The summer solstice was approaching, #30DaysWild was in full swing, the Summer Microadventure Challenge had been issued and the weather forecast was absolutely miserable. It was time to extract our bivi bags from the dark recesses of the cupboard and find a hill to sleep on.
Good things come to those who persevere!
It had been a while since we last slept wild (on the verandah of a beach box on the winter solstice) and to be honest, I was feeling a bit uninspired. It’s the kind of apathy I get about walking when I haven’t been out for a long hike for a while: it’s not that I don’t want to do it, I just find it hard to muster the motivation to actually start. My mood wasn’t helped by the weather. On the way to work, we drove past the bit of South Downs where we planned to sleep. The hills were engulfed in drizzly clouds. I thought of saturated grass, chalky mud and clammy, insect-infested air and I shuddered.
Ooh, I love a good cumulus cloud!
Low clouds sweeping over the hills gave the landscape a somewhat ghostly atmosphere.
As the work day progressed, though, my anticipation built. I was invigilating exams and there’s nothing like being cooped up in a small room with nothing to do for hours on end to reignite your desire to spend some time outside. The forecast was looking up, too: the rain was due to stop at 11pm, then 9pm, then 6pm. Perhaps we’d be dry after all!
Now for something completely different: clouds! This time, reflected in a puddle.
A hint of sun - enough to keep our hopes up.
But in the afternoon, the weather whipped itself into a right state. I left work in the midst of a massive thunderstorm, complete with torrential rain and flashes of lighting. My colleagues wished me well and hoped they’d see me alive on Monday. In the car, Dan and I looked at each other and made the kind of deal that civilised people make. We’d do some last minute shopping for snacks, get ourselves a nice big dinner of pizza and then head up to the hills. We’d take our packs and go for a walk. If we got out to the spot we were hoping to sleep and it was still bucketing down, we’d go home. If not, we’d stick around for the night.
I know 3G doesn't come from these masts, but I still feel like their presence should mean we have good internet reception on the phone. (It didn't.)
The path over the South Downs. Note the skylark in the foreground!
It was still raining when we finished shopping at 7pm. It was still raining when we finished our pizza at 8pm. It was still raining, just, when we drove into the car park. But as we wandered along the hilltops, the weather cleared. A few chinks appeared in the grey, revealing blue sky above. In the west, crepuscular rays pierced through the clouds, panning across distant ridges and valleys.
The first hint of what was to come - and we thought this was pretty speccy.
By now, you might have gathered that I like clouds. Quite a lot.
We took our time along the path, detouring through raindrop-jewelled grass to recce potential campsites. What combination of view were we after? Sheep, cows, crops, sea, downs, levels, harbour, river valley, town, sunset, sunrise? There were plenty of options, but we struck most of them off our list when closer investigation revealed copious thistle cover. Ouch.
Thistle do nicely . . . or not. Unfortunately, not all thistles are this easily spotted!
Raindrops gleaming in the sunset, like fiery little jewels in the grass.
The shifting clouds, delicate mists and evening light created gorgeous, ephemeral scenes. I could barely tear my eyes from the unfolding drama on the hills across the way. Every time I looked around, the landscape seemed to surpass itself in beauty.
The line of clouds on the last ridge burnt a fierce gold in the sunset.
(Imagine me gesticulating wordlessly, or saying, "Wow!" over and over.)
Finally, as we reached our destination, the sun broke through, setting fire to the mist, flooding the downs and valleys with gold. I decided then and there that even if I had a terrible night, even if I was cold, damp and cramped by the end of it, the microadventure would have been worth it, just for this view. It had definitely rekindled my taste for wild camping.
#NoFilter
Still #NoFilter. Seriously, look at this! Do you see the windmill?
Eventually, as it always does at this latitude, the sun sank below the horizon. We retraced our steps a short way and plonked our things down beside the path. A couple of blokes in camo gear trooped past and we exchanged some effusive words about the evening (“Good night for it” / “It turned out pretty nice after all”), then we started to set up. There was only one problem: it had been so long since I’d used the tarp that I’d forgotten all my knots. Luckily, Dan was on hand with the sensible suggestion that I refer to the intertubes. I stomped off with the phone to find a spot with 3G and a little while later returned victorious with a fresh understanding of the tautline hitch. In just a few minutes more, we were brushing our teeth and snuggling down into our bags.
Looking the other direction, out to sea.
A wild-camper's-eye-view. Good night.
It was a surprisingly comfortable site. We’d put the picnic rug down to keep the worst of the wet at bay, and the long grass provided quite a nice mattress. My annoying pillow that always deflates deflated, so I used a stuff-bag full of clothes for my pillow instead. (I’d ordered a new pillow online, but we hadn’t been able to pick it up during the week.) Below us, the town lights twinkled and the highway hummed. Above us, a few late night flights headed out from Gatwick and over the Channel. I fell asleep. At one point I woke up thinking someone was shining a light onto the tarp, but it was just the nearly-full moon, sailing clear of the clouds. A clean breeze rippled through the long grass. In the distance I heard a cow calling her calf.
Look! There's our tarp, right next to the path.
Uninspiring porridge to finish off the adventure. At least it was hot!
The next thing I knew, it was light, and the air was full of skylark song. There must be hundreds of skylarks up on the South Downs at the moment - or half a dozen very noisy ones that follow us every time we go for a walk. I tried to go back to sleep (it was just after 4 o’clock), but the birds and other aspects of nature were calling. We packed, then Dan wandered off to look at the view. He reported that the tarp was very well camouflaged in the grass. A couple of keen mountain bikers sped past just after 5am, grinning hello. Soon we were walking back to the carpark, where we cooked breakfast under the watchful eyes of rooks and jackdaws.
(Later that morning, Dan collected my new Exped Air Pillow XL from the post office. I tried it out on the living room floor and declared it to be good. I’ll test it properly next weekend in an unusual venue . . . stay tuned!)
Year of Sleeping Variously: Tarp on a hill edition
- Bed (3/5) - Surprisingly comfortable and surprisingly dry, all things considered. At least one point needs to be docked for my annoying pillow.
- Room (3/5) - Our lightweight tarp pitched using hiking poles. I'm always surprised by how much floor space we get, even if headroom is a bit minimal.
- View (5/5) - The sunset was so beautiful, I think it's in the top 10 views of my life so far!
- Facilities (1/5) - There was a small tree? And back at the carpark there was a bench (no table).
- Location (5/5) - Perfect spot, and handily between work and home, so we can easily stop off again on a Friday night . . .
- People (4/5) - Docking one mark here for my own grumpiness when I couldn't remember the knots to pitch the tarp!
- Food (1/5) - The choc-chip biscuits from Waitrose were pretty tasty, but the tea and porridge were not very inspiring.
- Value (5/5) - Free! And good! Well done, South Downs, would stay again.
- Uniqueness (5/5) - Wild camping is pretty much the only way you can enjoy this view overnight, so yeah, it's unique.
- That indefinable something (5/5) - The sunset has to count for at least two or three points, and then there was the skylark song, the clean smell of grass all around, the moonlight . . .
Tarp on a hill verdict: 74% (but a really, really excellent 74%!)
If you’re interested to see what others have been getting up to outdoors this month, check out the #30DaysWild and #MicroadventureChallenge tags on social media.
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