Category Archives: bushcraft

bushcraft, camping, cooking, hiking, the great war, world war 1, World war One, WW1

A quick side step

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Even though I still have a lot of trips to process, I decided to make a little side step first. The reason for this is that I get asked a certain question quite often and that is that people wonder about me traveling these regions in France completely solo.

First of all I don’t always travel solo, I have a very dear traveling companion! But when I do travel solo I take precautions.

First of all, I will always let people know where I’m going, second I carry a PLB (Personal Locater Beacon) and third (and most fun) I’m an outdoors guy a.k.a I like being outside with minimal equipment.

The video below is part 1 of a 2 night Hike & Hang (as we call them) and it will give you a glimpse of the way we travel outdoors…and yes when I’m out and about in the woods of France I do carry a firesteel, sturdy knife, a poncho for shelter and “coffee and tea equipment” (this is an insider joke, where coffee and tea in the woods in France has become a must have for the initiated 😉 )

The video is sadly in dutch and is about a 2 night hike and hang I had here in the netherlands with a very good friend: Johan van Dijk aka Born2Roam.

It shows our shelter but also cooking equipment (part woodstove and part alcohol burner from my side)..so Enjoy and please comment on the video on youtube if you want!

grts
Hans

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bushcraft, camping, hiking, the great war, world war 1, WW1

Just an update

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It’s been a while……, it’s been a long while :), but don’t worry I’m stil here.

The new job of course took a lot of my time and the time between the 2 jobs was interesting to say the least!!!

So whatsup? Well I spent some time around Ypres, was (of course) in The argonne in March, and will be around the Hartmannswillerkopf in September (Thats the plan anyway)

Soooo the next thing I’LL need to do is update the blog with my Ypress trips (yes they were 2) and share with you the plans for this fall.

bushcraft, camping, the great war, world war 1, World war One, WW1

THE BIG RE-SHUFFLE…PART 3

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So There it is the re-shuffle part 3.

When this year started I kinda knew where it was going…but..I was wrong 😉 (You all already read about the timing and duration of walking14-18 being thrown into a shambles)

I came up with some viable alternatives, but it did mean the actual goal of the hike was totally shot (no other way to put it). Yet as they say “a door closes, but a window opens”..and so it was with me.

A little over 3 weeks ago, a company contacted me with a very short email, pointing out they wanted to set up a contact center, and since they found out about my expertise they wanted to “talk to me”. I googl-ed them..wondered why in the world the wanted to run their own CC, and decided to meet them out of curiosity.

What followed was one of the most innervating conversations about CRM (Customer Relations Management) in my life! I faced 2 men, who didn’t know much about CRM (a financial director and an owner) but damn wel knew how crm would help them ..and THAT was the rare bit..to them CRM was an asset not an expenditure. I can honestly say the drive, determination and vision I saw that day I only ever saw twice (3 times if i count my own views).

Skip forward a week and bit..and you face a challenge and an offer.. hike 3 months on a track that will NOT end where it was planned or pick up the gauntlet…so i picked up the gauntlet (Duh did anyone doubt that one! 🙂 )

Okay!! where is this going to you may ask..well nowhere really. May-September, or April to july walking 14-18 is no longer a 3 or 4 months hike (:-( ), but I will hike, bike, plain, train or automobile it!!! *lest we forget*.

The website and Facebook page will keep following my adventures 🙂 so in stead of one adventure It will be several smaller ones 😀

bushcraft, camping, hiking, the great war, Uncategorized, world war 1, WW1

The Big re-shuffle…part 2

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I still need to work out the details, but it looks like I will be jumping part of the route somewhere in the Champagne area. Not because I’ve been there before, but because from what I have heard it is the least interesting and doesn’t have as much facilities.

I’m not sure where I’ll start the jump and where it will end, but at least that part of the plan is there: In order to make it all happen, I will start and end as planned, but will skip a bit somewhere en route. It means I wont be able to claim I walked the whole of the western front, but at least I traversed it (with part public transport)!

