There's no getting away from it. It's in the news. In fact it's never out of the news. Not just the usual doom and gloom about Britain not being able to cope. But we are now (apparently) in the middle of a Great Freeze like the ice-age. This is exacerbated by no funding, bad governmental leadership, poor local council contingency planning, lack of salt supplies for the roads, the wrong type of snow, idle work-force that can't be bothered to even try to get into work - but they seem to be able to crowd out the supermarkets and decimate the shelves of milk and bread and even the fact that someone's sold most of our snow-ploughs!! Britain at it's best! But things aren't dire yet. That's when we Brits really pull together... don't we?
In Pablo' world, I've also failed to plan. At home we've nearly run out of heating oil and I doubt the supply will get through next week, but at least I have a contingency plan. I have a gas heater. If that fails, we'll go to the woods. It seems I can cope better there.
I was out for 7 hours on Saturday. This is a tracker's paradise and I can't get enough! I was busily studying some squirrel tracks when, no more than 10 yards away, a pair of foxes ran past me. That was just an insult and a challenge! They weren't going to get away with that, so I urged my cold legs into action and ran after them.
They split up, one going towards the village while the other went into the wood. Instead of following the tracks, I kept to the main path and tried to run parallel with the fox, catching glimpses of him going through the thick undergrowth.
After a couple of close approaches, I finally gave up when the fox saw something of particular interest and bolted towards it out of sight.
This was a good opportunity to have some lunch. I had brought my bushbuddy and a trangia meths stove for my bacon and eggs. The stove fits inside the bushbuddy perfectly and, of course, you can still use the bushbuddy with natural fuel if you run out of meths.
Returning to meths was a good plan in this weather as long as the burner is warmed up prior to use. I also lit a small fire to keep my legs warm.
I was accompanied by a robin who was intrigued by the whole lunch thing. In return, I made sure his tiny tracks were firmly filed in my database.
Like the other week, I combined the woods trip with a walk around the fields. I'm not too sure how long this white stuff will last so I'm taking every opportunity to look at the tracks.
Fox and rabbit tracks are absolutely everywhere and in another post I'll try to describe them in depth in respect of different gaits and behaviour. This squirrel print deserves particular study as, with badger and deer tracks, there weren't too many about.
I'll just finish this post on a comment about winter clothing. I'm not experimenting this year. I'm still using the Woolpower base layer, thin fleece middle layer and Mad Dog Silent Shadow coat (when tracking) and SASS ventile jacket for bushcraft. This keeps me warm enough but I will put on another mid-layer (Natural Fibre Clothing Company shirt - above) if it really gets cold (There's a video review of this new wool alternative to Swandri shirt on my YouTube channel).
These North Face Cedar Ridge boots have been superb so far. Even during prolonged periods in the snow they have been faultless keeping my feet dry and warm as well as exceedingly comfortable.
The hat I'm wearing above I purchased from my local fishing tackle shop (£9-99)
Stay warm.
Pablo.
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