New Forest Trip

[moduser]

Whilst some of you were at the Wilderness Gathering, my son and I popped down to the New Forest (cheaper weekend out ).

The trip served a couple of purposes;

First to try out my new super size Kathmandu tarp. This was designed for use with either two hammocks or to provide space for a single hammock plus a large living/cooking area.

Try out the £15 hammocks from ebay (I added a couple of old £10 mossy nets purchased from HM Supplies last year) for a cheap Ecosystem type setup.

Lastly it was a nice way to end the school holidays for my lad (who asked to do this rather than the kayak trip that was planned.

Train to Brockenhurst and a nice 12 mile hike through woods and across moors to a nice little beech wood for the night.

I have posted a few pictures in the gallery. Either serch for moduser or New Forest Trip.

A few deer sightings and the next day an interesting find, an almost complete skeleton of a deer, probably Roe.

Nice couple of days with fine weather. Very nice.

 

[jdlenton]

sounds like a good trip dave got any photos of the deer you could send me ?

 

[Motorbike Man]

Sounds like a great trip, lucky you weren't spotted by a warden though!!!

 

[moduser]

I know that camping outside of designated camp sites is frowned upon within the New Forest.

 

[jdlenton]

doh!!! should have looked in the gallery first

and that tarp is huge it looks lite how heavy is it? and whats it like when its wet ?

 

[moduser]

JD, the tarp is 3 x 3 metres and weight is definatley less than an issue OD basha.

I think Julian at KT said it was about 650g.

Haven't got it wet yet but Tony put me on to KT and says they perform well.

David

 

[Doc]

I'm very impressed with the low weight and bulk of the KT bashas. They ought to be flimsy but they are not.

How did the ebay hammock perform?

 

[andyn]

Train to Brockenhurst and a nice 12 mile hike through woods and across moors to a nice little beech wood for the night

.

Any chance of a grid ref as I'm never sure of a decent place to go in the New Forest and would be interested to hear where other poeple have been.

Also did you have an open fire?

 

[moduser]

The ebay hammocks performed very well. Very comfy.

We camped at a place called Frame Wood on the map which is in fact only a few miles from Brockenhurst, we just took a long way round to get there.

Definately no open fires. Very frowned upon without ranger permission (which from experience is almost never given).

Used one of my Swedish army Trangia's I purchased from Tommy (Bubblebee). Workied really well.

 

[moduser]

To be specific we were camped in grid square 3503 (Explorer Map 22 - New Forest)

And the deer skeleton was roughly found at 342 028

 

[andyn]

brilliant...Thanks very much for the info.

 

[leon-1]

Sounds like you had a good time Dave

 

[moduser]

Hi Leon,

Well I wanted to end Daniel's school hols with a kayak trip but he prefered to do it the hard way and carry everything

It was fun. The weather was great, the scenary was nice and the new kit worked out really well.

The hammocks (or at least one of them) will soon have a sewn in no-see-um net and I'll see how that works out.

But the set up used, as seen in the gallery pics worked really well and it was nice to have a single tarp. Less to put up and take down, and a less to carry.

Hope you enjoyed WG. Nice racoon pics

 

[leon-1]

The gathering went well, he raccoons are addictive to watch and photograph, I have loads of pictures of them.

Good idea with the tarp and you'll have to put up pictures once you have got the mossie net sewn in, haven';t checked the pictures out yet, so that will be my next port of call

 

[Hedgehog]

Sounds like a nice weekend away, I miss the New Forest since I moved from Portsmouth.

Incidentally where does one find one of those KT Basha's? - no grid ref required

 

[Motorbike Man]

Guys, before too many people get carried away camping in the New Forest, can I just point out this

Note that it is illegal to camp on the open forest and you must camp at a designated campsite. Similarly, you may only have a barbecue at a designated barbecue site.

from here - New Forest Online

I know good places to go are hard to come by sometimes, but illegal camping will only damage relations with the relavent authorities for the future

 

[moduser]

Hi Hedgehog,

The basha's can be purchased from Julian/Wendy at

http://home.freeuk.net/kathmandu/index.html

Very nice people, very helpful and happy to do any custom work as each basha is made to order.

Worth mentioning also is that just because it's not in the catalogue doesn't mean they will not consider making it.

 

[Bushpig]

Yes...I have a Basha from kathmandu and although im new to it all and have only been out in it once so far I think tis great and the service I recieved was great...I give the thumbs up for them.

Boooshpig