2 NIGHTS UNDER CANVAS BEACH CAMP AND WOODLAND CAMP

Well guys, we're back out for another two nights. We've got our canvas tent on the go again, ground dwelling. This is my rucksack, as usual. My mastic roll mat's starting to get quite tattered now. But it'll last a little while, yeah. Duns with his same rucksack and coffee. How do? He's having a problem with the strap. It keeps popping, but I think it's just wet. They always look flimsy, don't they? That's why I like the army buckles. I've probably got an army buckle that'd fit better on. My other one snapped across here, so I know that that's snappy. This one's still good. I didn't like the osprey that I got because the clips just felt so flimsy compared to the army ones. I've got the chest bag on my chest there and Adam's got the tent on his chest. Yeah, we're going to plod on. We're going to the Stone Beach camp on this side of the river this week just because we haven't been there in a long time. Also... See if it's buried under water. It's not going to be buried under water. I hope so, dude. It won't be. I checked the river this morning. I swear to God it's not going to be flooded. I'm not sleeping in the water. You're not going to have to sleep in water. And anyways, the tent's got a little bath in the bottom, hasn't it? Oh, yeah, we're going to float. We're not going to float in that one. I've seen people on YouTube where they leak. No matter what they do, they always leak by the zips at the doorway. That's why I always put a poncho or a tarp over the top of mine regardless of if it's raining or not. I want to get one because you know they zip together. Yeah, yeah, there's two of them. Gary and me had them zipped together. Oh, they're good. They're good there. They're good, like. Okay, so we've just got to camp. Not a bad trek. We're at the beach camp. It's exactly how I left it. It's been a while since I've been here. So, yeah, we're happy. What we're going to do with the sleeping area to get our tent in is we're going to take out this raised area here that goes all the way to the side of the fire pit. We're going to take that all out, extend it a little bit around here just so that we can get the tent in and get full heat from the fire because as I've said on many occasions, these riverbanks can be really cold. And, yeah, like winter's coming very soon, like the 24th of December. So, yeah, awesome. As in you like it? Turkish delight and coffee on the cold riverbank. That's what it's going to be first, we've decided. Because I just remembered like two seconds ago they actually had a little compact stove in my bag. So our priority is coffee, Turkish delight, and then we're going to get a fire going straight away and then we're going to move brick stones once the fire's lit and then get our tent up and then collect more firewood probably and chill and get some food on. And tonight we're having chicken fajitas, which I'm quite excited about. I've got my big wok with me. I've done away with the Crusader cup for a bit because it's diabolical the amount of coffee that I waste and the cup's too big and you know how cold a Crusader cup goes really, really fast with coffee in it. So, yeah, I got myself a thermal cup just for the crack. Cost me £13. Almost the same price as a Crusader cup. Not that I'm complaining, I love it. Water's on the road soon. At least the coffee won't freeze now just after you've made it. Yeah. Like when we did that minus six camp, I poured coffee in, went away to collect some firewood, came back and it was frozen. It was frozen, there was ice on it. Into it instead. Yeah. And I'll burn the brick in like seconds. Yeah. And then I realised like years later that kerosene did it. Right, so we've got the tent up. The anchor points, we basically just tied around rocks and used them as anchor points. I've put the tarp over the top of my canvas just because I don't want to get too much, because there's a mist around at the moment and I don't want to get any water on it because it's going to make it heavier to carry. So I've got my little loop there with some twigs inside it. Some old rock. Sits nicely on top of that. Gets nice and hot. Add the chicken in there. Yee-haw, big chicken kick-off. Big chicken kick-off. Oh yeah. So I've got all the chickens in there. Put the veg in and I put the old El Paso spice for fajitas. We've got a selection of wraps here and salsa. Cheers Johnny lad. Awesome fajitas. Made my lips tingle, they were so spicy. Shut up. They were spicy? They were spicy. Yeah, we'll see you all in the morning. The fajitas were spicy, don't listen to Adam. See a bit of frost on the tarp. So there's our little spot. Beautiful morning. That's pretty much my bag all packed up. Adam's almost finished. So I'm going to take the tent down and have one last coffee. We're going to have breakfast up at the woodland camp. So I've just made the river crossing. Adam will be over in a second, he's just putting out the fire. It is so cold, it's like, wow. Takes a breath right out your mouth. It's nice and warm Adam. It's not that bad. Fucker. I'm going to get my socks and boots on and my long johns pulled down because I am freezing. It's not warm. Gets to the point where it hurts. That's so cold. It's Baltic isn't it. I think with the current it makes it colder. So we're just heading up the other side of the dry river bed now. Then up to the woodland camp. There's a bit of standing water in it. That's to be expected this time of year. It's still there. I have the tent up at the woodland camp now. I've had to shift it around, I couldn't fit it in there. For some reason it's like maybe a foot and a half