Bivvy a month 2020.

[Cheeky Monkey]

The other issue is there is no window and the door is a good fit in the frame, with it closed and the light off you can;t see any light coming under the bottom or round the edges, so would I suffocate?

Joking?

[Cheeky Monkey]

but I was snug and warm and slept really well. It was a first time I'd tried the tarp over hammock combo, and it worked well, except for the long sides getting blown in over the hammock with some wet getting in. I improvised with the one spare bit of guy line I had, tied to a twig pushed into the soggy ground - amazingly it held out and worked quite well.

Try some lifters on the side. Attach a line to the middle of the tarp-side-ish (e.g. a tarp clip), line from this running roughly horizontal, looped round top of a stick at same height, continuing down to peg in ground. Pulls side out, increasing room and resists the wind blowing it in.

Probably 99 others ways to achieve something similar but hopefully that conveys the principle.

For example (you don't have to have two and this tarp has pull-outs already attached):

[RIP]

...total light failure, I have a small emergency head torch but there's no way I could find my way out of the woods with just that. Rather than risk getting more lost I decide the best plan will be to wait it out until it's light

nearly as bad as me being overcome by fatigue after a two mile ride...

[RIP]

I have a hankering to bivi in the shed, I think of it as a kind of private bothy with the slab floor. As I wouldn't be paying I assume it would count?

Not paying - tick. Not home - tick. At your work - interesting one, "available to all"? I guess anyone could knock on the door and ask to rest in there? I think a Higher Authority than the panel will have to adjudicate on that one. Bike ride - tick, but only if you rode away from work, after work, wandered around the countryside for a while, then went back, and found that luckily you had a key to this shed. Then in the morning you'd have to go for another ride, then come back into work. I've probably missed something there somewhere.

[RIP]

I also have a question on the rules for the judging panel. I started this year in March so will finish in Feb 2021. If I decide to keep it up I'd like to do the more traditional Jan to Dec. So, if I did 2 bivis in Jan and Feb each could one of them count towards this 12 months and the other towards the 2021? So for the first 2 months I'd be doing 2 lots of BAM's concurrently, the end of this one at the start of the next.

Oooh... that's new. Surely the panel has to agree to that, and in fact award you some extra points for creativity/deviousness!

Alternatively, you could pretend all 10 of this year's ones were practice runs, and start anew in Jan 2021 to get your "2021 BaM". I presume Stu's coveted "Four Season Legion" badges are for ANY consecutive 12 months - entirely fair - but the titles of these threads imply (well, mandate in fact) a calendar year of BaMs - "Bivvy A Month 2020". So a/ if your aim is to claim the badge as soon as possible, claim it in February, or b/ if you want to feature on the yearly scoreboard, "stop" in December and start your "2021 BaM challenge" in January.

Either way, you still have an ongoing BaM total being totted up, which has no prizes other than after a while you think "er, why? why not!". Eg. the totals at the end of my reports show something like "10/10, 10/12, 58/58" - ie ten in a row, ten out of this calendar year, and 58 consecutive in a row.

My 58 total is because I failed to get out in January 2016(?) - DOH! - and started in February. So I couldn't claim "BaM 2016" as achieved, but those 11 months count towards my 58 total.

Confused? Ralph will probably understand it better than we do to be honest.

R

[Verena]

Try some lifters on the side. Attach a line to the middle of the tarp-side-ish (e.g. a tarp clip), line from this running roughly horizontal, looped round top of a stick at same height, continuing down to peg in ground. Pulls side out, increasing room and resists the wind blowing it in.

Probably 99 others ways to achieve something similar but hopefully that conveys the principle.

For example (you don't have to have two and this tarp has pull-outs already attached):

Nice, thank you. Never heard of tarp clips before. Have read about using pebbles on here somewhere, which was genius I thought

[sean_iow]

The other issue is there is no window and the door is a good fit in the frame, with it closed and the light off you can;t see any light coming under the bottom or round the edges, so would I suffocate?

Joking?

No, genuine concern. It's pretty airtight in there and only about the size of a shipping container. Perhaps I'm overthinking it? It is also always warm as the heat comes through the uninsulted wall from the attached building, which might also be why I when I open the door on a cold morning after riding in I think it would be a nice place to bivi.

[RIP]

I presume Stu's coveted "Four Season Legion" badges are for ANY consecutive 12 months

I'd quite like some different coloured badges for ongoing milestones - a bit like swimming certificates. Or more like BB200. Blue one for 12, Green for 20, Red for 50, Black for 100, etc etc. A right pain for Stu, so maybe there could be additional stripes for those milestones.

Or, as Stu would probably tell us exasperatedly, get a grip lasses/lads nobody gives a monkey's!

[RIP]

Never heard of tarp clips before. Have read about using pebbles on here somewhere, which was genius I thought

Pebbles is the "correct" way of course, but I bought some of these (below). They're dead good. Stuck 'em on my DD Superlight which didn't have any lifters if I remember rightly, or hardly any. You could get a 100 of them and plaster them all over the tarp for maximum flexibility of pitch! Admittedly that would exactly double the weight of the tarp but well worth it.

https://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk ... clips-p447

[RIP]

uninsulted wall from the attached building

Very considerate that Sean, some walls can indeed be quite sensitive .

(Sorry, I normally try hard to contain my ravings inside the "Friday" thread, which has padded walls and security staff 24/7... I'd better get over there and stop cluttering this place up.....)

[Cheeky Monkey]

The other issue is there is no window and the door is a good fit in the frame, with it closed and the light off you can;t see any light coming under the bottom or round the edges, so would I suffocate?

Joking?

