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Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
2 February 2014, 15:23,
#1
Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
This is going to be a bit of an odd one. Lots of emotion and sentiment, but also the usual laughing at my expense as well.

Okay, so, the time is 5pm, I have finished work and am heading over to Dartmoor. It's not too dark, which is a lovely surprise. Getting out and about in this weather will be awesome. Picked up some essentials from home, checked the forum to see if anyone will be coming out with me for the Friday night...alas, I was still unable to get on the forum. Tried my mobile and my iPod...looks like Scythe13 will be having a lonely stay by himself for the first night (please note, I got home today and checked the forum...it's up, and I had a message from Devonian saying he had Friday off and was coming along with me...BOLLOCKS!!!! Really wish I had sorted out my internet connection...but Dev, you'll be glad you didn't come along).

Time: 7pm
I safely arrived at Haytor, and decided to camp up. The temperature on my car thermometer read 10.0 degrees. Lovely and warm. I got my lovely Soul 100 tent and my bag, picked up my new sleeping mat, and got ready to set off up to the tor. This was the same Tor my wife's father fell off when he was climbing and ended up getting airlifted out, as a kid, so it holds some symboligy (it's my new word, hope you like it) for me. I get out the car and almost get knocked over by a sudden gust of wind. Where did this wind come from? The car was all quiet, the trees weren't moving. All seemed calm. From what I could tell, Dartmoor wasn't happy for me to be there. Well, we all know I love a challenge, so I set off up to Haytor, planning to use the tor as a wind break. Yes, thank you, I'm a genius. Using Dartmoor's resources to do what it doesn't want me to do...have a good night's sleep.

I achieve success by making it to the top of the tor. My plan of running up it to make it easier (the faster you run, the sooner you get there, the sooner you can rest....great logic, awful practical application!) and to rest at the top failed miserably. I ended up picking myself up from the floor. If anyone was around, they could clearly see that I was resting and taking a look at the beautiful lights of Newton Abbot and Bovey Tracey. I hadn't slipped and landed my a**e in a puddle. So, with my soggy bum, there I was. Stood triumphant atop the hill, being sheltered by the tor, openly mocking Dartmoor for trying to get rid of me.

I even managed a small thought for that stupid Mr Fox. After standing back up...from my rest... I remember thinking, "HA, come and get me now Mr Fox! You're not going to try that this time! You're not dumb enough to come out here and get me in this weather! Stupid Mr Fox" It wasn't until I was lay in my tent thinking the same thought, with a smug 'I've conquered the world' smile on my face, that I realised I was insinuating that I was dumber than a fox whom stayed home nice and warm, while I was slogging my way up the side of a hill, getting knocked this way and that by a beastly wind. That smug face had it's smile wiped off in an instant. Round 2 to Mr Fox.

Once I was atop the Tor, the wind was perfectly sheltered. I'd found a brilliant little place to set up camp. It was going to be an awesome night. I fricking hate those 'this is going to be wonderful' thoughts. They're like Famous Last Words, but one's that you have not only created yourself, but also ones you truly believe.

As soon as the tent was set up, with the front overlooking the town lights in the distance, I cuddled inside, and BOOM!!! The beasty wind, that was being stopped by the Tor had decided it wanted to come from a completely different direction! What's more, it wanted to have my tent as the epicentre for it's force!!! Oh how I slept like a bug in a rug. Providing the rug was in a hurricane!

My bum was wet, so I had to take off my set trousers, so there I am, in my tent, wearing boxers and tshirt, in a 2 season sleeping bag, at around 7:30pm, on top of Haytor, being buffeted by gale force winds...it can't get any worse (or better, if you're like me), and then you hear that sound you had nearly completely forgotten. That sound that reminded you that sometimes things are just going to go wrong. That mild explosion of fibre-glass tent poles cracking and splitting the length of the pole. The explosion of impending doom for your good night's sleep! But alas, even with this catastrophe of events, things could still get worse, not only is there nothing you can do about the sound you had heard, something didn't sound the same as last time. The crack sound was louder than before, with what sounded like a small echo. It wasn't until the morning that I realised that two of my tent poles had split the whole length, and it was nothing but the metal sleeves that kept everything in place.

