Another DoE weekend, 25 kids, 5 adults and a chance to try out some new kit.  Weather looked like it was going to be scorcher so should be good.  I love this time of the year, the New Forest is absolutely teeming with wildlife, booming year for birds, not seen quite so many in a long time - Curlews, Stone Chaffs, Finches, Robins, Kestrals were all in abundance and to top it off the quite an entertaining evening watching the antics of the Jays trying to steal pasta from the kids saucepans.  Unfortuanately there isone type of wildlife which wasn't quite so welcome, the midges and other biting insects, we were quite thankful to the fire to keep some away - I think it was the fumes from the chipboard some bright spark put on there, almost repelled most of us... even so there were lots of 'lil bitey things out there and even with insect repellant we're all paying for it today, think I might try the Avon range of skin so soft soon and find out if it really is as good as every says.

Kit being used again this week was the Golite Jam, Golite Shangri-La 3 and the Inov8 Flyrocs, all of these are fairly new and I'm looking forward over the next few months to finding out just how good they are.  The Jam was excellent, really impressed with this pack, I was quite worried initially because the lack of back support and low padding levels were not something I was used to.  With 12kg in there though it still excelled, it sat comfortably and was stable and the lack of padding really wasn't noticable. 

The Shangri-La 3 is an interesting design, this was the first time I'd used the tent and I was quite amazed at how versatile it is.  We used it with the nest which is like a loose mozzie net attached to a bucket groundsheet, the whole thing is held up by the single pole and clips into each of the corners of the outer.  Unfortuanately the net is quite loose and it can be quite close to your face if you're sleeping near the edge.  We had the bags in one corner whilst we slept on the diagonal, we actually unclipped one other corner near the door from the flysheet so that we had a porch to keep the shoes in.  Overall though the space in the middle was exceptional and I think with use its going to good - we just need to find a layout that works for us.

I've recently bought a pair of Inov-8 Flyroc and I've been really dubious about their use especially as I've always used boots for walking and relied on these for support.  After quite a bit of research into using lightweight shoes instead of boots I thought I'd give them ago (especially with the Trailwalker coming up in July).  I've been wearing the Flyrocs for the past couple of weeks with the standard insole in and they've been great but I thought I'd try them with the Superfeet insoles.  The superfeet insoles are meant to give even more support than the shoes normally do but they also raise the volume slightly, I found that this cause quite a bit of pressure on the bridge of my foot from the laces so I'm probably going back to the standard ones soon.  These shoes really are great though super comfortable from box and the sole sticks like proverbial poo to a blanket on almost all surfaces.. but only when the shoe is front on - because the tread goes across the shoe, sideways grip isn't as good.  I don't think the sole will last long  as it's quite aggressive but quite soft, but being a 1/3 of the price of my normal boots and about 1.5kg lighter I'm more than happy to put up with that.

Overal though it quite a "chilled" weekend (it was about 25 degrees), the kids were great - tried hard and were in excellent fettle, the location was peaceful and a I had a few new toys to play with.  Hopefully next weekend we're going to get a chance to play in Dartmoor on a 70km weekend walk.  See you then.