Cornwall Meet

[SMARTY]

We will be hosting a meet in Cornwall over the Easter weekend, 21 - 24 March. The cost will be £5 per night to wild camp. There is access to 100 acres of private woodland. You can have fires, bring kids and dogs (provided you clean up after them) We will provide porta loos and rubbish collection. Numbers are limited so PM if your interested.

[SMARTY]

Just to keep you all updated the following are confirmed as attending:

Janie Popps, Jon Pickett, Glen M, Sam, Justin, John Habb + 2, Basha 72, Red Kite, Scoman, Night Walker + 1, Leon-1, Dingo +3, Mike E, Dougster, Shocks +1.

Blacksmith events: AM 10 -1. PM 2 - 5

Saturday AM 2 spaces left
Saturday PM Full
Sunday AM 1 space
Sunday PM 1 Space

[SMARTY]

Just to keep you all in the picture we have two additional speakers for the RV. Ben Langer from Forest Lore UK will talk on awareness and tracking and Sarah taylor will do plant identification. Sarah is a ranger for Cornwall county council. I will close the RV places on 17 March to give plenty of time for the admin/ set up etc.

See you there
Smarty

[JonnyP]

Nice one Chris....

[mikesknives]

I'll pop along for bit as well

[SMARTY]

Been a few changes to names and workshop places, so to keep you up to date:

Attending: Janie Popps, Jon Picket, Glen M, Sam, Justin, John Habb + 2, Basha 72 +1, Searchers X 3, Red Kite, Scoman, Night Walker +1, Leon-1, Dingo +3, Mike E, Mikes Knives, Dougster, Shocks +1,

Black smith places:

Saturday AM: Janie Popps, Jon Picket, Basha 72 +1 1 space left
Saturday PM: Searchers x 3, Shocks X 2 FULL

Sunday AM: Dingo X 4 1 Space Left

Sunday PM Scoman, John Habb X 3 1 Space left

Speakers and demos as before less Sarah The plant lady (she has to work) We now have Richard from the knot tyers guild giving a talk and demo. Mikes knives and his shop will be there too.

Any one else interested please PM me.

[JonnyP]

Chris.....I would be happy to do a plant walk if people are interested...

[SMARTY]

Thanks Jon your on. How about an early evening walk.

[JonnyP]

Thanks Jon your on. How about an early evening walk.

Yeah, no worries, so long its before ale time...

[JonnyP]

Any spaces left Smarty..? I have a mate who is interested..

[SMARTY]

Still spaces Johnny. Does he want to do a blacksmith workshop? I have a space on the same one as you.

[SMARTY]

Been a few changes to names and workshop places, so to keep you up to date:

Attending: Janie Popps, Jon Picket + 1, Glen M, Sam, Justin, John Habb + 2, Basha 72 +2, Searchers X 3, Red Kite, Scoman, Night Walker +1, Leon-1, Dingo +3, Mike E, Mikes Knives, Dougster, Shocks +1,

Black smith places:

Saturday AM: Janie Popps, Jon Picket, Basha 72 2 spaces left
Saturday PM: Searchers x 3, Shocks X 2 FULL

Sunday AM: Dingo X 4 1 Space Left

Sunday PM Scoman, John Habb X 3 1 Space left


Remember last date for sign up 17 March.

[JonnyP]

My mate has confirmed he would like to come Chris. His name is Mark and he would also like to do the blacksmithing too please...
He will be bringing his boy too..
Not long to go now and I am getting excited.....

[SMARTY]

Ok John its done Mark and his boy will be on the saturday workshop with you. See you on Friday

[Dingo]

Just a question!

Which is the best route from the end of the M5?

is there a post code i could put in the shat nav?(not a spelling mistake!)

looking to get to the end of the m5 on thursday night, then make the mad dash friday morning, i am thinking it will take a good 3 hours from the end of the motorway.

Adam.

[leon-1]

Don't know if this will be of any use to you, but this is the grid that was supplied on the last easter meet.

Grid Ref SW 927 508.

The nearest town/village that I can find is Grampound Road.

At Exeter you need to be looking at the A38 (which is really a continuation of the M5 anyway) continue on that route down past Plymouth and Liskeard and take the A390 after Dobwalls.

Follow the A390 down through Lostwithiel to St Austell, from there the quickest way is taking the minor roads which I cannot tell you without a road map.

I'll probably need picking up from St Austell as I am vehicularly impaired (I don't drive) so anyone that is willing to pick up a fellow traveller and crafter that would be good of you. I am now going to look up what the trains are.

[janiepopps]

Hey Leon - Jon & I can scoot over to pick you up - just let us know when.

[leon-1]

Thanks Janie, it'll be good to meet you and it'll be good to see Jon again. Timings will be dependant upon when Chris will allow people to arrive from, but I could be there from 1019hrs onwards (it's only 1hr 40mins from me by train).

