King of the swingers!

Last week saw me sleeping in a hammock for the first time. It's something I've meant to do for quite some time but never got round to it but an email from Taylor gave me the excuse I needed. It transpired that Taylor and family were spending a few days at their mansion over the other side of Mach' and Taylor was planning to ride back to Knighton ... a reverse Trans Cambrian. I wasn't going all the way to Knighton, instead I was going to do a there and back with mid point been where ever we got to on the first day.

So, Friday night saw us dragging a couple of far too heavy bikes through a forest high in the Welsh hills before setting up in a very small clearing. I have to say that my hammock was comfy, warm and water tight with the inclusion of my small tarp. Taylor was more comfy and certainly warmer due to him having a hammock underblanket and had it rained his much larger tarp would have protected half the Welsh sheep population too.

Taylor has kindly given me a kit list of what he was carrying and he's certainly left nothing to chance. Remember though we were expecting night temperatures well below freezing and there were still patches of snow within the forest so the bikes were pretty heavy (as my quad insertion strain will testify).

KIT LIST

• Hammock                                     

• Merino top

• Trousers

• Socks

• Woolly hat

• Down Jacket

• Long sleeve shirt

• Inners

• Outers

• Socks

• Shoes

• Gloves

• Gilet

• Helmet

• Glasses

• Sleeves

• Rain jacket

• Gps

• Underquilt

• Tarp

• Top quilt

• Sleeping bag

• Stove/fuel

• Lahoon

• Dried food x2

• Bars

• Coffee

• Gps

• Spare batteries

• Maps

• Mapcase

• Compass

• Head torch

• Gerber knife

• Brufen

• Brake pads

• Water filter

• Tick twister

• Spot

• Bog roll

• Toothpaste/brush

kit list worked out fairly well although my chilli con carne for

breakfast was sh1te so I'd take a different one and I didn't need the

sleeping bag AND the top quilt so just one of those.