Bivvy a Month 2024

[RIP]

Yep nice that, lots going on there, and, er, beers .

Start of a new series methinks..... Hallaton bottle kicking, Ashbourne Shrove football, Bonsall hen racing, Knaresborough bed race, Egremont gurning, etc, and... obviously... Birdlip cheese rolling...

Scope for next 100 BaM's there

[frogatthefarriers]

Good one Lu, with an excellent selection of food and drink!

Thanks Chris. A bit too much food though. It was hard to pedal up the hills to Bedfordshire

Yep nice that, lots going on there, and, er, beers .

Start of a new series methinks..... Hallaton bottle kicking, Ashbourne Shrove football, Bonsall hen racing, Knaresborough bed race, Egremont gurning, etc, and... obviously... Birdlip cheese rolling...

Scope for next 100 BaM's there

D’you know, that’s a good idea. I’ve got a book of silly sports somewhere - shin kicking and such-like. I’ll have to fish it out and see what’s within reach.

Thanks Reg, I’m inspired.

[RIP]

Thanks Reg, I’m inspired.

Just get me roped in!

Book might be Wacky Nation by Bamber (BaM-ber!) & Raynes - I've got it, let's do a grand tour. I can appreciate basic 'scenery' as much as the next Boner. "There's a mountain, very nice".For about half an hour. Then I get bit bored unfortunately .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacky-Nat ... 8310226

[fatbikephil]

Marvelous stuff there Frog, a tour of people dancing with horns on, and pubs. Not much like that goes on up here and further north it's all Highland Games where the local toffs lord it over the peasants....

BaM 2024 - September - Done.

Caught a train to Stafford (Avanti West Coast, with probably the worst designed bike space ever). Then pedalled to…

I've come to the conclusion that the bike space designers have never actually tried to put a bike into one - Azuma east Coast trains, Scotrail bastardised HST's, and the pendolinos....
*sigh*

[Raggedstone]

Great stuff Lu I am pleased to see that you took your rehydration seriously

[RIP]

That's a pity about the incident at the end but interesting that bridleway just ending, normally that's something that happens at a parish boundary where the right of way has been recorded in one parish but not the adjoining one but in this case the dotted line for the parish boundary is another field away... Curious

To tie up a loose end re Fiery Furze and its dead-end bridleway: ""In enclosure awards, there is usually an allotment for the Poor or the “Poor’s Firing”, that is usually in the “care” of the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor. It was often remote from the village and on the poorest land, which had not previously been enclosed and cultivated. All it could usefully grow was gorse or furze, which burns very readily and hotly. After a fire or being cut down it regrows from the roots".

Quite likely then that the bridleway/RoW ended at the "Poor's Firing" so they could collect the gorse.

[frogatthefarriers]

Just get me roped in!

Book might be Wacky Nation by Bamber (BaM-ber!) & Raynes - I've got it, let's do a grand tour. I can appreciate basic 'scenery' as much as the next Boner. "There's a mountain, very nice".For about half an hour. Then I get bit bored unfortunately .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacky-Nat ... 8310226

Damn! I can’t find my book of silly games - I must have chucked it. This just goes to show that you never know when something will be useful again, and why my sheds are bursting with stuff. I can’t even remember the title, but the picture on the front cover of “No Pie, No Priest”, Harry Pearson, looks familiar. I’ll have to get another copy and we can have some silly sports bivvies. On the other hand, I could save myself a few quid by you picking the venue from your book. Hmmm?

[RIP]

you picking the venue from your book. Hmmm?

Tables nicely turned

I've found another one on my shelf too!



