Bivvy a month 2023.

[josh]

crawled into a hole in the river bank.

I'm not particularly bothered by spiders, or small spaces, but that's a no from me!

[josh]

The 'there, technically I rode my bike and slept outside' edition.

Enthusiasm to wild camp was at an all time low this month. I’d put it off with various, genuine and imagined, excuses a couple of times already.

In the end I went to a new spot, about as close as I could get to my house without being in the garden. I avoided getting muddy & wet by going very slowly and planning a route that at its most technical consisted of slightly bumpy gravel.

Some stats:
Straight line distance from home: 780m
Distance travelled: 4.5km
Total moving time: 22 minutes


One of few photos, having arrived after dark and left before sunrise. Short, but sweet.

An adventure it was not. But a night outside I wouldn’t have otherwise bothered with and therefore worthwhile and enjoyable it was – the atmospheric thick mist and deer sightings were a nice bonus.

It might have been a box ticking exercise, as many others have commented for theirs recently, but I'm glad to have the box to tick and I'm glad to have ticked it!

[Wotsits]

10/12

Night in Moel Prysgau during the BB200, opted to stop there as the river crossings looked dodgy AF on my own in the dark & it was pretty much the only dry spot i'd seen for hours!

The morning after


Was told by the other lads that were staying in there that the bridge which used to be opposite was washed away in a storm, that also flooded the bothy with 2ft of water

[Raggedstone]

This month's BAM will have to be my night on the BB200 as I have been suffering from the lurgy .
A nice early start and some very enjoyable riding with the odd bit of undergrowth thrown in took me to the banks of the Wye which was looking nicely topped up . The sun was shining a nice grassy track what could be better
PXL_20231014_121048242 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
Some more good tracks and I was at the Claerwen Dam I looked behind and saw a nice rainbow for the next few hours the bow went but the rain remained
PXL_20231014_153030532 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
I stopped at the church at Strata Florida as it was dark and had some food in the roofed entrance to the graveyard and I was soon joined by a lady who was doing the same . She said the next bit looked ok on the map as it was fireroad having had a summer trip along the first part of what was to come I knew differently !! We kind of made our way down the torrent leapfrogging each other each time we had to cross the river it was deeper and the current was stronger finally we both arrived at what was the last crossing I went first this one was properly scary the bike got taken but fortunately my feet were in a good place and I hung on to bar but most of the bike was dipped . (dry bags we will see) . It was freezing by this time and I was intending to keep going but after the up and over Devils Staircase I was cold and wondering how my sleeping stuff had survived . I came across a very convenient building with hot and cold running water so time for some food and check the kit . I had made a bed roll of bivvy bag. sleeping mat and 150 quilt which fortunately I had packed inside a sturdy plastic bag as I expected to pack it away wet it was the only thing in the " dry bag " that was dry the warm clothes and jacket to supplement the quilt were soggy so taking the temperature into consideration it would have been stupid to carry on so I spent the night where I was . I took some pictures but I think I may have inadvertently attached them to my will to live . I went to the bike in the morning for the stove and the bags were frozen solid so I think I made the right decision
PXL_20231015_054426612 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr
The sun reappeared and everything was right with the world and i enjoyed a good ride back not quite on the intended route
PXL_20231015_102948503 by Kevin Hawker, on Flickr

10/12 for this year
58 consecutive

[frogatthefarriers]

October BaM. Just Made it.

As it's Halloween, where else but a churchyard.












It had juststarted to rain when i got to The church but I managed to dodge Storm Ciarán, thank goodness.

Anyway, this makes 10 of 12 for 2023.

[Leerowe76]

Well that's me done, run out for 9. Sunday night was meant to be the night only to be told at 4pm we were leaving for a Fall Out Boy gig in Manchester at 6pm and obviously not getting back till late, thought I'll go Monday but the daughters graduation ceremony and leaving the house early meant that got shelved and after the ceremony straight into the Italian restaurant for food and drink well on arriving home I knew it was all over as I can't move let alone ride a bike anywhere have fun with the rest of the year to all still in the mix

[Bearlegged]

Love the pics Lu, it's amazing how many lost souls you can fit under.a small tarp these days!

