BCUK Meetup - Archive

[Tony]

Here’s one for your diaries, 20-22nd August in South Wales. The plan is to have relaxed weekend where we can all get together and enjoy being in the great outdoors. This is open to all members and their families. We will have more information soon on the cost, directions etc. So, Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon/evening…..It’s going to be great for people to catch up with each other and pick the brains of those that know what they’re on about It will be a good opportunity to practice your skills and hang out with like minded people. You will be able to pitch tents, build shelters, use bashas, hammocks etc and the site allows fires so we have somewhere to sit around in the evenings and tell a yarn or two!!

More information will come as soon as we have it, but the dates are fixed so make sure you’re free!

Cheers

Tone

Added 19/06/04

To give you a heads up on what the costs are expected to be.

Adults (over 16) £15 per head
10-16 years £5 per head
0-9 years free

This is what we are aiming at to cover the cost of the site.

payment will be via the paypal donation button, there is a box in the payment procedure that allows you to put in a note about what the payment is for, that way we can keep a record and contact you if necessary

 

[ditchfield]

Sounds brilliant! Cheers.

 

[Lithril]

We'll be there, looking forward to it.

 

[Wayne]

I'll be there.

 

[leon-1]

Well this will make it three of the Dartmoor8 (makes us sound like escapees) :-D

 

[Stuart]

I little bit of info on where the BCUK meetup will be held

3500 acre private estate near the village of Merthyr Mawr in south Wales, just off junction 36 of the M4 and 10minutes from bridged railway station

The estate has an incredibly varied mixture of terrain with:

300 acres of forest including broad leaf coppice and ancient woodland

5 square kilometres of sand dunes (the second largest and highest in Europe)

4.5 kilometres of coastline (with the second largest tidal change in the world)

6 kilometres of river (with otters)

an estuary

3 natural springs

2 castles

numerous streams and ponds

The outstanding diversity of flora and fauna on this site has earned it no less than five designations.

· SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest
· NNR National Nature Reserve
· SPC Special Area of Conservation
· SAM scheduled ancient monument
· Heritage Coast

the base camp in the woods is fully equipped with running water, toilets, showers, lights and a purpose built lecture building

 

[leon-1]

Stuart, the site sounds amazing, I will try and get one of the engineers at work down, He is not used to this, but would be interested if he can get time (I nearly got him to the Wilderness Gathering last year, but he said he would feel out of place :-? ) not knowing that it was the first.

I have tried to impress that we are not all John Rambo's/ Ray Mears and he seems to be more interested than he was before, so this would be good as a learning experience for us both as my experience is through the military.

 

[ESpy]

the base camp in the woods is fully equipped with running water, toilets, showers, lights and a purpose built lecture building

Ooh... Mains power? I could bring my hair dryer... :twisted:

 

[Stuart]

no the lighting is gas powered

 

[leon-1]

the base camp in the woods is fully equipped with running water, toilets, showers, lights and a purpose built lecture building

Ooh... Mains power? I could bring my hair dryer... :twisted:

ESPY have you never been informed of solar power??? :-D

Stuart the site still sounds very good (I am watching my language here), I have worked and survived in worse, one of them was classed as adveturous training :shock:

 

[Stuart]

we want people to come along and be able to bring their familys if they wish, so we needed a place with hot water showers etc

but we didnt want to be on a proper campsite, just i nice woodland with clearings

this palce is ideal because although it has all the facilites the shower block and lecture area is situated in the middle of the woods which is teaming with life

foxes, badgers, polecats, stoats, phesants, squirrals, goshawks, owls, mink, otters, rabbits, Hare you cant go 15 minutes without somthing scurrying past you or swooping overhead

 

[Stew]

Sounds like a great idea. Definitely a date for the diary!

Isn't that the home of Bearclaw Bushcraft?

 

[JakeR]

Isn't that the home of Bearclaw Bushcraft?

Thats what i thought, but he is also in the Epping forest.

Nice one guys, it sounds perfect. Merthyr Mawr is stunning. And the dunes are vast. I am up for it as it is about 20 mins from me. (if i am invited)

Cheers,

Jake :biggthump

 

[Stew]

(if i am invited)

I think we all are!

The plan is to have relaxed weekend where we can all get together and enjoy being in the great outdoors. This is open to all members and their families.

 

[ESpy]

no the lighting is gas powered

Blast. Bang goes that idea (no pun intended). I guess I'll have to make some bellows after all... :roll:

 

[Nigel]

Count me in.

It will be nice to catch-up with the Dartmoor bunch, and meet some new faces.

ATB
Nigel

 

[Ed]

Nice one guys, it sounds perfect. Merthyr Mawr is stunning. And the dunes are vast. I am up for it as it is about 20 mins from me. (if i am invited)

All members and their families are invited..... It will be nice to meet you all, especialy those local to merthyr mawr.... we could arrange other things to do ;-)

There are going to have to be a few rules.... We can't have everyone having fires for example, but there are 'oil-drum' BBQ's dotted around and well set up a couple of 'communal' fires for people to sit around and chat /cook.

Also, we can't have everyone running around setting snares.... especialy if they don't know what they are doing... The game keeper will be annoyed if we take pheasant by mistake. Stuart and I both have permission to snare and hunt (no fish and no pheasant though) on the estate, and we will be setting up some snare lines over the BCUK weekend..... so anyone interested, give us a shout on the weekend and we'll take a few small groups out.


Ed

 

[Womble]

Looks like a great idea!

Although my leave is getting tight...

 

[jakunen]

Same here!
I might have to get a days unpaid leave.
I've heard a lot about the site, from Lithril, (and intend harranging Gary with questions about it on the course in Broadstone Warren in 11 days ).
Sounds THE best place for bushcraft. Shame about no fish though...
Count me in!

 

[Stuart]

Sounds like a great idea. Definitely a date for the diary!

Isn't that the home of Bearclaw Bushcraft?

Bearclaw bushcraft uses two sites one of which is mythr mawr

I know many of the people who work/run the estate and when Gary approched me asking if i knew of any good sites down my way I did not hesitate to recommend mythr mawr, the same thing happened when BCUK started to look for a site to have a meetup

I cant reccomend mythr mawr enough :-D

Nice one guys, it sounds perfect. Merthyr Mawr is stunning. And the dunes are vast. I am up for it as it is about 20 mins from me. (if i am invited)

every member of bushcraftUk and there familys are invited, a system is being arranged for tickets

As Ed said we have permision to lay snares (in certain parts of the estate which are not protected areas) but it would be irresponsible of us to let everyone lay snares, so Ed and myself will set a couple of snare lines out and take people out to check them in the morning and again every evening

the phesants and the fish are stocked by the estate and must not be touched but the gray squirrels and rabbits are allowed

same with the fires we have permition to have open fires on the site but we do not want multiple fires all over the woods, so there will be a couple of communal fires (and parachutes)

there will also be a number of oildrum BBQ's about, the even will be self catering

The idea of the event is that it will be an informal gathering of BCUK members, BCUK will not be running any courses or workshops but we hope that everyone will share there knowleadge and skills and learn from each other