Not at all what i wanted, but sometimes you will have to deal with the devil as they call it.

Grts

Hans

PS: Crap! I just realized 2 things 2 key subscriptions run out in April. 1st of all my spot device, 2nd this URL…not to self..tackle it.

bushcraft, camping, hiking, the great war, world war 1, WW1

The big re-shuffle

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A small, not entirely good update I’m afraid.

Right now this trip is starting to look a little shaky, most of it caused by scheduling problems at work.

Is it fully over? No it isn’t, but it’s been cut by a whole month and will need to start a whole month earlier.

The fact it needs to start earlier is a challenge, but shouldn’t be a showstopper, it just means the nights at the start of the trip will be a lot colder (potentially below zero Celsius…but I have been in France with stunning spring temperatures as well in April), so i will need to make some choices there. Also several camping’s in France may not be opened yet at the start (That I could potentially cover with the more costly B&B’s option)

Changing it from 4 to 3 months however is a bigger issue, it basically means it will be difficult to do the route as i had originally planned. Could it not be done in 3 months? Sure it is not impossible in theory, but it means increasing daily distances substantially and it also means I will not really have time to stay in one area for any length of time to enjoy the sites in more detail…so the trip then would be a footrace to cover the distance and no longer be about the journey, but about the destination….Not what i wanted!

The only other option would be shortening the trip: i.e  starting halfway or skipping parts. I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet, basically it changes everything about the trip. Right now skipping the less interesting (or already seen) parts seems to be the best option, since it doesn’t change what the trip was originally all about so much, but it will make planning more complex, since at certain parts of the hike I will have to find some form of (public) transport to skip ahead.

All in all I need time to think and go back to the drawing-board, the original plan is simply no longer an option.

I guess it’s safe to say I’m bitterly dissapointed  and feel just  empty right now after preparing for well over a year, but if it means the difference between changing plans and not going at all, I know what avenue to investigate.

Stay tuned…walking 14-18 isn’t dead yet…just down for a sec.

grts
Hans

bushcraft, hiking, the great war, world war 1, WW1

Getting ready

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Getting ready..such a vague title isnt it? Well you are right, it’s vague and I wasn’t even planning to do an update ..however there is actually news :).

It’s all about crossing T’s and dotting I’s.  The GEAR is all but done, the ROUTE is 80% there, and physically im in good shape, but stuff needs doing!

So in order to focus the preparations I decided to hire a personal trainer, nothing spectacular, but those who kinda know me, now probably go WTF!! I am however well aware that hiking for 4 months is a litle bit different from hiking for a weekend, so even though I’ve come a long way, common sense told me to be smart about it..hence the choice, so I wont fail because i hiked myself into an avoidable injury!

So far so good anyway and tomorrow I wil have my 1st session .. ..aaaaaand iI just got a message from Tim: “take your backpack filled with the waterbottles  you already train with, with you” ..I guess he’s taken his  job serious..and i guess I’ll know all about  it tomorrow :)..no pain no gain Truusjes!!!

bushcraft, camping, hiking

Synchronosity

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So here i am tonight out on what they call a farmers camping.  A weird place really, this one takes care of pensioned horses. Tomorrow is another JJ outing but that’s far from my mind

I’ve met this catlady (Dawn), she takes care of all the small animals here, a lovely old lady..I Guess in a way she’s a trailangel since she’s been offering me warm blankets and a couch to sleep on (which i didnt need 🙂 after seeing my seatosummit DUO that I was using as a shelter and a fresh egg for Tomorrow … Ever so sweet!

So a simple camp out becomes that little bit more…

You go out with next to nothing and by connecting you get so much more!

bushcraft, first aid, hiking, the great war, world war 1, WW1

And now for something completely different…First Aid!

