The Weather
Make sure you are prepared!
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As of mid October I have had to close the woodland for camping due to damage caused to the tracks and basecamp area by people attempting vehicle access. Once the ground has recovered and I have repaired the areas I will update the website and allow booking again. Unfortunately I don't expect this to be until around Spring 2024.
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The weather can make a huge difference to your experience, the first year I owned the wood I was able to access the full length by 4x4 year round, not a single issue. Since the start of 2023 it had been raining most weeks and the ground took a while to dry out. So you know what to expect when the weather is bad, here are some photos of what the ground conditions are like at their worst... I will always offer a refund/rebooking if the ground conditions are this poor!
When the access track is too wet to drive along, you will have to carry all your kit from the space where the white truck is parked (middle right of photo) to wherever you choose to camp, my favourite area is either in or just behind basecamp in the woods (middle left of photo)- it only takes about 4 minutes but if you have a lot of kit and are walking through mud it can get very tiresome!
The fire pit will be come a pond, good luck getting a fire going in this!
Even though I regularly use basecamp, the entire woods are available to you when you book - there are many other areas where a small tent or hammock can be set up and a fire made on the dry ground.
There is a metal plate in the bottom of the fire pit to help making a fire when the ground is damp or cold and provides a stable fire lighting platform.
There is an old manhole cover around the basecamp area which is useful for setting your chair on, without this, your chair will usually sink straight into the ground and you'll be lying on your back.
The 'toilet' is supposed to be a composting toilet, during the spring/summer months this is a perfect solution and works well. Unfortunately as the ground water rises, the toilet has a habit of filling with water so should not be used, the access also gets very wet as it is under tree cover and rarely gets sunlight. The toilet is not covered at the moment so I'm working on a new shelter in order to give more privacy than the bamboo screening currently in place.
Long term plan is to upgrade to a bagged composting toilet to avoid the issue of wet ground.