Everybody else scroll down, but for Lu:

Swaying The Hood football match at Haxey, N Lincs (6th January)
Cheese Rolling at Coopers Hill, Glouc (end May Bank Hols)
World Bog Snorkelling at Llanwrtyd Wells (Aug Bank Hols)
World Gurning Championships at Egrement, Cumbria (3rd Saturday September)
Shin Kicking in Chipping Campden, Oxon (first Friday after Whitsun)
Scapegoating the Burry Man in S Queensferry
World Worm Charming Championship in Nantwich (last Saturday June)
World Nettle Eating Championship in Crewkerne (21 June)
Bottle Kicking in Hallaton, Leics (Easter Monday)
World Pea Throwing Championship in Lewes, Sussex (a Sunday in October)
Hen Racing in Bonsal, Derbyshire (first Saturday August)
Onion Eating Contest in Newen, Glouc (a Saturday in September)
Olney Pancake Race in Olney, Bucks (Shrove Tuesday)
World Clog Cobbing Championship in Rawtenstall, E Lancs (Easter Monday)
The Great Shirt Race in Bampton, Oxon (Spring Bank Holiday)
World Conker Championships in Oundle, Northants (Second Sunday October)
Great Knaresborough Bed Race in Knaresborough, Yorks (Saturday mid June)
World Pea Shooting Championship in Ely, Cambs (second Saturday July)
Totnes Orange Races in Totnes, Devon (Tuesday in August)
Oxenhope Straw Race in Oxenhope, W Yorks (first Sunday July)
International Bognor Birdman in Bognor, Sussex (July/September)
Atherstone Ball Game in Atherstone, Warwicks (Shrove Tuesday)
Mince Pie Eating Contest in Wookey Hole, Somerset (Tuesday in November)
World Stone Skimming Championship in Oban (Sunday in September)
Mapleton Bridge Jump in Ashbourne, Derbys (New Year's Day)
World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings, Sussex (late October)
World Walking The Plank Championship on Sheppey, Kent (Sunday in August)
Newtown Santa Race in Newtown, Powys (Sunday in December)
World Egg Throwing Championship in Sleaford, Lincs (Sunday in June)
Wool Sack Races in Tetbury, Gloucs (Spring Bank Hol)
World Pooh Stick Championship in Wittenham, Oxon (Sunday in March)
World's Greatest Liar Contest in Nottingham Castle (Thursday late November)
Wheelie Bin Race in Faversham, Kent (Saturday in July)
World Pie Eating Championship in Wigan, Lancs (mid December)
Sheep Grand National in Bideford, Devon (early April)
Real Ale Wobble in Llanwrtyd Wells (November) (there you go!)
Custard Pie Throwing Championship in Maidstone, Kent (Saturday in June)
Black Pudding Throwing Championship in Ramsbottom, E Lancs (Sunday in September)
Marbles Championship in Sussex (Good Friday)
Raft Race in Matlock, Derbys (Boxing Day)
Coal Carrying Championship in Osset, W Yorks (Easter Monday)
Flaming Tar Barrels Race in Ottery St Mary, Devon (5 November)

and many more

[frogatthefarriers]

you picking the venue from your book. Hmmm?

Tables nicely turned
.
.

Everybody else scroll down, but for Lu:

Real Ale Wobble in Llanwrtyd Wells (November) (there you go!)


and many more

Oooh! Is that a hint/suggestion? But £25? Nah, that’s not too much. And I can get there on the train. It’s not really a traditional silly sport, but even so?

I think Verena's done this a few years back, so if it’s still going, it’s become a tradition - maybe? Anyway, it sounds like fun so I think I’ll give it a go - just need to book time off work.

[RIP]

Very tempted but for me it's a heck of a long train journey via Shrewsbury and down the Central Wales line. Hmm.

[Tractionman]

That's a pity about the incident at the end but interesting that bridleway just ending, normally that's something that happens at a parish boundary where the right of way has been recorded in one parish but not the adjoining one but in this case the dotted line for the parish boundary is another field away... Curious

To tie up a loose end re Fiery Furze and its dead-end bridleway: ""In enclosure awards, there is usually an allotment for the Poor or the “Poor’s Firing”, that is usually in the “care” of the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor. It was often remote from the village and on the poorest land, which had not previously been enclosed and cultivated. All it could usefully grow was gorse or furze, which burns very readily and hotly. After a fire or being cut down it regrows from the roots".

Quite likely then that the bridleway/RoW ended at the "Poor's Firing" so they could collect the gorse.

