Oh, is it raining?

I'm sure that after a while you get immune to rain. It just occurs and it seems nobody bats an eyelid on its commencement nor its end. Not a word is said as hoods are slid over heads and shoulders hunch slightly. It certainly seemed that way as most of the crew from the "Tribe" stood staring into the fire and chatting while it hammered it down in East Sussex at the weekend. What other normal people would do that except people who not only love the outdoors but positively relish being out in any of the elements?

You certainly couldn't dampen the spirits, possibly helped by the other kind of spirits (commonly known as 'shrafting juice) as the event typically turned into a great social affair.

To be fair it didn't rain all weekend, but just most of it. Between downpours, we watched the development of a birchbark container glued up with pine resin and some spectacular spoons whittled with the expertise of people who have done this kind of stuff for years.

Two Rabbits were duly skinned for the meat and veg stew cooked in Dutch ovens, which provided a delicious meal on Saturday night.

I didn't wander too far from the fire except to have a short walk to a nearby pond in an efort to spot some newts. A fleeting glimpse of one diving down through the waterplants was all that I managed; however the pond was a popular habitat for Ram's horn snails.

So how did people cope with the rain? Staying under your tarp wrapped up in your sleeping bag seemed a good idea as was the camouflage umbrella that was deployed at one stage. The ever present ventile jackets seemed to do the trick but I was still impressed with my old wax jacket that bore the brunt of the rain even though it was a little cumbersome for some tasks in (not that I did many). Only on the final day did I see someone wearing a poncho.

Shelters comprised of a couple of tipi's and even an old army tent but most had tarps over a variety of sleep systems; a common trend seems to be a light camp bed (as shown in this picture).

My choice on this outing was a newly aquired Snugpack hooped bivi bag, obtained on the day courtesy of JP. Now the trick was to find some flat ground. This is something I don't normally have to worry about. Even though the ground appeared flat, there was always a slight slope in one direction or another.

Finally, I found a spot, protected on one side by some rhododendrons. I set up the tarp in a low configuration, set up the bivi bag and stuffed the Thermarest and sleeping bag inside it. I'll write a more detailed description about the bivi bag next time.

The bivi bag certainly stopped damp coming through into the bottom of the sleeping bag, and I was of course covered on top by the tarp. All in all it was quite a cosy set up... until it came to actually going to sleep! Not being used to sleeping on the ground, I had a distrurbed and uncomfortable sleep on both nights. I'm sure it gets better as your body get used to hard ground.

Despite picking a pretty flat spot, I seemed to roll off the Thermarest so I ended up with my nose pressed against my rucksack. The easy option would be to go straight back to the hammock but I will persevere on the next few excursions. Ground dwelling is after all the only solution if there are no trees.

Packing up on Sunday was a good exercise in keeping kit as dry as possibly during the worst downpour so far. An easy option would have been to hurridly stuff everything in the rucksack and sort it out at home, but I decided to be as careful as possible, working under the confined space of the tarp. This made for a comfortable and well balanced rucksack on the walk out from the woods.

I was watched with seeming amusement by a constant companion over the weekend. A friendly and amazingly tame Robin, who often came down through the trees and even hopped under the tarp, studied me intently during the exercise. We had shared a few scraps of food and had both shared each others' shelters: his rhododendrons and my ripstop nylon.

It was another great weekend with stories, banter, laughs and people sharing ideas, knowledge and skills. Was it raining? I didn't really notice.

Pablo.