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I was thinking ..it’s time for an update, but there isn’t that much to tell right now…

Until this evening 🙂 a friend of mine and her husband went to Albania last week, and sadly “the man around the house” had an unfortunate encounter with a litle brick wall, earning him a serious scrape on his shin. (it was  a good one..realy it was 🙂 )

Normally scrapes are not considered bad injuries, as outdoors people we always think about cuts from knives, sprains, breaks and bruises from tumbles and other horror scenarios like that…

However, this scrape turned bad, got infected and now caused the need for tetanus shots and antbiotics and lots of TLC, even though I’m 100% sure the first aid he received was better than most of us would get  when we are “out there”.

It was a bit of a wake up call, since I did have my own slip and slide down the entrance of a bunker several weeks ago, which earned me a nice few scrapes (not nearly as bad as “the man around the house” got, but enough to draw blood and therefore cause a risk). I slapped some alcohol gel on it right away (inventing new swearwords instantly..quietly though because there was a lady present!!!) but that is all i did.

So what im getting at is…we look at all kinds of worst case scenarios, but it is the little things that may actually get you. I could easily scrape a shin out in nature and it could totally destroy my trip..so be careful out there people, use your head and when that little voice in your head says “no” listen to it! As a good friend of mine told me a while ago..”fear is a powerfull teacher” …that was after a face first tumble into the mud due to  “not paying attention”

So be safe out there my friends and use your brains.

grts

Hans

 

bushcraft, camping, hiking, the great war, world war 1, WW1

Camp routine

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Last week I spent a whole week in north east France strolling through the WW1 battlefields, as usual it was fantastic and what we had planned to see didn’t come close to what we actually got to see :)…but that’s part of the game, as is managing to slip and trip and fall over, which I seem to do at least once on all my trips there, again with no consequence bar a scratch, a bruise and a dent in my dignity. (one day I will pay attention to that liltle voice in my head when it tells me that slope could be slippery)

But that is not what this entry is about, but its about camp routine

What I mean with camp routine is not just setting up your camp, that I could not practice since our base camp was  a B&B, from which we made our trips everyday for a week deep into the woods in France looking for those forgotten traces of the war. Camp routine is also comming back to your base, taking your shoes and socks off, rincing out clothes and swapping into the “dry gear”.

And that is what I experimented with and even though i had been told what and how to do it, I was thourougly surpised on how well it worked. The weather we had was fine, not extremely hot yet, but when you are clambering up and down steep slopes, through threnches and undergrowth plenty of sweating is done (and again the first two days I learned how much water you actually loose and how not drinking enough will come back at you).

So what was the routine:

  1. Get out of the clothes you wore during the day (duh!)
  2. Rince feet with cold water (ow goodie that feels goodie)
  3. thourougly rince (and soak!) socks, T-shirt and (once every few days) shirt
  4. wring swirl and slap as much water out of your washed clothes as you can and hang it all up
  5. loiter at the bar till dinner was served (or in  a outdoor situation, cook dinner)

So what was the result?
Well very good actually, both my T-shirt and shirt would be dry or as good as dry the next morning, during the whole week I did not use any soap whatsoever, just rincing and soaking for 10 to 15 minutes did the job and the T-shirt and shirt stayed perfectly fresh.

The socks needed more time, they would not be dry the next morning and I wouldnt wear slightly damp socks knowing I would have to do 15 to 20 kilometers that day, so 3 pairs is a must, two is cutting it to fine since my feet are my main asset for 4 months in 2015  (in summer with warm temperatures  the socks probably would dry, but the added weight of one extra pair is not worth the agony ;). also I noticed that just rincing and soaking on socks may not be enough (yes.. sorry ladies us guys do smell our clothes just to check :P). The socks were fresh-ish but not as fresh as the T-shirt. Where I can now safely say i could use the rince/soak routine for months on a t-shirt and it will work, I’m not sure on it sockwise, a litle soap is probably better in that case…which brings me to soap..

