicknamed by squaddies "Man fat and glow beans" due to the shocking Hunter Orange hue of the "tomato" sauce) was lovely. Although with typical MoD forward thinking, the retort pouch is too large to fit in your mess tin and so is a pain to boil in the bag...