Woodland Family Camping Trip

We recently had a fantastic overnight family camp in Macclesfield woods. We used our trusty Naturehike Opalus tunnel tent which we've converted into a hot tent which means it now takes a portable wood burning stove and keeps us warm and cozy no matter what the season... On this trip we thoroughly enjoyed the beauty and wonder of nature and created lasting memories.

My husband Matt and I . Just finished setting up and ready to enjoy our camp!

Setting up our Trek Tarp as a small kitchen and storage area.

Our Niko aged 12 and still happy to be out in the woods camping with mum and dad.

Happy to have finished setting up the camp kitchen. Dinnertime now!

Steak dinner in progress. Yum yum.

Niko very content with the rump steak that he chose himself, winter veggies and lots of homemade kimchi!

We use Morakniv bushcraft knives. Extremely sharp and very handy... can even use them as steak knives!

Fire scar that we found next to our pitch.

We acknowledge and accept that not everyone interacts with the environment consciously. But for me, the most challenging aspect is that some humans don't know that they don't know!

Instead, they THINK they know. I call this the "Peak of Mount Stupidity" for which there's actually no "cure" as such... except to freefall into the Valley of Despair. This deep dive is usually very uncomfortable and often involves acknowledging, and dealing with, challenging feelings and looking at the beliefs that we hold about ourselves and our world. Beliefs like; we're entitled to the planet, we can do whatever we want and it doesn't matter even if we leave a massive impact.

Only The Valley is sustainable; living with compassion and vigilance as to the environmental impact of humans on this wonderful planet we call home enables us to live harmoniously, spontaneously, but response-ably.

Resonse-ability looks like someone who has peaked at stupidity, plummeted at understanding, and "sloped" at a sustainable awareness.

"My understanding is based on my current level of ignorance" - Itzhak Bentov

My mentor Itzhak (Ben) quoted above calls this slope "Stalking The Wild Pendulum"; it's a state of equanimity where we're calm, non-reactive and able to fully respond to our environment in a holistic manner. We are PRESENT.

Notice the jagged, razor-sharp Peaks of Mount Stupidity in Ben's book cover image to the left; reactivity and unconsciousness causes damage to all natural systems. If we adopt and cultivate "The Middle Path", we live harmoniously and we are in the world but not of it.

So, if we're vigilant in our actions, we're aware of the greater context in which those actions take place. We intuit the Essential Nature and we take The Middle Path; the road less travelled.

Our Thous Winds titanium wood burning stove. Easy to construct and folds down super compact and gives off an incredible amount of heat for it's size... We usually sit and talk and play cards around it in the evenings during camp. Happy Days :-)