It was a breezy but sunny evening that we set off to attend the Bushcraft Conference in Edale. After waiting for me to finish work on the Friday we set off and travelled over with Greg and Lou who were kind enough to squeeze Mevi into their van for the weekend as his was still in the garage. We were loaded up with supplies, logs for the fire, a very small tent to see if Mevi could brave it and our die hard Britishness to make sure we would be able to sit outside in the freezing cold just so we could all chat 🙂
The farm the conference was on had a sloping field that led from the farm to the train line at the bottom and was quite full at the top part when we arrived. There were all sorts of units there from Van conversions and full motorhomes to bugout vehicles with tents on the roof, trailers with kitchens and tents attached, teepee tents with floors and log burners, big family tents and a few bivvy’s strewn around for good measure. There were stalls selling knives, axes, army rations, catapults and all sorts of hand made helpful bushcraft items – there was a lovely buzz around the place.
We found Darran and Kev and saw there was no room around them for us to park the vans, we needed space for at least 3 vans and a tent so we drove down the field and found a flat-ish spot for us to make camp. Once we were set up a lovely chap came walking over to see us and said he’d recognised us from the other side of the field so wanted to come and say hi which was really lovely, he told us about the van he’d built which was I think his 9th van!! That’s a hard core van builder right there!! Out came the chairs and fire pits as we knew it would be cold and evening meals were made while the fire was lit. Hotdogs and gnocchi in the Gadget bus and Chilli in the Virgoe van then we sat out around the fire..
Kev came over to say Hi and told us that there was a good little pub about a quarter of a mile away so we took our frozen backsides off camp to find it. It was quite a lovely little walk to the pub, through fields of sheep and lambs and through a little wooded glen. The pub was busy when we arrived put we managed to find a table big enough for the 6 of us at the back and we stayed until they kicked us out 🙂 haha.. It was a bit chilly outside.. We headed back in the dark and decided to call it a night as it was almost midnight. The wind woke us up at about 4 (when it was actually daylight too!!) so we had a little lie in to make up for it.
Saturday dawned nice and bright and we had a bit of brekkie and gave Coop a run around the bottom part of the field. When we’d paid yesterday we were told that we could be entered into the raffle they were having, so decided to take a walk up to the big tents at the top and pick them up. We found Darran up there too and I was approached by another lovely chap who said he watched my channel.. (MY channel John, not yours! haha) Which was so lovely, hands were shook all around as he recognised us all and he said he was off to Scotland with his Mrs for the weekend so was packing up that morning. I don’t think it will ever get old that people actually choose to watch our channel and the things we do – I hope anyone will always feel they can interrupt our gabbing and come and say Hi!
While we were chatting a big black object caught the corner of our eyes which turned out to be the Poo Pickers in the A-Team bus! Yay! We pointed them to where we’d set up and shimmied the tent around to make a bit of room for them and followed them back down to the vans. On the way Darran showed us the “hack” he had created for the folding fire pit that he bought which is the same as ours – he’d made some pieces of re-bar into a frame placed over the firepit that he could use to cook with his Ridgemonkey! It was very cool indeed.. 🙂
We all piled on down to where our vans were parked so we could say a proper hello to Dave, Jo and Louie, shuffled the camp around a bit and had some lunch, I was jealous of the cracking Omelette sammiches that Dave and Jo were having. We then headed back up to the top of the camp for a mooch around the stalls and things. We stopped by some lovely chaps who were hoping to raise some money for their charity by selling off old army gear and ration packs too. They’d planned a fancy dress (apparently every year they have a fancy dress to see who can shock the most – it’s all kept secret until they walk out of their tents. They also had a tug of war later in the night that we said we’d hopefully get to see on the way to or from the pub later. While walking around my very first Bushcraft event I decided that I wanted to buy something, John reminded me that we are in the process of dramatically downsizing so I bought the teeniest tiniest pocket knife that you’ve ever seen – it’ll be perfect for cleaning my nails and trimming loose threads and all the other girly things expected of it – haha.. (I have since made a hole in some kindling and made 1 end round with it too! I will be making sure my knife sharpener makes it into the van!!). I was glad that they had more than 1 to sell or Kev and I might have had to fight that one out.. 🙂
We arranged a visit to the pub for tea with Kev (we said we’d call for him on the way up) as he was parked away from us as he arrived on the Thursday night so meandered back to the Vans to get ready – which basically meant to put more layers on and grab the dogs things 🙂
We set off again to the same pub as Friday night as we hadn’t eaten in there so we were off down the lane of sheep and into the lovely forest glen once again. The pub was busier this time and we had to post our lookouts at every room so we could grab a nice big table when once became available. We found a lovely but not quite big enough table and thankfully a small table for 2 right next to it so we all managed to squeeze in OK. The food was lovely – their speciality is sausage and mash and they have different versions of this so I had to give it a go.. We also found out that Greg has a nickname of 3 puddings Greg with very good reason.. He had a nice meal then 2 desserts, adding that his mum would be very proud (she would be too, Flora is always super proud of Greg, even for finishing both puds and drinking the cream) It was a little dark when we set off back to the Farm again, all with bellies full of food and beer. Of course.. The fellers being, well, massive kids with jobs and driving licenses decided to have a race on the way home.. Jo and I were a little behind with Kev at this point and walked over the crest of the hill just in time to hear Lou shout “Go!” at the top of her voice – suddenly Dave, John, Greg and Mevi all surged forwards – we had a good ole chuckle, very glad that no one had face planted the floor! Greg was announced the winner, Dave was announced a cheater cheater pumpkin eater (where does that phrase come from?? I have no idea!!) as he, with many cameras pointing at him, decided to actually go before Lou had said the word fully. Needless to say he didn’t hear the end of it for the entire time we were there (and still hasn’t!)
