16th April 2003

After stopping off at Val & John's last night I arrived at the wood at 14:45. Roger has done a good job of clearing the track and the camping area to be known as "The Hollies".

The weather today has been superb - in the high 70s. After pitching the tent I headed off into Launceston to find Tescos - which I never did! I did find a large co-op on the Newport Industrial Estate. Having stocked up with plenty of provisions I headed back.

Next priority is to light a fire. I got it started easily by using dry grass and dead twigs. However it took some effort to get enough heat into it to become self-sustaining. Eventually I got it sorted and put a baking potato in to cook. Because there wasn't much heat in the fire I decided on a cooking time of 90 minutes.

Quarter of an hour before the cooking time was up I put some chicken breasts on to pan-fry in butter. Well the potato was a disaster - a ball of charcoal with a bit of potato in the middle. I'll try for an hour next time! The chicken was superb though. Time to put on a pan to boil some washing up water.

Having cleared up I sat down by the fire in my chair with a bottle of beer listening to the birds. Absolute heaven. It is now 20:45 and its the limit of there being enough light to write by. Time to relax, watch the wood go to sleep, and then join it.