Campsite review: Nearly Wild Camping - Woodland Edge
Campsite review: Nearly Wild Camping - Woodland Edge
This June I enjoyed my second trip to a Nearly Wild Camping site, near Sparkford in Somerset (for a brief introduction to Nearly Wild Camping please see my previous post here!). Although I have had my NWC membership since last September, I have so far only managed to use it once, despite seeing lots of wonderful sites on there, it's sometimes difficult to find the time to fit it all in with various other events, trips, and general life! Anyway, myself and two friends were planning a trip, but as one of us lives down in Cornwall, we were trying to find somewhere relatively equidistant, and so, we decided to look in the West Country. For reasons that I have already stated in previous posts, England's West Country has so much to offer campers, and we found an array of sites that looked suitable for our trip, but one stood out above the rest - Woodland Edge.
If the name alone wasn't enough, then the pictures of the bushcraft style shelters, firepits, and deciduous woodland definitely sold me on this site. Described as a peaceful glade, I thought it would be an excellent location for a weekend in a hammock, with a side of walking, BBQ, and a few beers with the boys. I was right.
The entrance to the woodland is via a farm gate on a winding country road, which I missed - twice. After some turning around in laybys, checking google maps, and driving very slowly down said country lane, we found it. I urged my mate in the passenger seat to get out and try the code that we'd been given on the combination padlock chained between the gate and fence post - we were in! I drove into the tight space slowly, moving far enough forward that the gate could be closed, whilst still being able to get through the second gate ahead. Once through the second gate, we were facing a bumpy grassy track, which ran a short distance into the wooded area. There couldn't have been room for more than three cars here, or maybe four at a push (with some careful parking involved), but as we had been told by the host that we would have exclusive access to the site that weekend, we knew that as long as we could get our two cars on there, we'd be fine.
I parked up, and we got out to have a look around before carrying our gear over to the pitch, and we confirmed my previous suspicion - the site was amazing! There was a main pitch (we dubbed it A-camp), which we had seen in the photos online, that had a large, tarp covered A frame shelter, fire pit, cooking tripod, and lots of big logs to use as seats. Then there were several other, smaller pitches scattered throughout the woodland, each with a fire pit and log seats, and the far end of the woodland housed two composting toilets - everything we needed!
After our brief walk around, we went back to the car, and started running our gear down to the main pitch, which we would call home for the next two nights. I setup my hammock between two accommodating trees, and complete the setup with my tarp and magic carpet. Other than unfolding my chair, and bringing the cool box over, there was little else in way of setting up to be done - nice and easy!
Finally after a short bit of guidance on the phone, the last member of our party arrived. Let the weekend begin!
In preparation for the first nights BBQ, I had followed an authentic recipe given to me by a work mate for a jerk chicken wet rub, which I had applied to a copious amount of drumsticks, ready to go on my baby kettle. In addition to this we also had corn on the cob, and some jalapeno and cheese sausages on tortilla wraps - delicious! We feasted and drank, catching up with one another around the fire until the night came and the light left us. Eventually we all dragged ourselves to bed, and as always my hammock provided welcome comfort.
The following morning we awoke one by one - with some in better states than others, I might add - and began the day with the usual morning chit chat, hot cups of freshly brewed coffee, and some sausage, bacon, and black pudding baps to get us going. I cooked breakfast on my cast iron griddle plate over charcoal briquettes in the fire pit, and it worked a treat! Being able to cook over a real wood fire with equipment like this is part of the reason that I first looked into nearly wild camp sites, as the cast iron gear is too heavy and bulky to carry on wild camping trips, but sometimes campsites just don't feel wild enough! I love the mixture of easy accessibility and remoteness that you get on these sites. After breakfast we decided to go on our roughly planned walk, up the nearby Cadbury hill fort.
The parking that I'd found for the walk was only a short drive away, and when we'd parked up, we shouldered our packs, and headed out, crossing the road, and then following a mud and gravel farm track, mostly in the shade of the trees and hedges either side, up to the fort. The farm track didn't last too long, but it was mildly steep, and in the warm summer heat, felt harder than it should've (I imagine a night of beering didn't help in truth!), but it wasn't long until it turned into a narrow path on lush grassy fields, fully exposed to the suns rays now that the trees and hedges had been left behind.
Cadbury hill fort, or sometimes called Cadbury castle, is a bronze age and iron age hill fort, that has association to Arthurian legend and Camelot, as do many ancient spots in the UK. Whether or not this place was ever blessed with the semi-mythical King of the Britons, we will likely never know, but none the less, it is truly beautiful and gives fantastic views of the surrounding countryside and rolling hills - worthy of any great monarch.
We walked past the cairn and around to Queen Anne's well, which was also being visited by the herd of cattle grazing the land. We stopped atop one of the grassy 'walls' surrounding most of the hill, and sat down for some drinks that we had brought with us and enjoyed the stunning views, and warm sun.
What then were we to do after finishing our brief and satisfying conquest of Cadbury castle? A warm summers day, around lunch time, in some of England's finest countryside - the answer of course, was find a decent pub lunch! We found an accommodating venue for this at the nearby Sparkford Inn, and we enjoyed lunch in their beer garden, accompanied by one or two ice cold beers - on this day, life was good.
After a delicious lunch, and a brief stop at the shop for essential supplies (no prizes for guessing what these might have been) we headed back to the campsite, to rest in the sunlight dappled woodland, comfortable in our camping chairs, listening to music for the rest of the afternoon. This only ceased when the day grew later, and we realised that it would be pertinent to think about making our dinner (more delicious barbeque) and adding some extra layers of clothing to see in the cooler evening. Another wholesome night around a campfire was had by all, and we could even hear the not-so-faint thudding of the music at Glastonbury festival into the early hours of the morning - the novelty of which, soon wore off!
We all had a great weekend at Woodland Edge, a site which provided a perfect balance of ease and accessibility with a wilder feeling in a beautiful woodland. If this is something you're interested in, I couldn't recommend it enough! I've dropped the link below for anyone who'd like further information. Thank you for reading, please leave comments below if you have any feedback!
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