That's a great piece of detective work!

Our landscape is fascinating, with so many stories to tell. One of my favourite ever books is W G Hoskins, 'Making of the English Landscape', and Maurice Beresford's 'Lost Villages of England', both from the 1950s.

There is so much to discover still, and lots that's right on our doorstep.

Cheers,

Keith

[Bearlegged]

September done.

I sort of had company for this one, just in spirit. The lovely Ernesto (who put together the Montanas Vascias route(s) in Spain) came up with the idea of SIMOONTANEA, where folk camp out on the night of the last full moon of the summer.
Apparently last night saw participants in... (deep breath)...Santander, Soria, Gijon, Pozoblanco, Zaragoza, Valencia (X2), Alzira, Alicante, Castellon, Caceres, Murcia, Collado Mediano, Navacerrada, Talavera De La Reina, Doneztebe, Donostia, Prat De Llobregat, Mataro, Vilalba Dels Arcs, Vigo, Coruna, Teruel, Sheffield (UK), Berlin (DE), and Marburg [DE]! Phew. Quite Spaniard-heavy, but nice to see it has a fair bit of reach.

Out of town via the woods, a leaf gently helicoptered down in the still night air, right in front of me. I was slightly concerned by the numbers of bats. Not that I don't like bats, but there must have been plenty of food on the wing for them the night. I crossed my fingers that I wouldn't get involved in the food chain...
The sky was mostly clear, just a hint of haze around the moon, hanging over the valley like a big egg custard.


I got to my spot, set up my bivvy, and cracked open a beer, while listening to a podcast on the joys of getting your kids out to be active.


I lay on the ground, my head resting on a fallen log. I felt like part of the woods, not just a visitor. As the beer and the podcast were finished off, I snuggled into bed, and dozed off. All was well until my mat deflated at 1am, and despite finding the hole and fixing it with Gorilla tape, I never really got back to sleep properly.

2024 BAM 9/12
2024 total bivvies 9
Current streak (months) 70

[MuddyPete]

September done: Trans-Cambrian.
12/12: think I'll treat myself to another BaM patch .
https://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpB ... hp?t=24949

[fatbikephil]

September bam in progress, way out west. Quite breezy but dry, dry I tell you! Something just made a very strange noise - must be one of those bloody beavers!

Anyway its gravel-tastic out here, more later

[benconnolli]

August I had grand plans of crossing the Pyrenees the hardest way, North to South, with gravel bikes. Several things conspired against that, beginning with my Passport not having long enough left. Almost solved these problems, but realised that my head was completely scrambled. No state to be somewhere so remote and self-reliant.

Ended up being a ride from the door after tea. Kept riding until dark. Hopped a fence into a field. Pitched just my inner tent and gazed at the stars. Plenty of personal contemplation on what success looks like for me, how to exist outside of the rat race, and the general purpose of life. No answers, but returned more satisfied in not knowing.


September was a pretty funny idea, with some comical clippets. Objectives were barely satisfied, but exploration definately occured.

For ages I've wanted to integrate my current passions, bouldering and bikepacking. I'd prototyped alternative methods for transporting the bouldering pad, but settled on the classic rucksack configuration. For those not familiar, a bouldering pad is a large foam mat approximately 100cm by 60cm.

Route planning required a careful overlapping of known crags and my map of the national cycle networks. Having limited peripheral vision, and how unbalanced turning to look behind me was, I wanted to avoid traffic wherever possible. Settled on a train to Stoke, then out of the city indirectly along a canal, cycle path, then final few km of lanes.

Train was fine. First complication caught me off guard. Was poodling along the canal when I hit the first bridge. Literally. Fortunately it was square on so as my extended pad absorbed the impact and bounced me back, I went parallel to the canal, not in it.
Initially, I dismounted for the tunnels, but pushing a bike while crouching felt like I was asking for trouble. I settled into a rhythm of slowing right down and getting my chest as close to my top tube as I could. Squeezing through with all the grace of Mr Bean.

The canal deterriated into an unridable muck. I waddled with my wide load adding to the complication of bike pushing in undergrowth.