No, genuine concern. It's pretty airtight in there and only about the size of a shipping container. Perhaps I'm overthinking it? It is also always warm as the heat comes through the uninsulted wall from the attached building, which might also be why I when I open the door on a cold morning after riding in I think it would be a nice place to bivi.

What's the roof structure?

[sean_iow]

Not paying - tick. Not home - tick. At your work - interesting one, "available to all"? I guess anyone could knock on the door and ask to rest in there?

Looking at the rules it doesn't specifically say it has to be open to all, but it only says bothies are ok, which technically this isn't. So I'll cross it off the future BAM location list. I might still bivi there at some point just because I've always fancied it

Oooh... that's new. Surely the panel has to agree to that, and in fact award you some extra points for creativity/deviousness!

Alternatively, you could pretend all 10 of this year's ones were practice runs, and start anew in Jan 2021 to get your "2021 BaM"

Perhaps I'll start again in 2021, I already have a BAM badge so probably don't need another. Ralph can keep going for the 12 in a row and finish with March 2021 to complete his first year's worth

[RIP]

I already have a BAM badge so probably don't need another.

Ah right, wasn't aware of that. So yeah you're all good there then.

Ralph can keep going for the 12 in a row and finish with March 2021 to complete his first year's worth

Yes that makes a lot of sense. WHAT AM I SAYING????!? I need a brew.

[Cheeky Monkey]

Try some lifters on the side. Attach a line to the middle of the tarp-side-ish (e.g. a tarp clip), line from this running roughly horizontal, looped round top of a stick at same height, continuing down to peg in ground. Pulls side out, increasing room and resists the wind blowing it in.

Probably 99 others ways to achieve something similar but hopefully that conveys the principle.

For example (you don't have to have two and this tarp has pull-outs already attached):

Nice, thank you. Never heard of tarp clips before. Have read about using pebbles on here somewhere, which was genius I thought

E..g.s of "tarp clips":



They're variations on the pebble-theme. I have some things a bit like buttons in my pack but can't remember what they're called or where I got them from.

[sean_iow]

What's the roof structure?

It's slate but there's a false ceiling, albeit not a very good one. There's often a slate missing so that would help with airflow.

Not sure what the boss would say if he caught me but,

1. I'd be up hours before he gets into the office

2. He didn't bat an eyelid when I had my sleeping bag laid along the top of the large-format plotter to air one morning post bivi so he probably wouldn't care.

[Cheeky Monkey]

You'll be reet

[Borderer]

I think Reg is right that it fails on the 'open to all' rule.

[sean_iow]

I think Reg is right that it fails on the 'open to all' rule.

Doesn't the whole of Scotland fail that rule at the moment?

I'm putting the bike shed on the 'Interesting but not for a BAM' list. When I was in the Scouts we slept on the balcony of the inner courtyard of Brading Waxworks, reputedly the most haunted building on the Island, we didn't see any ghosts so I think that might just have been said to attract the tourists

[fatbikephil]

Bloody hell, yous lot need to get out more!!

Sh*t.....

[RIP]

Eh? Surely you mean we need to be locked away, not out?? People should be grateful we're in Here under adequate supervision rather than terrorising the Normals .

Anyway this is serious stuff. Without the BaM Rules where would we be? As mentioned a while ago, the total and irretrievable breakdown of Western civilisation and society that's where.

Then again, Western civilisation and society seems to be doing a pretty fair job of breaking down irretrievably all on its own without our help so what the hell.

[RIP]

Brading Waxworks

Blimey that brings back some memories. In the final year of primary school, I guess I would be 10 or 11 (1969/70 then), there was a 'week away'. Half the class went to Cuffley scout camp and the other half to, if I remember rightly, a school on the coast just east of Ryde. That included me. I have a vivid memory of the train journey down there, another of a meal in Ryde, I can accurately picture the 'dorm' we slept in, and - a visit to Brading Waxworks. I was absolutely rivetted and scared sheetless at the same time. I also remember it was incredibly well done.

On reflection, it's not now clear to me why on earth they took us from Harpenden all the way into London, across the city, a long train ride to Portsmouth, a hovercraft across the Solent, to the IoW when there must have been somewhere a sight nearer and easier to get to with a bunch of hyperactive ten year olds. Hmm.

[frogatthefarriers]

Confused? Ralph will probably understand it better than we do to be honest.

I'll bet he can program the video recorder too

[sean_iow]

Sadly Brading Wax Works shut a few years ago, it was split up into a posh restaurant, antiques dealer etc. If you came here back then on the hover it would have been the old ones which basically had a jet engine lashed to the roof, have your ears stopped ringing yet?

As for Ralph and the remote, I wondered why the telly is on a different channel to what I left it when I come home from work

Vaguely back on topic, glad I did my BAM last night, just been out and it's horrible out now, a fine rain and misty. Whist I don't mind biving in such conditions it's nicer if I don't have to

[redefined_cycles]

Vaguely back on topic, glad I did my BAM last night...

I'm hoping I'll be able to say the same very soon. Am on a roll on 3 or 4. Must crack on as there's 10 days left

[RIP]

the old ones which basically had a jet engine lashed to the roof, have your ears stopped ringing yet?

SRN-6?! One of the best value for money 15 minutes I've ever had probably! How on earth they got certified for public use who knows. Probably for the same reasons as paternoster lifts, railway restaurant carriages with free-standing chairs, and Bird's Angel Delight. All gone now (*) and the world's a much much poorer place for it.

(*) edit: all gone now - apart from Sheffield Arts Tower paternoster of course. Incredible entertainment. I think it might be the very last one in the UK in regular use? I could ride on it all day and not get bored.