I set off early complete with small pack, small stove and small dog... oh and a pork pie! The idea was to take some photos in Broaks wood, which is a forestry commission wood about 10 miles away from me.
The wood is usually full of dog walkers, but I took the chance even though it was looking like a fine, sunny day. Saturday is normally shopping day for the ‘unfortunates’ so I might be lucky and have the woods to myself for some time.
It was a chilly start and signs of frost were everywhere, which made for some interesting photos. Unfortunately, I just didn’t take any good ones! I even missed a Muntjac fawn which obligingly stopped in the middle of the track. Billy wasn’t amused that he couldn’t give chase.
We ended up circumnavigating the whole wood just to keep the cold at bay; but by lunchtime it had warmed up considerably and we ended up in our favourite spot overlooking farm land and woodland.
We shared the pork pie and I fired up the lightest cookset I have. An Evernew titanium burner and Alpkit titanium mug.
It didn’t take too long to boil up some water for a coffee.
The warmth of the sun brought out insects that should certainly have been hibernating. The log I was leaning on must have been a favourite hibernation area, as there were literally tens of Ladybirds coming out of the cracks. I do’;t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place.
After a leisurely lunch (and a snooze in the sunshine) we wondered down to the North side of the wood where things were a lot different temperature wise. As we went into late afternoon, the temperature dropped even more and, after a final sit spot we decided to head back to the car.
We had been out for five hours and even Billy was getting tired. For a small dog, he has got tremendous stamina. It was also a good chance to try out my new Harkila Lynx GTXs which performed brilliantly (I’ll do a review soon.)
Thanks for the visit.
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