Eventually got fed up of this painful progress and re-routed onto some lanes. I finally got to the road, and plonked everything down, including myself. The joy of carrying a massive squishy thing is being able to sit on it. I took what I realised must be my first swig of water of the afternoon, I'd sweated a lot as well. It had been just tricky enough to grab my bottle that I'd consistently not botheted.

Lanes were easier going, but still felt like I had a parachute strapped to my back, can't imagine why... I was very much in pedal downhill territory. Just as well, as what speed I did build up exacerbated the inherent instabilities.

Due to a flurry of self-inflicted problems, this was up there with the hardest bike rides I've done. Upon arriving at my destination, I found a boulder set behind the bracken, and flopped into my mat exhausted.

Napped from about 6pm til 7:30. Decided I should at least climb one thing, which I did, but simply wasn't feeling it.

Drizzle started coming in, so I found a sort of cave with dry ground. It was more a wall and roof than fully enclosed, but did the job. Slept on the cold side due to minimising my other kit to a summer sleeping bag for less than summer conditions.

Decided in the morning that I still had no desire to boulder. Tried pulling on a few holds but brain had some kind of block. After all the hassle, I may as well have not brought the mat!

Found a lovely café where I contemplated possible career paths and defined what was wrong with my last job. The students were great, but the hierachy in schools made some adults a bit rubbish and not respect what work I was doing.

Journey back was predominantly lanes, then bike lanes. Even though I struggled to see behind me, the novelty I must have appeared meant that cars gave me a wide berth at least.

Hope that October I can go on more of a bike ride BaM, but will see what opportunities present themselves.

[gecko76]

I've heard that as you do more, the list of essentials gets less. I've never considered taking a bouldering mat though

Kudos.

[fatbikephil]

good effort ben! Bam 2 in progress after some fab trails and many miles. Top bivvy spot just up NCN7 from killin

[fatbikephil]

September done:



and



https://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpB ... hp?t=24959

[RIP]

As per Brompacking.

9/9, 9/12, 106/106 and still not cracked.

[fatbikephil]

REMINDER!
Last weekend in September is approaching and the last weekend of the summer quarter, get 'em in bivviers!

[Boab]

REMINDER!
Last weekend in September is approaching and the last weekend of the summer quarter, get 'em in bivviers!

Weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, if a little on the chillier side overnight; dry trails are probably wishful thinking after all the rain. Just need to decide where to go...

[fatbikephil]

REMINDER!
Last weekend in September is approaching and the last weekend of the summer quarter, get 'em in bivviers!

Weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, if a little on the chillier side overnight; dry trails are probably wishful thinking after all the rain. Just need to decide where to go...

trails are dry up here Boab

[Boab]

REMINDER!
Last weekend in September is approaching and the last weekend of the summer quarter, get 'em in bivviers!

Weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, if a little on the chillier side overnight; dry trails are probably wishful thinking after all the rain. Just need to decide where to go...

trails are dry up here Boab

Give it a few years and I'll be able to take advantage on a more regular basis...

[javatime]

September BAM complete, quite local but still good and sociable.
I am probably not the only one checking the Met weather maps recently - but with a dry spell at last on Wednesday evening I headed out. Cup of tea from Olveston post office as the murk cleared, and then carried on to pitch at Littleton on Severn.

The Guiness at the "other" White Hart went down well as I caught up with an old friend, then empty lanes to the river bank to sleep for a night interspersed by deafening downpours...finally awoke at 8.00 am, and the bridge looked good in the sun.

Breakfast bap and push button coffee back at Olveston Post office, then home for an early lunch.

I am finding the Helium 1 good when the weather is poor, but need to add a space blanket footprint for the next trip.

[sean_iow]

A last minute (well nearly) school night affair. I'd planned to go last Thursday but have cricked* my neck so put it off. Because of this I was now committed to a night out regardless of the weather. Forecast was strong winds and heavy rain

Decided to ride the ti singlespeed which I'm embarrassed to say I've not ridden since June when I got back from Scotland - and it had gears then. In my defense the 34/18 gearing is a bit low for my commute so I either ride the gravel bike or the singlespeed frankengravel which has a 38/18 gearing. The bike did feel spinney on the flat but I was glad of the gearing later.

