This last weekend was a blast. I was fortunate enough to go camping out in the countryside with some cool people and we roughed it for three days. No ablutions, no running water, no electricity - just nature at it's finest, fresh air and great scenery.
It was a wonderful break with good company, interesting conversation, some wildlife encounters and a loo with a view. Camping has become relatively easy with these new easy erect tents and setting up was quick and easy. The mountain formation behind our site sheltered us from the wind and we ate like royalty. Flame cooked hamburgers, lamb stew, bacon and eggs and a million snacks in-between. Camping without snacks is sacrilege!
Just before dusk on the first day I went walkabout to find the perfect toilet spot. It was so silent and just a slight breeze was blowing. I was upwind and after I had found the perfect spot, I decided to take a little walk and just admire the scenery. I didn't have my camera with me at the time (typical) and as I was walking, a massive hare came out of the scrub straight towards me. It was about 15m away when it saw me and scurried off in the opposite direction. What an experience. Whenever I get the opportunity out camping I walk around on my own for this exact reason. If you are alone, upwind and quiet, you're more likely to see wildlife. It made my weekend and is a memory I won't forget anytime soon. You can see the hare droppings in the collage above. And this next photo is the view from my loo. Pretty darn cool right?
On the third day we got out some gear and went shooting. One of our team has a .22, a.303 and a compound bow so we got to do some target shooting. I haven't shot with a .303 for a while so of course I wanted to see if I can still group anything. We shot at cardboard targets against a large sandbank and when I put that rifle up to my shoulder, it all came back and felt so right. I tucked it in, took aim and my first shot was high. The ones after that were pretty good though and the closest I came to centre was 5cm high but centred perfectly on the horizontal axis. We also shot at a few smaller targets and while I missed, I came close (about 3cm left) so I was happy with that. It's a powerful firearm and it's loud. We had gunmuffs so it wasn't that bad, but compared to the .22 fitted with a silencer, it packed a really big punch.
I might put up a video of my shooting at a later stage. It was a great experience with excellent safety briefing beforehand and everyone respected the rules.
I got to spend some time practicing with a compound bow which of course just spurred me on to get my recurve fixed up. Compounds are so different to recurves but I really enjoyed the experience. We all got some pretty good groupings after we got the feel for it, it became easy to hit the target repeatedly. These were some of the highlights of the camping trip but I'll put up some more in the next few days.
