Be The Jam

Not over, complicated, very very complicated

Should have time to write a short update tomorrow.

Thought for the day - simply adding a Pro-Plus tablet will make a cup of decafinated coffee quite drinkable.

Decisions can be difficult to make, I have been trying to make some pretty serious decisions about the expedition / career / future etc, all these things are interlinked.

I have managed to decided that walking in the rain gets a bit tiresome after 3 hours.

I mentioned a while back that I was going to stop and take stock of the situation as of June 20th to assess the feasibility of the expedition. I have been analysing my strengths and weaknesses and picking holes in the idea as it is currently structured. I have more analysis to do so will refrain from publishing any conclusions just yet, however I think it is safe to say that there will be some major changes.

For some reason I don't seem to be able to write today, hence the following is a bit turgid. I'll try again once I have had more tea. 

Stock cubes are not only nutritious and delicious but they are also very small and light so they are handy things to have. There has been many an occasion when a quick cup of hot stock has brought me back to the land of the living, and a stock cube added to lentils makes a quick and easy meal, I guess this is fairly common knowledge. I guess what is less well known is that loose stock cubes in the top pocket of a rucksack end up  disintegrating and covering everything in a layer of stock. I didn't know this. In fact I didn't have a clue this had happened until this morning when, feeling very bleary, I brushed my teeth, OXO flavoured Colgate is not necessarily the best way to start the day.

I have been in the Peak District again, supposedly I have been working on my fitness by running up and down hills with my rucksack on, mostly though I have been sitting around not doing very much. This getting fit again is going to take a while I can tell.

Once again I found myself hitch hiking back from the Peak District yesterday, it was the perfect day for it, the sky was blue, my face went red. It took three and a quarter hours to actually get to the motorway but once there the second car to pass stopped and moments later I was heading south at a steady hundred in an diesel Audi Quattro with a retired used car dealer called Mike. Mike shared his not inconsiderable wisdom on such matters as, avoiding speeding tickets, women, marriage, the police, global warming, motor-bikes, the need to retire as soon as possible and that the only way to make it in the world is by taking risks. Mike was also very funny, best yet he was going past Oxford on his way home. I missed the turning I needed to get out and had to continue on past Oxford to the next junction, Mike disappeared in a cloud of black smoke crossed the road and got picked up by the first car coming the other way! This time it was two starry eyed girls on their way back from the Isle of White Festival, before I knew it I was back in Oxford. An hour and forty five minutes since I had got to the motorway, five hours since I had left Ashbourne, it might not be the most reliable way of travelling but I had caught the sun and met a load of interesting people.

Some of my outdoors / bushcraft skills are developing nicely; I can now sharpen a knife to be almost razor sharp and I can stop bleeding and apply steri - strips using just the hand that isn't injured in next to no time.

I'm currently working on my fitness in the Peak District, plenty of undulating terrain to play in, so I'm not getting much time to work on the website but I have come up with an idea that should build on it's strengths and start generating an income.

A combination of being very busy and not having done anything worth writing about means that there is no blog today. However, I think this might appeal to you. To Build A Fire

I think I have gone soft. Over the weekend I build a wall for the shelter, fixed the roof, made a chair, a table two clothes pegs, washed up, washed some clothes made a bow and arrow, sharpened my knives and cooked a lot of food. At one point, dare I admit this? At one point I even swept the floor free from debris so that there was a nice tidy, albeit mud, floor, I realised at this point that sweeping the floor of a forest is a step too far and replaced the twigs, leaves and the like made a cup of tea and relaxed some more on the chair.

It all started with the wall which was woven from coppiced hazel rods, you might have seen hurdles, fences and the like made like this. If you have you will have in your mind a picture that bears little resemblance to the wall that I made. It appears that there is a knack to it. The good thing is that the wall is roughly the same size as my bed so it could be used as such as it is moveable. I gave it a go but found it to be much more lumpy than the ground even so opted to keep the thing as a wall. The chair, fell apart after a day but it was nice whilst it lasted, I felt very superior sat up rather than on the ground. The table started off life as a chair but having had the first one disintegrate under me I now use it to put things on only. Neither the bow nor the arrow operated as one would expect of such thing favouring instead to respectively; twang inconsequently and, fly sideways. Both are now part of the table.

Date 1st June

Stage Planning Expedition

Location Oxford

Weather Good

Health Good, although right knee is a bit "wobbly"

Fitness Poor.

Advertising revenue Yesterday - £0.00

• Total  £8.96

Readership 5618 people visited Be The Jam in May

Today's "genius" idea Carry on regardless.

This weekend I'm going to be working on my bushcraft skills, specifically I'll be making some furniture and possibly even building a wall for my shelter. I have decided that I may as well make my life as comfortable as possible

I have just realised that, save for the trip to Italy, I have been living in the woods for precisely two years now. Hmmm. I'm not sure what to make of that, the first 12 months I was raising money for the Woodland Trust and the last 12 months I have been working on this rather daft idea to go and live in the jungle. Whilst it now appears that I  am not going to be able to get to South America until October and it is conceivable that the whole plan might still fall apart I reckon it's time to start collecting money for Rainforest Concern. To that end I have set up an online sponsorship site.  http://www.justgiving.com/MissionImprobable