too width wise so I just moved the bench back over there and put the tent on this side of the fire. I've got the seating shallower up because we are expecting some rain at some point. So I thought I'd put it up above the seat just to create another dry space as well as our tent. Result. I may hang another tarp over this, I'm not sure yet. I'm still working out. A little lantern there. It's grand. I love this tent, it's so comfy. I like the thick ground sheet too. Plenty of space for two men. One head there and one head there. So it's when you get your kit bag in the top on your head too. So it's good. Adam's just popped to the other camp to get the spit rose pole. On my last day and set things up. I've also started, as I'm going, just started collecting random bits of firewood that I can use to start everything while I'm getting our kit in. It's our tent under an extra little bit of cover for the porch. And also for our kit at the back that we can't fit in. A food bag. Another little bit bed-wise. It's Adam's head here. That side and my head's at that side. This is the job. I use my Army Arctic sleeping bag just because it's got a thick back with my roll mat. It's absolutely sweet and I've put the whole blanket across the entire floor just to give it that little extra layer. This is the job. We've started to, it's Adam's little pile of wood there. I'm just going to keep on collecting firewood until he comes back. Started to collect some serious firewood now. Almost got my little firewood compartment as my overspill pile here. I hear raindrops. I do. See, I knew it was going to rain. About two o'clock too. What time is it? Is it two o'clock? Twenty past one. Oh, not bad there. Pretty close considering I might have to move that tarp forward over the tent just to get that doorway covered, depending on what angle the rain's coming. Get that fire logged out shortly too. I've got the sausages on. Just going to brown them off fast and then cut them in half and finish them off in the center. Nice and easy. Then go and get some bacon on once they're all done. And bacon sausage rolls for breakfast. Now we're all set up and that. Still got a good couple of hours daylight. Got plenty of wood. Lots of nice food to cook. All the sausages halved now. I'm going to stack them all along this side and then get the bacon up and down here. So these are the bits we're going to eat first because we've put them on first. These bits are for if anyone's hungry after everything else is finished. There we go. Toasted our rolls. Excessive amount of bacon and lots of sausages. Result. Turn it over. Come this way. So we've got a dead tree that was on its side. The one you've seen us chopping up. It's blown over and uprooted and dried itself out to the point where it's quite bone dry wood. So it's nice wood like. So we've got a few on now. Two of them on now. When that bit all burns up we're going to spread it out and then put one, two, three side by side with a little bit in between it just to give it that little bit extra. Got all sorts. Got a nice full woodshed there too. That's the camp from the back end. It's a sheet of steel bent over that I found over the other side of the woodland. It's just all downed trees that have fallen down. Even now you can see there's still one there to fall. And a number there to fall. And there's still loads of fallen over there too. Yeah, you just need a little bit of care. Like that. It's not too hot. It's not too cold. That's what's gone on for so long here. There we go. It's starting to go dark and the rain's on. But we knew that was coming. Lots of nice big logs on the fire now. Well, pretty much that whole tree on the fire now. But then Adam stood on that side and collapsed it so it ruined it a little bit. He's ruined the fire. It was massive before. It was flames right the way along and then he stepped on that big log that jumped across the fire like a stunt man and it collapsed and snapped one of the logs that were keeping it equally apart. And now it's raining and our fire's going to go out and it's doomed. We're doomed. It's not doomed, son. Look. It's fine. So we've got the chocolate cake out. We're going to sit by the fire and just chill. The fire's massive. Yeah, we're putting the long log on there. And it's the root. And that is burning nicely. So the joint of park is on. It starts a bit low so I've got it nice and low in the bed I've made instead of on the poles I've put up just to get the heat I want. Got a stick here. Put it in to hold it on the rock. The rain's back on again. The joint of park's covered in tinfoil now just to protect it and get a good car temperature. I'm amazed at how fast those logs burnt down, really. There's just that one big one left. The root. That was a tree. That's nice to meet. And then we have our pork, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, baby corn and green beans. And some nice gravy. And there's our jam rolly poly pudding. I'll tell you that this is my missus' favourite. She'll be well pissed off when she sees the video. Well, guys, I'm all tucked up now in the tent. We'll catch you all in the morning, first thing. Morning, everyone. We're just sitting out on coffee. Been up for about an hour now. All packed up. Just enjoying the last bits of our fire. There's still a little bit of stump there. That'll be up next week. It's early morning. Still pitch black. Down at the riverbank. Just about to make a crossing to the beach camp and we're going to get a fire going there and burn an hour of time. And that's me almost home. Pretty clean. Yeah. Running weak. We'll catch you all next week. Hope you enjoyed.