The night itself consisted of me suddenly being startled, then realising I must have fallen asleep, only to be awoken by thunderous winds, a splitting tent pole (or 2), or something of that ilk. Well, it was a whole night of knowing Dartmoor wanted me off it! The rain was falling with the sound of artillery shells. Winds so powerful and shaking the tent so violently (ignoring the fact it folded the side of the tent so much it snapped 2 poles) the shaking felt went through the whole tent, and it genuinely felt like an earthquake. I spent the night feeling like a flea that was sat on the back of Dartmoor, and Dartmoor was scratching and shaking, trying to get me off of it. At one point I was envious of Mr Fox. I had the thought "I have a sexy wife, snuggled up in a warm bed, about 1 hour's drive away, and I could so easily just pop in the car. Nobody would even know. I could just get in the car down the hill...oh bollocks to that, I'm not going out in this weather." So that was my night. Spent with cold knees, warm hands, and hardly any good quality sleep (See Devonian, told you it's a good job you didn't come. But there's more reasons in a bit).

The thunderous wind was so bad at one point that I thought I had lost the back half of my outer cover for my tent. So I checked my tent peg bag and found another 2 pegs! Good and bad. Good, I can secure the tent better now. Bad, because I now have to put on some dry trousers and go outside to fix it. I had considered running out there in boxers and tshirt, but figured that not the best course of action. On go the waterproof trousers and waterproof jacket, just in time, because the moment I open the tent when there's a lull in the wind, the rain started again. 2 minutes later, and 2 tent pegs happily in place, sod all difference was felt! I just rested in the knowledge that if my tent was to rip apart in the night, at least I'd set it all up properly and secured it as best as I could.

To be blunt, my night was not a normal night..so what's to say how I was to be awoken in the morning would be normal either?

I was awoke by the sound of voices. "Oh crap, I've slept in, it's 8am, and there are dog walkers here already. I'm going to be pestered by dogs while packing up my tent. [insert expletive]". So I start unzipping my tent to peek out and see how many people there are. I unzip the first liner, then take hold of the outer liner zipper and start to unzip that. So far my experiences with this tent have been less that idea, so the obvious thought was "The material on the outside of the zip had gotten caught in the zip" This was clearly why the zip was sticking. So I start to faff around with the zip, open it a bit, close the zip a little to unstick the fabric, open the zip more, close again, and repeat. This went on until about 50% of the zip was open. Suddenly a slab of ice fell off my tent. There wasn't any fabric stuck in the zip. The rain had frozen in the night, thus the ice, and the zip had frozen shut! This helps explain why my knees were cold in the night too. So much for a lovely 10.0 degree start!

One thing I can say I was pleased about, when I looked up from out of the tent, I could see the stars. The moon must have been shinning beautifully, because you could see the floor being bathed in a cool, chilling, blue glow. It was so beautiful and haunting, it looked like snow. Really weird effect. There wasn't any of that weird glow just behind the outer sheet though. So I reach out to touch this weird glowing grass. WOW! How weird is that? it actually feels like snow. I then remembered the voices coming up the hill. With it being this dark, it clearly wasn't 8am. Even weirder still, this odd glow from the moon made the sound of their foot steps all crunchy. Crazy!

I called out to the guys once I could see their silhouettes pretty close up. It was a bunch of lads trying to take photos of the sun rising. Pretty cool, quite romantic, and very much "too cool for me" kind of territory of conversation. We had a short chat exchange about what the hell I was doing up on the Tor, and the same questions to them. It wasn't until one of the lads asked "Did you sleep through that?" that I got a little curious. Obviously he meant the crazy winds and rain. They then explained, in excitable voices, about the 20 minutes of blizzard that had laid 1 inch of snow on the Tor. Turns out I must have slept through it. How ironic, I sleep through a snowstorm, but then awake to the voices of a few kids haha.

So I decide to get up and hang out with 'the cool kids'. I was just going to go straight back to sleep, little buggers woke me up, but when they were leaving one of them called out "If you want to pop up, there's bacon." Need I say more.

While we were waiting for the bacon to cook, urm...I mean...the run to rise, it was getting much lighter, and I turned to the lads and said to them, that they might want to tuck into the size of the Tor. In the distance I could see this sheet rain coming in from some heavy black clouds! It wasn't until I was tucked up against the Tor that I thought the way the rain was moving seemed weird. As if like something from a Hollywood, low budget, super corny film, as I was wondering about the weird rain pattern, a single flake of snow flew into my vision. It wasn't falling rain. It was horizontal snow drifting in. We were all tucked up against the rock face, and a raging wind threw down loads of snow! The sky turned darker, and this snow just pelted the area. Once it was all finished, we looked around. The only hill covered in snow was HAYTOR! Look over to the fields on the right or left, or even those in a small distance ahead of us, not a single white bit. Haytor...covered in at least an inch of white frosting! Hound Tor would probably have been a safer option haha.

So after being lazy and just taking the pegs and poles out of the tent and ground, I picked up my bag, and folded my tent into a small cartable square, and headed back to the car. I waved off the lads and wished them a safe journey back, then sat in my car and enjoyed the harmonious sounds of my heating system working overtime to dry out my shoes and warm my toes. Modern conveniences are frequently under rated.

