{"id":3271,"date":"2015-02-27T14:41:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T14:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2015-04-05T01:37:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T01:37:32","slug":"a-february-wild-camp-microadventure-at-wicken-fen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2015\/02\/a-february-wild-camp-microadventure-at-wicken-fen\/","title":{"rendered":"A February microadventure at Wicken Fen Wild Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a series of 12 wild camp microadventures<\/a>\u00a0I’ll be posting this year\u00a0as my\u00a0contribution to\u00a0Alastair Humphreys’ ‘Year of Microadventure’ challenge.<\/p>\n

Wicken Fen wild camping<\/h2>\n

Owned and managed by the\u00a0Natural Trust (NT),\u00a0Wicken Fen<\/a> is a wetland nature reserve situated near the village of Wicken in the Cambridgeshire fens.<\/p>\n

\"wicken
Wicken Fen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

A few years ago, the NT set aside a parcel of fenland for us\u00a0as a wild camping site<\/a>\u00a0by local scout groups and other visitors.<\/p>\n

The site is made up of four open-fronted log shelters set in a semi-circle around a fire pit. \u00a0The site is very basic (no running water or electricity) and really quite wonderful.<\/p>\n

You can book the entire site just for yourself, so it’s perfect for a group of friends and especially good for kids.\u00a0I’ve taken my son and his pals on a number of summer over-nighters\u00a0and they’ve had a great time (as did the adults).<\/p>\n

So…I decided to book a night for myself…<\/p>\n

The night of the camp<\/h2>\n

My wife, Jo, kindly agreed to drive me to a parking spot not too far from the site. From there I put\u00a0my gear into a wheelbarrow (kindly loaned by the NT) and pushed it across a field, through a gate and into the campsite.<\/p>\n

I threw everything into one of the huts and made a cup of tea to warm ourselves up as darkness began to fall. \u00a0After a brew\u00a0and a slice of cake,\u00a0Jo left and I was on my lonesome.<\/p>\n

\"Night
Night light<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sorted out bedding and started to cook-up my supper; meatballs in a tomato sauce with some chorizo\u00a0tossed in, all mopped up with a chunk of bread, a feast fit for a hero!<\/p>\n

\"Supper
Supper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Supper was followed by cake and a few sips of Jack Daniels. \u00a0For a while I turned off the lantern and sat there listening\u00a0to the sound of the rain falling onto the fen, it was perfect.<\/p>\n

With the time approaching 10:00 I decided to call it a day and climbed into my sleeping bag. I read a short story by Jack London (To Build a Fire<\/a>) until I could no longer keep my eyes open.<\/p>\n

In the morning<\/h2>\n

I woke up a few times during the night but always managed to fall back to sleep. \u00a0I actually slept for 8 hours, which is a new outdoors record for me.<\/p>\n

\"My
My hut at Wicken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a photo of my set-up inside the hut:<\/p>\n

\"Bed
Bed in the hut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The weather had cleared up over night so I started a fire while waiting for Jo to arrrive with the coffee maker and a bag of croissants (‘wild glamping’ perhaps?).<\/p>\n

\"the
Fire pit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soon the coffee was brewing…<\/p>\n

\"Coffee!\"
Coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and we sat by the fire drinking good strong coffee.<\/p>\n

\"Me
Coffee!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The coffee was so good we had another and didn’t leave the campsite until nearly midday.<\/p>\n

And thus ended my first mircoadventure of the year and what a wonderful one it was. \u00a0I’m pleased I managed to sleep for such a long time, this has been a problem for me when sleeping out, one I’m very keen to resolve.<\/p>\n

I really can’t recommend Wicken Fen wild camping highly enough!<\/p>\n

Info on Wicken Fen wild camping<\/h2>\n

Here are some details from their website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Where<\/strong>: On the wider Wicken Fen Nature Reserve. Accessible\u00a0on foot or by\u00a0bike\u00a0from Anglesey Abbey (2 miles) or Wicken Fen (6 miles). There is a drop-off point where you can leave your gear before\u00a0parking your car at Wicken or Anglesey for the\u00a0night.<\/p>\n

2015 Cost<\/strong>: \u00a335 Fri-Sat and weekdays in summer holidays. \u00a330 Sun-Thurs term time. Per group, for the whole site\u00a0per night.<\/p>\n

How to book:<\/strong> To book, or for more information, contact wickenwildcamping@nationaltrust.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a series of 12 wild camp microadventures\u00a0I’ll be posting this year\u00a0as my\u00a0contribution to\u00a0Alastair Humphreys’ ‘Year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124,11],"tags":[123,40],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3406,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions\/3406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}