hi everyone.....i've just woken up (yes, midday lol) and feeling a little surreal at being back home and not opening my eyes to the inside of my tent with the noise of welsh weather around me...
to anyone thinking of attending the moot, i highly recommend it, for the laid back atmosphere, organisation, family fun and an amazing setting. for me my visit was way overdue but i made it this year and i'm glad i did.
Superstar Tony had bullied me into doing workshops and on the saturday i did leather bracelets, sunday hair barrettes and first of all i'd like to apologise to my patient attendees who suffered my general panic and dis-organisation lol! i really thought i'd get maybe 5 or 10 people but just the bracelets workshop mustve had about 35 people which by the time i'd finished at 7pm had left my head numb and my arm aching lolol.....i was a bit more on the ball for sunday and it went more smoothly but a big thankyou to everyone and i hope you had a great time!!! it was very satisfying seeing the kids faces light up when they went away with the items that they'd pretty much made themselves. lovely!
so....we arrived, out of necessity, in pitch black at about 11pm. i do not recommend doing this lol! luckily at the side of the car park was a lovely family and two guys, craig and ian were more than hospitable in guiding us and even offered to help carry and set up, which i declined out of sheer guilt as theyd left their own fire to aid us. my brother ammo had recently given me a tipi thank god so it was only about an hour till my son and angela were asleep in their bags and everything was done. BUY A TIPI!!!! ours is 5metre footprint, huge, and its up in 5 minutes. thankyou kal and thankyou craig and ian!
the next morning i met Sir Tony for the first time, jumped on him with a hug and straight away took to his sense of humour and affability and angela felt the same. i, along with many on here, probably view him as slightly scary haha! but hes an absolutely lovely fella and big softy! dont tell anyone! lolol! i soon found out that shelly is also cut from the very same cloth!
we had a wander round then headed for the dunes in the hope of catching up with fraser christian of coastal survival who had already left with his class to do his course. i cannot stress just how amazing the dunes are. i couldve happily wandered them for the whole weekend....and with the breeze and the sun baking the sand to the point where you could smell it it was a lovely experience. the dunes are more alive with wildlife than youd think, from lizards to flowers i'd never seen before. we went as far as pregnant angela could go and though still short of the sea by a way we saw not far off what must be the highest solitary, soft sanded dune i've ever seen. with oliver scrabbling up the steep sides we emerged at the top to an incredible view and a huge bowl of sand, a crater, in front of us and here we chilled out and rehydrated for an hour enjoying the scenery. timeless. we headed back with oliver sliding down the massive dune on his bum which he thought was hysterical and went back to our tent, ate, crashed.
after the nap i went and filled up on water and bumped into george/seoras (TOP fella!) who was kind enough to give me a quick guided tour and offer me the use of his archery kit, then it was back to the tent and time for a perimeter walk of the wooded area and discovery of all the nooks and crannies and the cosy set-ups people had developed in the trees. during this time i'd also bumped into an old friend, si, who i knew from the gathering and thats when i then started settling in. its always nice to know a couple of friends are nearby, especially to me as it was a weird experience knowing that nearly everyone i was seeing, i probably knew from the forum, or vice versa, though we were oblivious of the fact. we followed the river back round ending up at the naughty corner and smiling, as we always do when first seeing fraser again, as usual in his crouching position, teaching away with the days catch being prepped by his students. i'm just going to get a quick plug in for fraser here....seriously, if anyone is thinking about doing a course with him, dont deliberate, just say yes. a great and fair instructor, generous and funny, a superb guy who actually lives what he preaches and travels everywhere not only with his dog but also his cat!!! we also bumped into the newly arrived Sir Budd during our circuit and went back to our tent feeling very comfortable and with tired legs, got an early night.
i've just gotta mention two other people we'd got to know by this point.....we mustve had the perfect neighbours! a big shout out to neil and jane....thankyou for everything, not least the offer to use your private space. they had to return home for about 36 hours on family business and as we all knew the weather was going to change for the worse these guys offered us the sanctuary of their campsite should we need it! stay in touch guys and best wishes to dad!
the next morning we attended the legendary morning meet under the parachute and for the first time i was in a place that i'd seen only photographs of before. lovely way to start the day, seeing everyone gathered round in the bowl with banter flying back and forth.
i then met Lord Fenna finally and again, took to him immediately. over the next couple of days he didnt stop making me laugh or giving me grief lolol! a lovely rascally man!
i was by this point feeling nervous, with my first workshop looming closer at 2pm. as most of you know i'm a stickler about certain things...if a maker says somethings handmade then i want it to be handmade. not half done in a factory somewhere then finished off by the maker. with this in mind i had wanted people to have the satisfaction of achieving the finished item as much by themselves as possible. from bevelling the blank through to the final buff. and the kids certainly had a go and for the most part it was achieved albeit at a late hour and amidst lots of flapping on my part. i realised later that this was too much to ask of so many people, particularly children but i'd only expected half a dozen to attend....i was swamped!! again, i hope you all enjoyed yourselves and had fun! and i just want to thank frank/countryman for all his help and support too...was lovely having you there mate, gave me some confidence and i didnt feel so alone...much appreciated dude, a pleasure knowing you!
at this point i met the Legendary Biker coming across the main area who had once again travelled over from france to attend! yet one more person i couldve happily spent more time with, a real gent and warm and a face i had really wanted to hook up with.
popped up to see fraser again briefly who was still running that days course by past 8.30pm then again a fairly early night.