Soap: I’ve known this for quite a while now, but a different soap for showering, and one for your hands/washing, and one for your clothes and one for shaving and one for doing the dishes etc. is just BS!..trust me it trully is. A simple block of (unperfumed) soap worth 90 cents is all you need. It wil take care of all your cleaning needs!

Last but certainly not least: washing oneself, we (western humantiy) trully  seem to have gotten realy lazy on that part, I had the luxury of a shower in in my room for sure,  but ffs whats wrong with a cloth/your hands, some soap (yes that same cheap block) and some care, 5 minutes later you are all fresh, presentable and not offending anyone!

A couple of notes:

  • My clothes are hi-tech outdoor materials, cotton or wool would certainly take longer to dry
  • If you run into a week long downpoor it’s going to be a challenge no matter what

Did I learn anything?
Of course I did! Mainly what I thought would work, actually did (isn’t that nice 🙂 ? ) and I may be switching my routine to wearing one,  drying one, to: one wearing while hiking and one wearing in camp ( more of a jungle setup). Both systems are very close, but are different in principle.

And that’s it for this entry, this time not a lesson from failure, but from success, which is always great:)

Regards

Hans

PS: Yes I will blog pictures from my latest trip, but that is for a later blog!

 

bushcraft, cooking, hiking, the great war, world war 1, WW1

Food for Thought

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So far, since I decided to actually do this walk,  a lot of work has been done, fun work as I would call it

  • Trying gear, swapping gear, re-trying gear, testing gear ideas ..and failing.. rince repeat
  • Taking every opportunity to walk with my backpack(s)..even if this means an hour around the block at 10 PM at night
  • Making decissions on what to take with me and what not (that probably wont be done till the day I actually leave for the Belgian coast 😉
  • Looking at food stuff, deciding what meals can be created from stuff your average supermarket could have, that won’t spoil easily (I can’t take hiking food for 4 months with me, and since an average christmascard can take up to 3 months to arrive at my friends in Normandy I’m not going to trust poste restante)

But there is of course a lot of non-fun stuff that will have to be dealt with: Insurances (standard travel insurance doesn’t cover a 4 month trip abroad), what route to take in detail (though I have GPS tracks), making sure bills keep being paid, financing the trip, where to stay in the evenings…

It’s one thing planning a one or two week trip, things seem to get a litle more complex when you start thinking about “months” …

Even though I’ve now been preparing for this for quite a few months, I still have moments at night where I lie awake, wondering what the hell I’ve gotten myself into, and the next day? I feel like I’m 100 meters tall..floating on air, ready to conquer the world, ready to just say sod it!, grab my kit and just go.. It’s a true rollercoaster sometimes, and no doubt it will be till the end :), luckily lately it’s more ups than downs.

The funny thing is, I’m not doing this with somekind of to-do list or planning software, I do have an extensive gearlist which helps to focus my thoughts (Thanks Johan!), but that’s about it. The rest of it is all buzzing inside my head like some giant 3-D puzzle, chaotic at times, extremely focussed the next time.

And when I’m working on that puzzle, there is always that little voice in the back of my head telling me its allright, it will all come together. It makes me think of an article I read not to long ago on the bbc.com website, about Jamie McDonald, who actually ran across Canada (so what am I worried about??)  and about an interview he gave:

Q: “I was asked how I’d prepare for the more than 5,000 miles that lay ahead of me”
A: “I answered truthfully and said that I wouldn’t – no amount of training or planning could have prepared me for this journey”

I guess that is the next hill I need to climb..letting go of trying to prepare for every little detail that I can think of and enjoy the journey, because in the end that is what it is all about … who knows maybe I’m further up that hill than I realise I am.

grts

Hans

PS: Since a few days there is also a Facebook page up about the 14-18 walk, but you will find various other WW1 related articles there , as well. You can find it at : https://www.facebook.com/WW1Walk