Left home in the drizzle (so no heavy rain yet) but the wind was picking up. I had a delivery of some new kit for work consisting of a relative humidity meter and an anemometer (wind speed measurer). Decided I wouldn't need to check the humidity as the forecast meant it would be about 150% I did take the wind speed one as I was interested to see what the wind speed would be on the hills.

I rode the cycle path through to Newport (I've avoided this in day for a while due to a run-in with an out of control dog and an owner with anger management issues) which seems to be deteriorating due to the flooding which is happening more often, so I'm not missing much there. I have ridden the section downsteam (the path is the old railway which follows the river) and chatting to a walker they are lowering the banks in places to allow the river to spread out across the fields to help attenuate the flood water, just like a flood plain should work if they hadn't built the banks up

Once at Newport I had to decide my route to the woods, I didn't fancy the Tennyson trail as the recent rain would mean it's very wet and muddy. Whist I though about which road to use to go round and avoid the stiff climb out of Carisbrooke I kept peddling and before I had made my mind up I was at the stiff climb, so that way it is then. The 34/18 didn't feel so spinney anymore.

The rain hadn't really arrived and I still had my waterproof on so stopped at the top of the climb to remove it. I have added a bit of cut-off inner tube to the bars (copied off Mike) and this can by put over the brake lever to stop the bike rolling when leant against something. This worked a treat and made it much easier to open bags etc., thanks Mike Of course I only got another couple of miles before the rain arrived and I had to stop again to put them back on

I headed for my favourite spot in the woods but as I approached and looked into the trees I could see lights, oh no, someone has beaten me to it Rode on to open ground to measure the wind speed and think of a plan B for the bivi spot. The wind was 15mph gusting up to 19mph which was much lower than I'd have estimated. Went back past the way in to my spot, turned my lights off to have a look in and then I realised the lights were actually on the Mainland (Fawley and the south coast) and shining through the woods here as it's quite a narrow strip. There was no moon due to the cloud so in the pitch black the lights looked bright, so no plan B needed

It had stopped raining so I put the hammock up first as it's easier that way and then pitched the tarp low down over it. I suddenly thought I hadn't checked for any branches that might come off in the wind so a quick look to check confirmed I was ok. There was a dead trunk about 5" dia and 15 foot tall nearby, mmm, what if that gets blown over? It was quite close. Gave it gentle shove to see how strong it was and it fell over, good job I didn't push it towards my hammock

As it was pitch black, getting cold and about to rain I got straight in to bed. Last time I was here it was twilight and warm and I enjoyed a beer and chocolate whilst looking out of the woods at the view. Winter is defiantly on the way. I have a new quilt to try for 'shoulder season' which I bought from Etsy earlier in the year. it's a Hangtight Heatseakler rated to 20 deg F (-6 C). I think that's ambitious but I was plenty warm enough at 9 C. Embarrassingly I have a second new (to me) quilt which is an Enlightened Equipment from the classifieds which is an actual 20 deg F rating, it will need to be much colder for that one.

Despite the concern about my neck I slept really well with no issues. The wind did pick up a lot in the night, the hammock was going up and down as the trees swayed and it was swaying from side to side. It also poured down as forecast but I stayed perfectly dry under the tarp despite its minimal size. It was still dark when the alarm went off which makes getting up harder but I managed to drag myself out of the cocoon of down.



It was light by the time I packed up but to be fair it does seem to from dark to light in about 20 minutes at the moment. It wasn't raining (yet) but I had a lot of downhill to start so put the waterproofs back on as an extra layer. Once out of the woods it was actually quite bright and looked like it might turn out to be an ok day.



The clouds dId look a bit ominous so I quickly headed to the safety of the office and a coffee

9/12 for the year, 55 months in a row and 31 nights out this year

* Is cricked a national expression for a stiff/sore neck or is this another Isle of Wight expression?