[RIP]

Love the pics Lu, it's amazing how many lost souls you can fit under.a small tarp these days!

Seconded. I wouldn't have got a wink of sleep with them woohooing away next to me. First haunted bivvy methinks?

convenient building with hot and cold water

Intriguing. Never had one of those before. Sounds like you needed that luck after that pre-Halloween nightmare though, some real fortitude on display there mate.

Bad luck Lee

[Blackhound]

Sorry to hear Lee having got so far into the year.

[NeilA]

Found me accommodation and Old Peculiar!
BAM October 31
10 of 10, 22 of 22
Here I am again, at the back end of the month.
Still the same factors apply very muchly to the last of the month in my world, a hard days slog beforehand and rain expected through the night.
Inspired by my failure to bivvy earlier in the month, but largely by the succession of remarkable shelters, sheds, caves, industrial buildings viewable on our Forum , at least there was a spot I had in mind.
Waterproof and hopefully witch proof too.
Situated not far from home, in the magical Suckley triangle, my choice driven by little time available and recent lack of fitness to make a decent journey.
I do not enjoy racing through the evening gathering stuff, finding batteries uncharged, certain items sitting obscurely at the extremities of my empire etc etc! Hopefully remedied for November.
Much as I have said many times before, off I cycled and all of a sudden everything fell into place and made sense.
My building choice proved better than expected. A farm animal shelter clad with metal corrugation. Largely unused. Inside it was dry underfoot, and leakproof. Save for using bothies this was my first real 5* night especially given the bouts of heavy rain through the night.
I enjoyed a snack of Waitrose expensive chorizo (experimenting with this ready for more meaningful trips) and thereafter Green and Blacks Organic Ginger and rich Cocoa chocolate washed down with a recent discovery, Theakston Old Peculiar and then Jamesons whiskey. No wonder I slept well.
Big bonus was the footprint I'd made some months ago which proved its worth. Heavy duty gauge polythene, lightish but bulky. Loved it. Exactly the opposite of Reg's finely crafted kit, recently unveiled on the Forum

November sees a trip to Mid Wales with Dave, taking in a few bothies

[RIP]

[Verena]

I'm glad to have the box to tick and I'm glad to have ticked it!

I like that Josh...

Sounds like a common theme here, struggling to drag ourselves out there this time of year, but feeling good about having done it afterwards.

Loving the creativity this is generating at the moment, sheds and shelters, ever shorter distances, treats to motivate us....

What a shame Lee, you were so close!!

What, only just discovered Old Peculiar?!? We had a couple of barrels of that at our wedding in 1997 (shared with our guests of course... )

Anyway, it's a brand new month, so our chance to get it in early!

( I'm also contemplating tonight, but, yes, you guessed it, I'm not sure I CBA, lights aren't charged, kit's all over the place...etc.etc.)

[RIP]

Live BaM In Progress... bit, er, playful out.

[Bearlegged]

Are you going for the "Woke up somewhere different to where you went to sleep" award?

[RIP]

Are you going for the "Woke up somewhere different to where you went to sleep" award?

Yeah, different county . More later...

[Verena]

Are you going for the "Woke up somewhere different to where you went to sleep" award?

Yeah, different county . More later...

Was that "country" ?!?

[RIP]

Are you going for the "Woke up somewhere different to where you went to sleep" award?

Yeah, different county . More later...

Was that "country" ?!?

Almost!

Well that was.... interesting.....

Met up with MuddyPete and off we went through the empty streets, at one point following the yellow brick road towards what we hoped would be a wizard bivvy spot in our very own Emerald City....



Heading in the vague direction of the country park, admittedly mostly backwards or sideways, it became apparent that everyone else thought it was a sensible idea to remain dry indoors, and usually-busy locations took on the air of a dystopian empty village in a science fiction film - with lights swinging in the wind with eerie screeching noises the only sounds to be heard apart from the howling wind....



