One good thing - 25th May 2020

A beautiful, warm and sunny evening tempted me to sleep out under a tarp again - and while lockdown continues in Scotland the only available option remains the most micro of "micro-adventures" in the garden.  The tarp is an Alpkit Rig 7 which offers almost limitless pitching options as it has so many guying and lifter points.  This set-up is a simple one but was very effective on a night which was forecast to be warm but breezy.

Pitched with the foot end into the breeze it offered good airflow and was quite low to the ground whilst giving adequate headroom at the top end.   It's a bit different to the open fronted pitch I've used recently, but is one I'll use again.  all that was left to do at this point was to put my sleeping bag in.

I slept really well until the dawn chorus began at 0312 with our resident Robin,  Blackbird and two Cuckoos first to get going.  By 0400 the birdsong was terrific, a real treat if a little early in the morning for humans!

One good thing - 7th May 2020

Wednesday 6th May was a glorious day of Spring weather with an equally lovely evening.  Having spent the majority of the day indoors working from home, I decided to spend the evening outdoors and to camp in the garden - another "micro micro-adventure".  Having sat by a fire-pit until quite late in the evening I was preparing to get into the tent when I noticed a pink glow in the eastern sky.

Above the Aberdeenshire farmland a brilliant full moon rose through a pink and purple glow....there was an absolutely gorgeous quality of light.

I slept with both inner and outer tent doors open and was woken at 0430 by a full dawn chorus of birdsong with a Cuckoo leading the way well before daylight.  I was slightly surprised to note more frost than forecast, but it lifted as soon as the sun rose.  The advantage of being so close (20 metres!) to home was that it took very little time to get up, shower and be at my desk working, refreshed by a night in the outdoors.

One good thing - 26th April 2020

Today's "good thing" was waking up after a night spent "wild" camping in the back garden under a tarp on another micro-microadventure, finding myself comfortable, warm and rested and the first thing seen on waking was a Song Thrush hunting insects on the grass not 2 metres from me - what a privilege.

One good thing - 16th April 2020

Under the current restrictions it's not possible to make backpacking or sea kayak trips, but that doesn't necessarily mean that camping is completely off limits.  During a lovely evening I decided to pitch the tent and camp in the back garden, the most micro of "microadventures".  There's normally very little noise from passing cars where we live, but even for here the lack of traffic was notable.

I settled in at my usual bed time and slept really well, woken just once when one of our neighbour's cows decided that she needed a drink from the trough over the wall at 3am...it was so quiet I could clearly hear the water gurgling down into one of her stomachs!

I woke to a somewhat grey and damp morning, but also to a glorious dawn chorus of birdsong - which is surely a good thing.  I got up, walked all of 20 metres to the house to shower and get breakfast; and then was back at my computer working.

As the lockdown has now been extended a further three weeks, I plan to either camp or bivvy once a week in the garden - a micro-microadventure.

Tarp test - Alpkit Rig 7

This is a catch-up post from early summer, testing out a tarp on the hills above the house on an overnight trip.  These quick trips have become known as "microadventures" - but they're still overnight trips!

Allan and I set out from Terpersie on a lovely evening of bright sunshine. Whilst not particularly warm, the weather was fairly settled with the forecast of a cool and clear night to come.  At just two kilometres from home, there wasn't far to travel!  We set a leisurely pace and climbed the ridge known as the Fouchie Shank on a grassy track.

It didn't take us long to reach a spot I'd noted several times as offering a nice camp or bivvy spot.  At the edge of a wood which covers part of the upper ridge there are a number of decent pitches - in fact the difficulty was choosing the best of them rather than finding anywhere to pitch.  Allan had brought a tent and chose a spot under a large pine tree just outside the wood where there was good flat ground.

I was trying out my new tarp for the first time and chose a spot at the very edge of the wood.  Having tarped a long time ago, for some reason (midges mostly!) I'd switched to tents and not used a tarp for many a year.  My interest had been rekindled not by weight considerations - the combined weight of tarp, groundsheet and rigging isn't that much different to really light tents these days - but by the experience of sleeping in the open again.

Looking at various designs and configurations I'd decided on an Alpkit Rig 7 as seeming the best combination for what I envisaged.  Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm a bit of a fan of Alpkit products anyway, but what interested me about the Rig 7 was the lift points along the face of the tarp and the 16 eyes around the edge which are all reinforced with "hypalon" - which seems to be a very tough and strong relative of neoprene, with enough stretch to allow walking poles etc to be used with no risk of ripping the hypalon or the tarp fabric.  The fabric itself is 30 denier PU coated cordura with a ripstop weave, and comes in two colours; "kelp" as pictured here or a "chilli" red shade.  Dimensions of the Rig 7 are 2.4m x 2.8m and the pitching options are limited only by your imagination!  Guy lines and pegs aren't included, but Alpkit do a bundle which includes these items.  I used mainly 3mm guy lines which worked well and carried a long length of 4mm line which could have been used as a continuous ridgeline for rigging between trees.  the Rig 7 is one of a family of tarps with similar characteristics but differing sizes; from small solo tarps to group shelters.

My groundsheet was an "Oooktub" from Oookworks in a 220cm x 90cm configuration which has an ingenious design to form the tub shape when pegged out.  It's made of tough PU coated nylon and looks to be able to really keep the wet stuff at bay. My sleeping mat was an Exped Downmat 7 UL, one of the best pieces of outdoor kit I've ownd.

All up, my rig for this trial run was 1100g for the tarp, rigging, pegs and groundsheet.  As mentioned, this isn't much different from a lightweight tent; though it is noticeably lighter than my usual tent of choice, the full spec Terra Nova Voyager at 2100g.

As the night was forecast dry I chose to rig the tarp with an open frontage to maximise the experience of sleeping in the open.  there are so many ways in which the Rig 7 can be pitched that there should be an option for just about any weather - there are some tips on the Alpkit website for some simple rigs.....there's even a name for the art of pitching - "tarpology"!  I was glad I'd tried out a number of pitching arrangements at home; this gave me a start in deciding where and how to pitch for the trial run.

By coincidence, Allan was also using an Alpkit product; the Tetri; a two person tent with a tried and tested design.  Weight here is 3kg, so quite a difference.  That said, had the evening been very wet or midgy a tent would have been the preferred option!

After a bit of supper I settled down for the night, the sun not quite set on an early June evening.  The feeling of being out in the open is a real contrast to sleeping in a tent; even though I habitually leave the door open on fine nights.  Here, I was immersed in the wood and was able to see and hear the place settling for the night as part of it rather than being sealed away and slightly separated.

I slept pretty well too!  Deer moving past woke me briefly and a cuckoo called intermittently right through the night, but then in June the "night" here in Aberdeenshire is just a couple of hours of dusk rather than darkness.  For the first time, we heard the sub-song of the cuckoo, a chuckling low laugh between the familiar two-note call....probably it was amused by waking us?!

First thing on waking was the realisation that I was still "outside", immersed in the wood with early morning sunshine dappling through the trees.  I had been warm inside a down bag despite the night being quite cool and the tarp had kept any dew off me. There was little or no condensation on the sleeping bag; on colder nights I'd probably add a lightweight bivvy bag to the kit list.  Second thing was one undoubted advantage a tarp has over a tent - the ability to roll over and put on a brew without leaving the sleeping bag!  In fact two cups of tea were enjoyed from the comfort of my bed before getting up.

It was all in all a very successful test of the tarp and groundsheet and a very pleasant "microadventure".  I'll be using this set-up more often once the midges have disappeared and will write a more informed review once I've tarped in less favourable conditions.  For now, it's enough to say that it was a very enjoyable experience.