Then it was time to get some food. Down to Bovey Tracey for a forage for food. The local Tesco was most fantastic and came up with a bountiful supply of goods. After all, every little helps (sorry, I had to put that in there. Please forgive me).

While in Tesco, a person grabbed my arm. I don't know anyone in the area, so I'm thinking it's some drunk guy looking to get a smack in the face. Nope. It was a guy I'd met via BeardyMan who was having a meet in the area that weekend too. We chatted for a bit and then went our separate ways.

An hour later, I rock up at the lake, EARLY!!! No, I'm serious, I really was early! Like over an hour early! UNREAL!!! I'm never early. This was a new experience for me. I got out my binoculars and started looking at the waterfowl in the reservoir, lake, thing. Anyone walking their dog must have thought I was the world's laziest bird-watcher ever! Sat there in my car, eating Oreos, staring at birds with binoculars. It wasn't until I had a strange look from an old lady that I realised I probably seemed like the kind of person that should be on some sort of legal list that names people for the police to watch. I moved my car to the upper part of the car park and put the binoculars back.

First to turn up was our good friend MCavity. We like MCavity. He's able to order a cappuccino and drink it, while still looking like a rugged man! We set off into the cafe and enjoyed the most manly drinks available! A Cappuccino and a Mocha (Don't knock it until you've tried it), rugged survivalist style! I went up to check out the Disney mugs for sale in the store, when another of our rag tag crew turned up. BigPaul. I saw him and whistled so he knew we were here. He turned round and headed back into the car park, in the opposite direction of the whistle. It wasn't even a wolf-whistle, so he clearly wasn't running away from me. Turns out he was going back to his car for change for the parking meter.

One by one everyone turns up, until we ended up with a nice cluster in the cafe. BeardyMan was there with his boyfriend...haha, I'm kidding. It's his neighbour. Devonian turned up too. There was even a guy sat a table away early on, with a strange sparkle in his eye. I thought it must be one of us, as he kept looking over at me and smiling. Turns out he was just some random weird pervert. I'm glad I didn't go over to him and try and make conversation. I'm even more glad I didn't smile at him then head to the toilet. That could have been awkward.

We all headed out, without the pervert, along a walk beside the lake. The weather at this point was ridiculously variable. One moment it was sun, then rain, then cold, then cold wind, then hot sun again. In 1 hour we got through nearly all 4 seasons. You'd think after the amount of time I've spent on Dartmoor, I'd be used to this, but it still impressed and surprises me every time.

It was during this walk that BeardyMan let us know the camp site he had planned was actually a high security area with a load of Security Cameras over the place. Considering many of us were wearing military clothing, and there was enough beards to fill a mosque, we thought it probably not the best plan! It was then that I remembered the meeting in Tesco and our host was created.

While we were in the car park, getting ready to set off, the lone-ranger himself turns up. MikeA, taking up my usual trick of arriving rather late, but no Baywatch-Running this time. It was then that MikeA dropped a big bombshell. We all knew he was heading off, but it was the fact that he had been home, packed everything up, then headed over to see us, just to say his good-byes, and load us up with presents. That kind of threw us for a while. It's like one of the three-musketeers (even though there was usually at least 5 of us) saying he was setting off and going elsewhere. I think BeardyMan may even have shed a tear. But it was a hardcore, man's tear! haha, I'm kidding, he cried like a little girl and ran down the road as MikeA drove off into the sunset...okay that may have been slightly dramatised for effect, especially considering it was only lunchtime so there was no sunset, and BeardyMan recognises the evils of running, and avoids it with a passion. But you get the idea.

So, one man down, we get ready to head off. Devonian and BigPaul both have to set off, so they were not staying the night (how bad do I feel now knowing Devonian had the day off on Friday and I didn't know, but he missed out on a camp with us...so sorry mate).

We head to Bovey Tracey for fuel and cash machine, plus maybe a Tesco Forage. While heading into a shop, I educate MCavity on my secret technique on precious metal accruement and investing (I checked the value MCavity. Looking at about £210 once sorted, minute costs and processing, about £170 net at current prices). Nice!

Then we set off into our camp. Once we arrive, the mood in the camp changed quite a bit. The guys were really welcoming and fun, but it wasn't so much of a S.UK meet. It was more like a meeting and people can get drunk in the woods and chat away. Not much about prepping. Good camaraderie and banter, the conversation was really deep at times, most people were having a laugh, but it wasn't a good prepping meet. It wasn't like any of our previous meets. It became a meet for another forum, which was okay, but not right for everyone.

