The epic £30 survival challenge continues with our adventurers rushing to prepare for a cold night in the forest.
Previously we saw what kit and food our lads had managed to procure with their £30. They had begun the construction of their shelters and both had successfully started a fire (though Tom just had to light some newspaper with the matches he brought).
Our physically honed duo is beginning to lack energy as they realise the physical effort of shelter building. The shelters are coming along and the two fires have been joined in the middle into one “super fire”. Forest madness begins to set in as the boys start their own bushcraft circus, hand stands and forward roles.
Jack has become increasingly jealous of Toms “comfortable bed” and so decides to construct one of his own. His years of experience tell him that he need not bother with Toms complicated slatted bed design. Sliding 3, reasonably sized, tree trunks seemed the most sensible and low effort option to Jack. After much grunting and sweating the logs were roughly aligned and Jack deemed the bed “Done”.
Next on the docket for our hungry hobbits was lunch. Our bushcraft chefs had failed to include and extra kitchen utensils in their budgeted kit and so had to resort to improvisation. No worry, improvisation was their middle names! Tom developed a highly efficient, if not finger endangering, technique for chopping a carrot with his axe.
Jack watches the preparation of Tom’s meat and veg meal with envy whilst he begins to “decant” his gelatinous chicken in white sauce. The camp is given its name by a competition held previously on the channel “Camp Quite Adequate”.
A fatality in the camp. Fear not, nether of our budding adventurers were hurt. Jacks mended Axe had finally given up the ghost and fallen apart. Jack was understandably disappointed and it looked like the kit challenge was looking more and more like a win for Tom.
After a quick ad break the duo show off their far improved thermal wall and settle down by their campfire inside their cosy shelter. Jack managed to light his unique portable light device and campfire stories began to flow.
The next morning our lads woke after a cold, restless, very hard night. The homemade beds gave little comfort and Jack admitted off camera that sleeping on the floor would have been preferable to his “tree trunk bed”. A quick tour of the camp was given and the boys celebrated the end of the £30 challenge. Both “survival experts” were sure that the priority for their next trip would be better bed construction.
Until then…