We cracked open the campfires as soon as we got back as it was particularly cold once again, but at least it was mostly dry so we sat out and chatted the night away.
Sunday dawned absolutely dreary and wet. We had been up a couple of times in the night as we’d left the canopy out and it was flapping away, firstly we tightened it up a bit then we took it in – both of us – in PJ’s and rain coats at about 3.30 and unfortunately woke some people up but we decided it was enough for us to enjoy a bit of a lie in and even Cooper agreed. Everyone else decided it would be a nice chill out rain day on Sunday for as long as the drizzle continued – every now and again we’d open the door of the vans for a chat and a swap – boys in with Greg editing and the girls in with Jo drinking beer and chatting away. We watched quite a lot of the Bug out vehicles “Bugging out” and leaving the bad weather. I suppose it’s easy to be a little smug in our heated van with hot water and flushing toilet which made it so much easier to want to stay in a cold and wet field.. Haha.. I managed to convince John that it was about time for him to try a “pot noodle” but the Pasta and Sauce version – he’s never had one EVER!!! Haha.. It seems that the Cheese and Pancetta was a winner.. (with added chicken and bacon of course, because why not eh? haha) Thankfully the weather cleared up in time for tea and we decided to try out the other pub that was close by, more so we could chat a bit better and not have to cook in the vans again and get them all steamy!
We collected all the pub go-ers (so us lot and Darran and Kev) and made our way to The Rambler using a slightly lower path in the same field of sheep – we kept getting side eye from all the ewes as they were making sure their lambs were close by (can you get side eye from an animal with 300 degree vision? I wonder..) Edale is really a gorgeous place – we were right in a kind of basin between lots of beautiful rolling hills so it was just gorgeous wherever you looked. We squoze through a style made of huge rocks and over another not so narrow bridge, past a quaint little campsite that backed on to the stream flowing through and over to the pub. No chance at all of a seat inside on a busy sunday so we grabbed a couple of tables outside and ordered our food.
I bet is seems like all we do is visit pubs and that can be for a couple of reasons – firstly, they are “planning rooms” so we all get together in a place where we can all decide what we are going to do next – some of our best decisions have come from planning rooms! Secondly, they are usually roomy and we are usually hungry so we don’t have to be cooking all the time and Thirdly, we like to spend money in the places we visit to help the local economy. I’ve read quite a few stories on the news and in forums saying locals feel like lots of campervan owners “stock up at Tesco” then park in inconvenient places for weeks at a time. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t buy local from small grocers and shops or stop at pubs or ice cream shops/vans or roadside strawberry sellers, mainly because we don’t have room to keep weeks worth of food but also because we like to enjoy the places we visit and appreciate the small businesses that are there.
Back to the pub! We found a little blackbird that had fallen out of its nest into a flower bed and he was chirping away the entire time – little cutie. We had some good food again, it was a bit cold outside too so we didn’t stop around for dessert and slowly wound our way back to the farm again. With Kev pretending to be a giant and us all deciding that wherever he goes we need to sing the Wombles theme tune.. For ever and ever.. 🙂
Sunday night was a bit rainy and miserable but Darran fetched his fire pit down to try and create a bit more heat – so we were using 3 at this time! We had more visitors who had recognised us all so we did a sticker swap and Greg gave a tour around his van (Once he had taken his hood off so he could be recognised!) It was lovely to get the chance to have a chat as we’d walked past this chap each day just saying Hi.
Monday morning dawned all sorts of miserable again so we decided to get off home, Dave and Jo were being hard core and decided to brave a bit longer in the rain and have a nice relaxing start to the day.
What a fab weekend! From not quite knowing what we were to expect (apart from spending time with our pals) then having a blast, meeting loads of really nice people, visiting some lovely pubs and dealing with some terrible weather, turns out we had a great time all round!
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