How my best mate, Harry, and I went to a forest to build the best Den we've EVER created.
Ok, so it wasn't a patch on this guy...
But it was still pretty impressive for us.
No, leaning a big stick against a tree for us or piling some cushions in the sitting room (which is pretty much the extent of our den building skills). Our shelter was custom built and fully self-supported.
First we decided on our build site. A clear spot on the East side of the woods to avoid the cold westerly winds that were scheduled to blow in later that evening. It also meant that we had the potential of a wonderful sunrise if the weather held out.
Contruction began when we cleared the ground with a shovel, ensuring and pesky baby stingy nettles were removed from out camp area. Then we buried four solid, forked uprights and then balanced long beams between them. Next we spent over 2 hours cutting shorter lengths to lean against the cross beams. Crikey, it was tedious. Then I randomly found a well developed bamboo plant deeper in the forest so we cut short lengths to ask as bases for our beds (to raise us further off of the wet and cold dirt floor) and used the leaves as a cover for the outside of the shelter.
By the end it looked like we'd built a shelter in the middle of the Mekong Delta rather than a woodland in rural Dorset.
The leaves, which I thought were purely decorative as they would have offered no rain cover whatsoever, actually did a really good job of reflecting the heat from our small campfire back at us. Snuggled into our cramped sleeping area we started cooking dinner.
We'd both be christening our Christmas presents. Harry had received a Cobb BBQ from his dad and I'd be given a Dutch Oven by my highly generous brother.
We had half a chicken each and a handful of vegetables and we chucked them into our various cooking contraptions. I dribbled a little water into the cast iron pot that I'd collected from a nearby water trough and hung the 'oven' over the fire from a tripod. Harry balanced all of his ingredients inside the silver dome of his barbie and put it to one side to do its magic.
An hour and a half later, and having only knocked the Dutch oven in the fire once, I opened the lid of the pot to find a wonderfully succulent chicken surrounded by blackened and burnt potatoes and leeks. We'd forgotten cutlery so used short lengths of bamboo as chopsticks to tuck into the meat and crispy tatties.
Another 2 hours later and Harry's chicken was done, by which time we weren't hungry any more. To say that his half of the chicken was SLOW-roasted is like saying that snail racing is a patient man's sport.
Dutch Oven - 1
Cobb BBQ - 0
Anyway, we were well fed and tucked into our respective bivvies for what, we agreed in the morning, was one of the most comfortable nights wild camping ever. Even though the temperature dropped to -2 outside our camp and the field beyond the hedge was covered in frost by morning, inside our little shelter we enjoyed the reflective warmth of a fire that just needed a little poke and re-stoke every couple of hours or so.
We felt like children making a den in the forest but by morning we were refreshed and happy adults ready to return to adult life. In fact, I wish that I'd done more of this sort of den building and wild camping when I was a kid.
What's the biggest and best den you've ever built. I'd love to find out in the comments below. If you have photos even better.