Chris, what time are you opening the flood gates for people to arrive and if I am early did you want a hand setting up???

[janiepopps]

Think the hoards are welcomed from midday - oops, sorry - I meant 1200 hours....

We plan to be there at 11.59 twiddling our thumbs so can deffo pick you up first

[leon-1]

Thanks, I'll book the ticket now and see you on Friday

[leon-1]

Well that's it all booked

[SMARTY]

From M5 Exeter, take A30 and stay on it past Oakhampton, Liskeard, Bodmin, Newquay. Leave A30 at Kingsly Village signposted towards Fraddon, Grampound Road. Follow signs towards Granpound road and you will pick up the Footsteps Of Discovery Signs (look for yellow on Blue). From Exeter airport to the woods takes around 1 hour 40. Avoid the St Austell Lostwithiel route as ther are loads of road works at the moment. Further directions at: http://www.footstepsofdiscovery.co.u.../location.html

Woods open from 1200hrs unless you cant wait. I will be there from about 11.

See you at the RV

[Dingo]

Thanks peeps for the directions, jonny sent me a couple of pm's to, getting excited now, hope there is plenty of wood for the fire, its given a cold snap!

[bear knights]

oops, a tad late I know in getting on board. Sorry, haven't checked this site since last year but something in the back of my head was telling me that there was something going on over easter.....is it too late to sign up? fancy the blacksmith workshop on the sunday am.
Am working on saturday but will try and get over friday day. what say you smarty?
hey to everyone from last year too...xx

[SMARTY]

Angie, just because its you......alright then. Its gonna cost you a talk on bear watching.

[janiepopps]

Hey girl!!!

Make sure you pack your arctic suit - think you're gonna need it.....

[Basha72]

Thanks to Mr/Mrs Smarty and Spanner for a great meet up again, nice to see more people attending this year regardless of what the weather had in store for us, at least we all now know how good our sleeping bags are or not

Really enjoyed the blacksmith lesson and the opertunity to make something, I might have the knife all done by the next meet up !

Good night on Sat, all sat around eating stew and flat bread chatting which was great, and what being outdoors with others is all about.

Thanks again to the Footsteps Gang, see you all next year

Ps I will post/pass on the Pics of JonnyP and janiepopps to the footsteps website album

Cheers Basha

[janiepopps]

Hey all, thanks guys - another absolute cracker (even considering the hail, rain, snow....etc etc )

Cheers Tristan & Amy - the tripod is awesome. Looking forward to cooking up many feasts to come on that! Will get a photo up later.

Basha "Ps I will post/pass on the Pics of JonnyP and janiepopps to the footsteps website album" ??? Should I be getting worried at this point...?

[JonnyP]

Well that was another fantastic Cornwall meet at Smarty's...
Very cold and windy weekend with a fair bit of rain, but that didn't put us off having fun..
We had Tristans mobile forge and we all made ourselves bits and bobs. Most impressive was Dingo's daughters rams head coat hanger, I thought..Hope you have some photo's of that to put up Dingo. I made myself a knife blank out of an old file. Tristan was a great teacher, which was good cos it took me ages to do my knife...
Spanner did a talk and demo on trapping which I missed cos I was still hammering my bit of metal...
There was knot tying with Richard from the International Knot Tyers Guild (think thats right). Very nice man who I could sit and listen too for ages..
We had tomahawk throwing and knife throwing with Smarty and Spanner, and tracking awareness with Ben from Bushcraft School. Smarty did a talk on survival awareness in his new yurt and I did a plant bimble through and around the woods there, trying my hardest to find us some interesting plants at this time of the year...
Janie made us a superb communal stew which we had with Mrs Smarty's flat bread..Hope the pan is all ok now...
Oh, we drunk a fair bit too....
Will sort some photo's out somewhen...

Fab weekend, big thanks to Smarty and co and nice to meet new faces and catch up with old friends...

Happy Jonny....

[leon-1]

Well firstly thank you to Smarty, Mrs Smarty and Spanner for holding the meet and organising it on their patch. It was one of the best meets that I've been to and it was held in a really lovely part of Cornwall.

Thanks to Janie and JonnyP for picking me up from the station and dropping me off at the station as well as the food that they supplied and prepared over the meet. JonnyP good plant walk even if there wasn't much out there (time of year mate).

It was very nice to meet Dingo (and Daughter), Jon H, Basha (as always), Richard, Tristan (a very talented man), Amy, Woody (and the dynamic trio), Nikki, Angie, The Searchers, Angie (from The Searchers), Ben, Mike, Kate, Cindy and Orla (the last three being the canines that I met). I hope to see you all again.

Smarty, If you are good enough to hold it again next year let me know and I'll be there.