And so back to BatCamp.
Through the rain. I’d spent the morning being jealous of those at camp whilst
I worked. And as the rain came down torrentially I began to wonder if I’d had
the better deal. I got to the farm just as the rain eased off, and made my
way to the camp where I was just in time for lunch. To be honest, no matter
when I arrived I would have been just in time for lunch – I’d been to the
supermarket for the bread. A bottle of Shepherd Neame’s
4-4-2 washed down a bacon, tomato and halloumi baguette nicely, and I slept
as the Rear Admiral washed up. Having been woken by passing dogs, we went for an
afternoon’s fishing. Despite the rain. The rain was rather heavy, but eased
off as the afternoon went on. I caught a few fish, “Daddy’s Little Angel TM ” caught loads. The Bat (patent pending) nearly caught a rabbit
(with a fishing rod), and the Hose
Beast attempted to train ducks to herd fish. |
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Having gone home for more forgotten things I then
went to the fishing shop for maggots. And then I collected Martin and set off
to BatCamp – this time for keeps. We arrived
shortly after mid day, and after a spot of lunch we
went fishing again. (Some things never
change). We bashed a few tiddlers. Or that is everyone else bashed
tiddlers – I didn’t catch quite as many as I might have hoped for. And then
we wandered back to camp to find more visitors. For no adequately explored reason my chair was
upside down in the sunshine, looking rather damp. Such is life… Some of us then set off to Dering Farm where we
attempted to capture one of the ghost carp – the plan is to find out exactly
how long and how heavy they now are. But despite our
best efforts we were unable to entice them. In retrospect it was probably a
combination of their not liking bread (which
they were supposed to) and their not being entirely greedy things (which they were supposed to be). Next
time our plans will allow for this. And so back to camp for a rather nice bit of
Chinese for tea. Sweet and sour chicken, black bean chicken, spring rolls,
rice and noodles. Very nice. And having slept through the washing up I then
had a crafty beer or two. Despite having dug a fire pit, we abandoned our plans
for a camp fire as the firewood had been soaked by intermittent torrential
rain throughout the day. So we sat in our mess tent and exchanged insults.
And after a while we swapped beer for port and stilton. There was a dubious
five minutes with the port. In England we pass the port to the left. Our
continental brethren pass it to the right. And so the bottle bounced between
“Pish Faysh” and
“Alkalott”
perhaps somewhat more than it should have. |
The second bottle of port – a blond port - wasn’t
quite as good as the first. It lacked a certain something. As did “Pish Faysh” by
this time. During a break in the clouds we popped outside and admired the
beautiful night sky. Having boastfully announced that he was in
possession of the requisite arrapatus (sic) (!) “Pish Faysh”
correctly identified various item of astronomical interest including “Dimdromodu” and
the “Pair of Squegasus”.
To bed at 1am – which was probably for the best. |
28
August 2011 (Sunday)
Following a late night, I slept later than I
planned. When at BatCamp I like to go fishing very
early. Before 6am early. I woke up at 8am, but got up to find everyone still
asleep. So I performed by morning ablutions and set off to fish on my own.
Fishing was better for me this morning – I caught more in the first half hour
than I’d caught all day yesterday. And by the time the rest of the angling
contingent arrived, I’d doubled yesterday’s score. I then had something of a revelation with my bite
indicator. I always thought that when ledger fishing I was supposed to wait
until the bite indicator started screaming before I knew I had a fish. But on
watching where my ledger line went into the water I could see that the line
was being gently tugged about by fish. Not being tugged firmly enough to set
off the bite indicator, but definitely being tugged. So I struck and caught
my biggest fish of the year (so far). We fished for an hour or so, and then made our
way back to camp for brekky. A very good brekky. And then Sarah and Steve
joined us. On Friday I’d borrowed the solar scope from the astro club, and so I set it up. We then put the scope away and had a quick round
of poker whist waiting for the rain to pass, and then after a bite of lunch,
those of a piscatorial bent took our visitors angling. |
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Before long we were joined by another visitor. It
would have been good to have had a proper “BatCamp Open Day” – there are so many people that we would like to have invited
along. But it’s easy to overlook the fact that we were camping on a working
farm – and as such it can be a dangerous place. And so the decision has been
taken (years ago) that (other than babies and toddlers) BatCamp is not for under 18s. A tad harsh? Maybe. But I
for one can see the sense in it – in the past my own kiddies were sent to
grandparents over BatCamp weekends. As the Rear Admiral gave the novice fish-hunters
the benefit of his sage wisdom (!),
I carried on with ledger fishing, and caught half a dozen respectably-sized
tiddlers, and one leviathan that got away. (Have you ever noticed how it’s never a small fish that gets away?) We had a wonderful afternoon – but there’s no
denying that we were grateful for my fishing umbrella. On three or four
occasions we were all huddled under it; waiting for the monsoon to pass. |
Back to camp for tea. When we go camping, the
food is always good, and our cooks excelled themselves tonight with pork
chops, potatoes and vegetables. We’ve never had a Sunday roast at camp
before. And then it was time for “Ug!! Make Fire!!” I washed up whilst the fire was got going, and as
night fell we sat around the camp fire, giggling over the Fart App for the
iPhone. We were vaguely speculating on the possibility of nipping back to
Ashford to get a telescope, but as the mist rolled in we decided against that
idea. And having waved goodbye to our guests who sadly had to go home, we set
about some port. Very tasty…. |
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29 August 2011 (Monday)
The Rear Admiral woke me at 6.45am this morning
for a spot of fishing before brekkie. He and “Daddy’s Little Angel TM ” continued their usual tiddler bashing,
but I decided to carry on with ledger fishing. Having found some left over sausages
and pork pie at camp, I used them as bait with amazing results. I caught
eight fish on the ledger: none were huge, but I was pleased. Back to camp for a leisurely brekkie and breaking
of camp. After the horrible weather we’d had this weekend I was grateful to
pack up in bright sunshine. At BatCamp we always
take our time to pack up. At a kite festival we are usually all packed up and
away by 11.30am. Today we were still fiddling about at 1pm. But eventually we
were done, and with the camping gear all safely into storage we made our way
home. On arrival at home after camping there is always
another hour or so’s putting away and tidying up. I had a dodgy five minutes
when my back went into spasms as I put my camping bag back on top of the wardrobe.
But I soldiered on, and took the top box off of my car and put the seats back
into it. I no longer have a pick-up, but a proper car again. All that remains
is to get the bird poo hosed off of it. And so the camping season is officially over. All
that remains is to return Calor Gas bottles and
camp kitchens to their rightful owners, and camping will be over until next
June. |
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You can see an album of
photos from this camp by clicking here
There is another one here