A wee over-nighter on Sprinkwee river last night with big E,craigy123,my daughter Shannon & myself.During our recent trek along the cascade,Sprinkwee glen we discovered an ideal campsite which suited this weekend as Shannon has her duke of Edinburgh silver award expedition next month & has not camped wild before,this would be a great oppourtuniy for her to learn some basic camping skills.
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We were running a little late as a certain someone had a 'big head' following
A nice night out in the big smoke,with craigy already at Meelmore lodge he decided to follow part of the Mourne way then contour across & meet us at the campsite.
Parking at Tollymore centre we trekked through the forest turning left at parenells bridge then right after Wholes bridge onto a mountain bike trail that follows the boundary wall. Between the wall & campsite we pushed our way through heavy ferns to the edge of gully over looking the glen,at this point we observed craigy on the opposite bank descending towards the campsite.
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It was good to see Craigy again,i've not seen him since the Habitat for humanity,macgillycuddy reeks climb sevaral months back & it was a good chance to catch up with the "trainee stuntman".
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the new head torch
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It took us about half an hour to set the tents up &get the dinner started,it was a mummy prepared curry for me & Shannon which we simply reheated while boiling some nice.BigE had a sandwich & craigy had one of his wayfarer ready meal which actually smelled alright.
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With our bellies stuffed we cracked open our beer supply of two beer each,both bigE & myself have suffered in the past with boozing too much in the hills.
Instead of just sitting around the campsite we decided to do some night navigation,firstly we lay our OS 125 on the ground & discussed different features & the basics of taking a bearing.
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Using the silhouette of the the tree line on the horizon we firstly took a bearing using a standard silva type 4 compass,discussing the somewhat 'grey area' of adding & subtracting degrees,next we had a go at using a mirrored compass which until last night has been a complete mystery to me,still is a bit,lol,using your line of sight you aim a centred point of the compass at you're chosen destination lowering the mirror to a 45 degree angle,the compass I was using had a marking line down the centre of the mirror,using the same principles of 'red into bed' you orientate the compass & reading the bearing of the 180 degree mark,well that's what I got from it anyway.
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Again we crossed the ferns & emerged ourselves back into Tollymore forest park, 'in the forest after dark' ah well arrest me!our plan was to walk along the treks doing some pacing & timing & Geocaching,we headed towards Tollymore two step Geocaching,reaching our co- order ages we searched in vain along both side of wall for the geocache,next time I'll read the clue.
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Armed with 50 metres of cord we measured out 100 metres,marking the starting & finishing points with with craigys glow sticks,on a previous pacing & timing trial I measured my pacing to 67 paces to 100 metres,last night on even ground I got 62 paces,bigE as usual coming in at 60,Shannon 71, & craigy at 59,we repeated the exercise twice with similar results,measuring pacing & timing this way is just a best guess on a walkers average speed,other factors should also be allowed for,physiology,health,ground covered,weather are but a few of things that should be considered.I'am in no way accomplished in either pacing & timing or navigation I just i'am fascinated about finding out the techniques to use them,navigation in general is something I've always found you have to keep refreshing to remind yourself.
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Feeling now a bit light hearted we had to have a bit of craic with the glow sticks,bigE ,craigy, & Shannon began spinning the glow sticks around.
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It was now after half ten & we began to make our way back to the campsite,walking through the woods we turned our head torches off only using the glow sticks to light the way,the forest was silent with not a sound to be heard.
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At this point craigy shred with us a charming story about Irish bog Cotten,the story goes that a man stumbled across a leprechaun,they leprechaun knowing he was caught gave a promise to show the man where his pot of gold lay by marking it with his beard,the promise made the man released the leprechaun,by when he went to search for the he only found meadows & fields full of leprechaun beards Cotten, - first class craigy.
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Nearing the campsite we seen a eye shine,switching on our head torches we were privileged to see a young fawn leaping through the forest.back at the camp we enjoyed a brew,with the first of the sleepy heads,bigE first to hit his tent,fixing the tent for Shannon I rejoined craigy at the fire for some more tall tales,after a while a loud bang was heard followed by a chuckle,it was bigE & his ballon mattress,gave craigy & me a good laugh anyway.
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Soon after craigy & me both called it a night,I woke twice during the night & struggled a bit to remove myself from the two sleeping bags I was in,ah the call of weak bladder.
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After about 6 hours sleep I awoke to a dawn chorus of starlings,fist things first I got a brew on,& started on my first breakfast cereal followed by Cumberland sausages.
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With the rest of the campers now awake we set ourselves a route picking out different features to get bearings off,again we used paving & timing from different features,thanks to both craigy & bigE for helping to coach Shannon in the art of navigation.
Towards the end of our route we again all checked out the next bearing,mines was all over the place giving a complete opposite reading,firstly we thought it was watch,but then discovered it was in fact the magnet in my bladder tube that fixes to strapping in rucksack that was messing with my reading.
Back at the campsite we collected our gear & made our way towards the tollymore centre,we really enjoyed this camping trip,instead of trotting to the campsite & back we spend most of our time learning new skills & brushing up on old ones,thanks guys.
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here's a wee movie from the camp
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Topic: sprinkwee river camp & navigation (Read 12181 times)