Building shelters, jumping walls, scrapes, falls, tears, and avoiding streams...

No, not the life of a child in the countryside, but mine this weekend. Who says you have to be grown up to be an adult?

It had been nearly ten years since I’d last hung out with Adam, but a mutual desire for adventure, regaining contact via Facebook, and more importantly, both finding ourselves in the UK at the same time, for the first time in who knows how long, we decided to head off on a weekend microadventure (alastairhumphreys.com/microadventures).

We decided upon Arundel as a starting point. That was the extent of our plan. There was a river, and there were forests. We were both sure we’d be able to find an adventure there.

And so, upon disembarking the train, we walked toward the late first Earl of Arundel’s 1067 home; Arundel Castle. The area is steeped in history, with traces of settlement dating back as far as the Roman period. And today, it was going to gain a new settlement. 

The area is steeped in history

We took many turns at random, and from then on we identified an area we wanted to head to, and we intended to make our way there, as the crow flies.

There were a few streams in the way (only one near fall, resulting in a slightly soggy foot), one river (very fast flowing)one herd of cows (thankfully a lot better behaved than previous encounters with the bovine variety), numerous electric fences (only one shock), and one VERY high flint wall. Well, perfectly scalable from the one side, but quite a drop into sting nettles the other side. But the stings fast dissipated, and we made our way through dense brush to the woodland.

SURPRISE! A deer jumps out in front of us! For both of us, our first wild British deer!

And then BOOM! Pheasants flying at us from various angles! Another first! 

We decided on our spot, in amongst this natural wonderland, and went about making a shelter; The decaying wood, and autumnal leaves both lending themselves fantastically to an open shelter. Two to three hours, and four tired arms later, we had ourselves a shelter. And just in time – as the heavens opened! We quickly set about covering logs under the roof of our shelter in order to make a fire. And shortly later, there we were, in an ancient forest, doing what people through the ages have been doing through the centuries; Living the simple life! Seeking shelter, building fire, and enjoying the art of conversation. Real life conversation. The simple life rocks!

The Simple life

The following morning, we dried our dewy boots and bags by the yet again roaring fire, before waking the 20 minutes back to modern life, through brush, tall flint walls, and farm fences.

After a refreshing breakfast we were back on the train home, feeling tired yet alive, and ready to plan our next adventures.

Smoke and sunlight in the forest canopy

Country Pub!

Breakfast