I remember waking up the next morning and thinking, right now, I'm looking at a load of trees. I'm in one of the most beautiful areas of the UK, Dartmoor, and I'm waking up looking at trees, in what could be described as a 'generic woods'. Next time I'm going to be changing this. It was great fun, everyone was awesome, but the meet wasn't quite how a S.UK meet should be. Hats off for the guys for accommodating us and welcoming us the way they did, I can't fault them for that. Was it a meet, yes. Was it a good time out in the woods? For me, yes. Was it a high quality prepping S.UK meet? No.

For this, I do apologise. However, I have learned from the mistake. Next time, better structure, more learning and skills, more walking, more prepping, and it was be a brilliant S.UK meet!

So, here is the plan next time round everyone.

I have already sorted the place. It will be a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday meet. I have already sorted a lot of the things we'll be doing. Looking at getting new ideas and input. I'm going to plan a few other things over the next week, so some activities may change. But trust me, the next meet will be the best one yet. You are not going to want to miss out on this one. MCavity, bring your nephew and his mate, BeardyMan, bring your mate along, Devonian, book the time off for this one. Dartmoor Trip 5 is going to be a blinder.

If you're able to make it, make sure you can.

All I really need now, suggestions of when you guys are up for it.

P.S. There may be prizes and take home gifts if it's in March.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
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2 February 2014, 15:46,
#2
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
Sounds good lads,Really pissed off i couldnt make it but trying to find somewhere to live at the moment
Good luck MikeA
Todays mighty oak is just yesterdays nut that held its ground
In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king
Reply
2 February 2014, 16:34,
#3
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
Excellent and entertaining write up, but it wasn't me that sent you the message about joining you on Friday!!

Unfortunately I don't get days off other than weekends and bank holidays - one of the problems of running your own business Angry
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2 February 2014, 16:34, (This post was last modified: 2 February 2014, 16:52 by BeardyMan.)
#4
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
(2 February 2014, 15:46)TheFalcon Wrote: Sounds good lads,Really pissed off i couldnt make it but trying to find somewhere to live at the moment
Good luck MikeA

You were missed matey.

(2 February 2014, 15:23)Scythe13 Wrote: I think BeardyMan may even have shed a tear. But it was a hardcore, man's tear! haha, I'm kidding, he cried like a little girl and ran down the road as MikeA drove off into the sunset...okay that may have been slightly dramatised for effect, especially considering it was only lunchtime so there was no sunset, and BeardyMan recognises the evils of running, and avoids it with a passion. But you get the idea.

I'm still welling up at the thought of his departure. I sobbed like a girlyman all night. It wasn't smoke from the campfire in my eyes that caused the tears...

And yes, running is bad. I only run if I'm being chased by something with more teeth than the whole Osmond family combined.

Oh yes, that was also my last SUK meet for the foreseeable future.

New addition to the tribe means my every-other-week camps will be curtailed. Solo camping from now on, and most of my camping gear will be sold off to make room for a more family friendly system - a motor home. Smile
Reply
2 February 2014, 17:03,
#5
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
Cannot see me getting away for another six weeks S ......but as soon a I can I will, be nice to see BP again and meet the rest of you guys
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2 February 2014, 17:30,
#6
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
you have a talent with the written word s13....liked you're write up very much
Nothing is fool proof for a sufficiently talented fool!!!!
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2 February 2014, 19:07, (This post was last modified: 2 February 2014, 19:14 by Scythe13.)
#7
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
Sorry Devonian. It was Danzord. I got confused by the D's. In which case, I owe Danzord a huge apology.

Next time mate, PM me your mobile number (I use a cheap £10 mobile for people whom I don't know, so it's all good if you do the same mate). Then we'll sort a meet via messages and on the forum.

Also, a big thank you to everyone whose read this whole post. Very impressed you can tolerate the rantings of an overly tired dyslexic. It's awesome to get positive feedback from posts like you guys have given. Thank you for the encouragement.

The next meet will be...fricking brilliant!

I'm going to start a write up about the plans for the event. Learned the lesson from this one. I'm going to punch in a 'recommended kit' (please note, it'll also be a good list for starting a BOB), but I'm also going to show some of the stuff we'll be working on.

BeardyMan, and everyone else unable to stay the night, I'll be breaking the days down into 3 sections, so those that need to leave early are able to do so. But also for those that are arriving late, you'll be in for a treat. If you're able to make it on just the Saturday, like how BP did for this meet, you'll still be very pleased you came!
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
Reply
4 February 2014, 11:50,
#8
RE: Dartmoor 4...the unusual trip + Dartmoor 5 plans
Great to meet up with old faces and new. Thanks to all that came along.
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