Rough Close Bushcraft Meet - Sep 09

Organised on Bushcraftuk forum, this was my first meet with BCUK members. Meeting up with fellow bushcrafters (Jimbo + his Bro) for the two day meet, we had a fantastic time, and settled in very quickly amongst the trees and other Bush type people! Highly recommended for anyone trying to introduce themselves into a new group, everyone was friendly and full of helpful tips and advice along with general chit-chat! The car park is a reasonable distance, so if your not too keen on running with ultra-light packs, and want to take those extras for tinkering with, Rough close is perfect! It also has very clean and very warm toilet/shower blocks situated an a beautiful log cabin!

A basic set-up for the first meet of two tarps ground dwelling, (one small, and another 3x3 DD tarp) All three of us managed to get under the 3x3 (for extra warmth for those cold morning hours!.. Honest!) I ended up being spooned by my close friend Jimbo, as I found my 3 seasons Marmot sleeping bag was not warm enough, even for mid September! A rethink required!

First one up, better get a brew going for some morning warmth. Even though we had a small imprint fire the previous night, there was still some small embers at the bottom of the ash which I found, and managed to re-kindle to heat some water.. for the sleepy heads when they woke up!

One of the many things to explore in the woods of Rough Close.. a wooden carved mushroom! And as we found (Wolfcrafter and Jimbo Bro) mushroom season had already started!

In the middle of the night we were invited to join the 'Gin-Gan-Gooley' Scout sing-a-long in there amphitheatre fire pit! Great for the kids and those with a fluffy mind set!

Some time for Whittling!.. no seriously, these were brought with us to admire, (there's not that much time at the meet!!) Jimbo made the elegant straight staff with the leather cord and small man face.. I whittled the completely over the top dragon staff.. which has no practical use, other than testing my skills at carving ash wood!

A very primitive try at trying to figure out how the primitives attached flint axe heads to handles!.. Hmm! might have to do some more history reading on this one!