As I had the day off because of the American Football, I made bread and went for a walk, took some photos in what may be the last of the summer sunshine and made some coffee. I grabbed my Finnish haversack and some lightweight gear and headed out before the rain came. (Some of this blog was written whilst I was walking and some when I got home.)
Coffee
I found a log down by the river to sit on to make some coffee.
I have a small twig stove from Bushcraft Essentials, in my cook set but I use gel fuel in it, and use a Burt’s Bees tin as a burner. I carry the fuel in a re-purposed hand sanitise bottle. It makes a truly lightweight brew stove when out walking – when the tin/burner is brim of fuel it can heat about 250ml of water hot enough for coffee, noodles or soup.
Rather than use the ground coffee and tea strainer from the cook set I chose to use a coffee bag – this brand from Taylors makes a good strong brew in the amount of water I had.
Weir and lock
Well there was a lock, weir and associated machinery here in the past.
I used the Camera+2 app for the long shutter speed motion effect.
More Walking
Gear in the Haversack
For lightweight trips the Finnish Haversack can hold enough gear and I use it rather than one of my small rucksacks in the summer when I do not extra clothes and gear.
Contents today:
- Backpacking cook set
- Breakfast biscuit snacks and coffee
- British Army bush hat
- Lightweight poncho (camouflage as it was the lightest one I could get on Amazon during the lockdown)
- Lightweight picnic ground cloth
- 500ml steel water bottle – with an MSR 350ml titanium mug pushed on the bottom
- 1l dry bag for electronics, Anker power pack, charge cable, Victorinox Swiss Card etc
- Paracord (about 5m)
- Small belt pouch – simple first aid kit, mini Petzl head torch, tea and coffee supplies, vegetable Oxo cube, salt packets, soup and chilli packs from instant noodles, Silva compass with thermometer, string, hotel sewing kit with some extra strong thread added to it, safety pins, Traditional Case mini Trapper knife, sharpening stone, duck tape patch, army style tin opener, refillable lighter, lifeboat whistle and lanyard for my Victorinox Camper knife, eye drops bottle re-purposed for hand sanitiser.
The little pouch is well packed for a trip like this but when I am on longer trips or away the lanyard and whistle are in use so making the rest of the items more accessible.
All images made with my iPhone 12 Pro Max which I carry in a belt case for lightweight trips like this.