Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Information => Introductions => Topic started by: Neilers on February 10, 2014
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Hi everybody, i have been reading this forum for a while now and have really enjoyed it and found it very helpful. Over the last six months I have been really wanting to try and to a bit of wild camping. I also love cycling so combining the two just makes perfect sense. So on friday which was a lovely cold sunny day i packed up my bike and headed off from belfast to the morunes with the plan of wildcamping somewhere. I eventually got to Annalong wood which i had read was good for wild camping. I found a spot that had a couple of fire circles just off the path and set up my tent. I probably would have liked somewhere more secluded but it was getting dark and i was starting to panic a bit!
Anyway to cut a long story short i had a very 'interesting' evening. The weather was awful, wind and rain lashing off my tent all night. I sat in my tent all night reading and listening to music hoping that i would survive till morning.
It was a good introduction to wild camping and i will do it again soon, but I think I should probably wait until it gets more spring like!
Neil
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Welcome Neil, sounds like you had quite an experience, at least you were low down and not on top of a hill, but then again, on windy nights I sometimes prefer not to be under a tree that might fall :o
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Thanks Liam.
Yes it did cross my mind that a tree might fall on me, but on the whole I think it was definitely better being lower down!
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Well done you for just getting out and doing it, I have found that in wild camping every experience whether it be good or bad is a lesson learnt and the more I do it the more pleasure I get out of it. My first camp was also in Annalong wood and it turned out to be a horrendous night, (rain like you wouldn't believe) so dont let it put you off.. Oh and karma added Belfast to Annalong on a push bike to go camping :o
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Ha! thanks. Yes I think i bit off more than I could chew with that cycle plus the camp! I am still sore today.
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Welcome to the forum Neilers, Hotel Annalong is a great spot for a first wild camp, kudos for cycling down there from Belfast and sticking it out.
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Neil I camped that very night over on ShanSlieve in a bivvy bag, it rained from around 5 until around 1ish, I lay in my bivvy listening to music the entire time
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Thanks specimanYak
Aragon sounds like you had it even tougher than me! Bivvy bag is something I want to try when the weather gets a bit better i think.
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Welcome Neil. This sounds like a not untypical first experience. Good news is your experience was probably about as bad as you can expect and most of the time it will be much nicer. Better to get the wet and windy out of the way early ;)