sunday i did my hair barrettes workshop, this time in the morning, and i decided to 'get ready' a little. whilst everyone was at the meet i got in the barn and started prepping thinking i had till 11am but to no avail whatsoever haha! everyone just started piling in after the meet at about half ten leaving me flapping once again....all the kids sitting in front of me with expressions of ''come on then man, i thought we were doing hair barrettes!!'' luckily some of the parents had met me the day before and with amused smiles on their faces made me feel more comfortable....two of the ladies started trimming the barrette sticks for me and so on. thankyou very much! i've learned my lesson and next year i'm simply going to turn up with boxes of stock and simply give away free stuff that is totally finished already haha! i'll add in here that tony sat down with me afterward and made a hair barrette for shelly! awwwwwwwwww! big smoothy! love hearts on it and everything haha!
so....with my first afternoon free and like a complete idiot (more later) i decided to attend perry mcgees workshop. Sir Perry of course needs no introduction and i'd already met him briefly through chris caine at the bushcraft show....though that didnt stop a raised eye-brow when i turned up 180 seconds late with a pot noodle in my hand!!! lol..sorry perry but even leathersmiths need to eat, its all i could grab! my mate si, and his mate si were also there and amidst much amusement perry had us doing all sorts of mad stuff. from walking around in the woods with closed eyes trying to get us to use our other senses to calculating quarry based on footprints and their shapes, stride length and so on. heres the idiot bit...a few months ago chris caine drove me to aldershot where i purchased a crackin pair of lowa boots. its summer. i wear flip flops. pretty much through till snow on the ground (yes they were all calling me cody at the muddy bushcraft show) and even though i darn well know you need to break new boots in...well...i hadnt. i'd decided to don them for perrys workshop thinking we might go off road a bit but i had not expected to be trying to creep around silently (perry started calling me 'squeaky boots') nor did i expect what was next. off to the dunes to do man-hunting excercises. yup....escape and evasion...in the sun...on the third largest dunes in europe. in new boots.
basically perry sets off....the next person has to keep him in sight yet track him without being seen by him....third person keeps the person in front in sight without being seen by them, yet also trying to see the person behind....and so on....so you end up with about 20 people all acting very bizarrely in public with passers by giving you weird looks as you try to be a ninja and hide behind a parked car, a tree, a nettle etc. the first time we did it was a group effort. the second time each person was solo....and this is where it went pear shaped lol...perry, even when mucking around, moves quicker than you think...one second hes there, then hes not. we went through some woods....i had one si in front of me, the other si behind me....there was a long pause with no forward movement...already sweating and with legs aching from squatting i kept my eyes on si in front...no movement...i started thinking 'whats the hold up?'....then he moved and on i went....then up to my left, starting straight from the tree-line....a huge!!! sand dune....i wont repeat at this moment what i called perry but it wasnt nice lol! and as soon as i saw si nearing the top, getting slower and slower as he went, i started on up...granted i dont get much exercise being here in my workshop 100+ hours a week but yeah, by the time i got to the top my legs had given up and i could feel skin starting to separate from my feet. it was downhill pretty much after that and me and the lead girl and the two si's made it back with a significant delay from those following. several people had sat this second exercise out simply from being tired already...i'm pointing this out not to humiliate anyone but for the following reason...it was at this point that i truly realised just exactly what it is perry and others like him actually do. it really hit home. if you were genuinely tracking someone dangerous, armed, in a hurry, maybe for days or weeks on end...youve really gotta know your stuff. i cannot stress how much. youve really really really gotta know your stuff...be so aware....so skilled....and have, ahem, appendages the size of watermelons. if perry had wanted to he couldve simply left us all lost within minutes. if perry was armed we wouldve all been done for....done for. so a big thankyou to perry for opening our eyes a little to his world and well done everyone for the effort. perry runs specifically tailored courses on exactly this stuff so if youre interested....do it! but for heavens sake...break your boots in first! lol
i then went off to (change back into my flipflops and drink 47 gallons of water) join my family, little oliver was having a go with atlatls and bless him every time he chucked it he chucked the handle too...he got a bit narky with himself about it after....just like his dad lol. theres tons for kids to do, of all ages, oliver also made a bottletop snake with a lovely lady who spends half her life voluntarily trying to clean up her local beaches....he also made a hessian flag which he enjoyed as hes going through a 'knights phase'...dave budd let oliver have a go with his forged sword...theres a pirate ship and fort on site due to the regular larp'ers who attend too....oh, and a viking long house....oliver loved all dat!
so...another enjoyable day leading to the monday...traders day. really good fun and i was set up next to Troublesome Fenna and Gentleman Biker....with lots of banter and bushcraft-bettying it was now that i had inumerable people coming up to me saying...''aaaaaaaaah, now i know who you are....the leathersmith guy from the forum!''.....was a really nice few hours with that continual great vibe.
it was now that we had to start packing....with the blues slowly growing as we knew that night was the communal meal and we had to leave during it. it had been heavy rain for a couple of days, though warm, and i had to take to opportunity to pack our long suffering car to the roof whilst the weather was kind....we got there late, and left early....and yup right now, writing this, i'm feeling emotions that i've only ever had before at the wilderness gathering. so...keeping it short....and before i forget, nice to see mesquite again and meet mad dave and big stu...anyone i've forgotten I'M SORRY!...you were all great...IT was all great...i'm in my workshop and can picture all your faces, the places, the memories....tony has announced that next year the moot will start a week earlier and we will be there for longer....
tomorrow we leave for the wilderness gathering....and i know i'm lucky to be able to attend both due to my lifestyle....but guys....listen....dont make room for just one each year....attend both....BOTH! you'll leave a bit of yourself behind at each place every time.
i'll try to get pics from angelas phone later but for now....
tony, shelly....the mods...the bushcrafters....thankyou.
s. x
more soon....c da c....get ready!!!!
see you there