It soon became obvious that a tarp/bivvybag might not stand up very well to a large tree branch landing on top of it, and indeed us. So our spot radars were switched to maximum to search for some slightly more robust shelter. Fairly soon we saw something brick-built behind the roadside hedge, so we hauled the bikes through the soaking brambles and nettles and found a huge open doorway into what must be the largest indoor space I've ever bivvied in (award please Phil ). It was either a farm barn or an old quarry building, and was in surprisingly good condition with no rubbish or other risky detritus. The floor was also covered in a thick layer of grain husks for added comfort, and there was even a free-to-enter art gallery. Pete found a rickety chair which allowed him to channel his inner art critic.











We could probably have sheltered the entire Winter Event contingent but Pete took one end and I took the other. Having tested my new spinnaker groundsheet last time, I thought I'd have a try with the 30g spaceblanket one. It performed well, being totally waterproof and the gold surface made it easy to spot things that I stored on it. On reflection, the summer sleeping bag may have been slightly poorly judged but you can't have everything (where would you put it?).



After a comfy but fitful night we awoke to find that the barn/building overlooked a huge sand quarry with views of Ivinghoe Beacon and, er, Luton in the distance.





Pete reasonably pointed out that meths stoves on all the husks might well result in an instant raging inferno, so it was off to find somewhere else for breakfast and a handy bus shelter down the road did the job to the chagrin of the local early-morning curtain-twitchers. We also gained the interest of a lady jogger who explained that yes she was a keen bikepacker too but, er, hated wildcamping .



Time for porridge. I'd brought my trusty 22g BBB stove, but Pete was taking a leaf out of my previous book and was going with the new hand-sanitiser stove. He certainly added a whole new level to the idea because his sanitiser was "wild stallion" flavour/essence! I wasn't sure I could live up to that moniker at that time in the morning so I carried on with my 22g instead.



Pete and his hot date!



There were the usual local advertisements in the bus shelter, including this one for the Scout group. I initially read it as "tired of dull wee knights", which was either a comment on uninteresting diminutive Scots gentry, or possibly a reference to my increasingly temperamental nocturnal bladder habits.



Our gourmet dining experience complete, we headed off back to town and the bizarre contrast of a sunny calm day.

11/11, 11/12, 95/95

[Bearlegged]

[NeilA]

Fanf***ingtastic

[MuddyPete]

Managed to survive my night with "Hurricane Reg" .
It was indeed a stellar bivi spot (but could so easily have been a "Stella" bivi spot ).

Good job we packed the Halloween costumes

... yes she was a keen bikepacker too but, er, hated wildcamping .

"Likes bikepacking but not wild camping": I was trying to fathom that too, but maybe she was simply overcome by the powerful aroma of stallion musk (which at least is better than Elon musk ).

Next BB T-shirt?

Awwwww...never mind the searing dystopian reality...everyone come in for a cuddle

[fatbikephil]

Ho hum, Reg wins everything this month (again...)
I may say that he has far more opportunities for such sillyness than I do - all I have is load of bloody mountains...

[RIP]

Nah, we're only 3 days in, the month is yet young, consider it a gauntlet thrown down .

Actually, all the fantastic sheds we saw from everyone in October roused a bit of a competitive spirit down here. With this one, I think we had a bit of a Croc Dundee (*) moment - "Heh, heh. That's not a shed. THAT's a shed!" .

PS. Wild Stallion hand sanitiser - Weirdest Cooking Fuel Award?!

(*) I believe this is the name of Phil's favourite exotic local takeaway?

[fatbikephil]

Nah, we're only 3 days in, the month is yet young, consider it a gauntlet thrown down .

Actually, all the fantastic sheds we saw from everyone in October roused a bit of a competitive spirit down here. With this one, I think we had a bit of a Croc Dundee (*) moment - "That's not a shed. THAT's a shed!" .

PS. Wild Stallion hand sanitiser - Weirdest Cooking Fuel Award?!

(*) I believe this is the name of Phil's favourite exotic local takeaway?

We did try but you aced it...
No crocs round here, even in the curries!
Hmmm. Weirdest cooking fuel award - some hideously expensive (and foul tasting) single malt would seem to fit the bill. And my mate has just the thing!

[Verena]

Ho hum, Reg wins everything this month (again...)
I may say that he has far more opportunities for such sillyness than I do - all I have is load of bloody mountains...

Boohoohoo, you poor thing

[Verena]

Fanf***ingtastic

Amen to that