How many went camping or on Nature rambles as youngsters?

[FrenchieBoy]

The thread "Bump in the night" has brought back so many memories for me so here's a quick question - How many of you guys used to go camping or on "nature rambles" on your own in the countryside as youngsters?
My childhood was not the happiest of ones (I'm not going to go into detail) so to get away from it all I used to love nothing more than going for long walks in the countryside all day long or in the evenings during the summer months to watch and learn from the wildlife you could see if you were quiet and careful enough.
I use to live in a small village in the Cotswolds called Hawkesbury Upton and then into Hillesley and had a school friend who's parents had a farm with a small camping site at a hamlet called Petty France (About 2 miles from Hawkesbury Upton bordering the Duke of Beaufort's estate). When the weather was good I used to love going to the farm during the week-ends with my little tent and camping out there on week-ends. They used to let me camp wherever I wanted on week-ends and in return I would help cleaning the milking parlour after milking and feeding the poultry and collecting the eggs for which I was often given half a dozen eggs as "payment for my help" (As a child I thought this was wonderful - There seemed to be nothing tasted better than fresh fried eggs on thick bread and butter, not the healthiest of meals but great as a kid and I still enjoy them occasionally nowadays)!
When evening came I would set up my tent on the edge of the woods and then go for a long walk through the woods to see what wildlife I could see and learn from. Then when darkness came I would lie in the doorway opening to my tent with my little Tilley Lamp glowing away in the tent and just listen to and watch whatever wildlife was around. It was quite surprising how close badgers, foxes, rabbits and deer would come to me if I was quiet and still enough!
Those were some of the happiest times of my childhood and I learned so much about the countryside and it's wildlife!
Even as an adult when my wife and I used to go round all the farms throughout the country with out caravan during the fruit and veg picking season we used to love nothing more than going for long walks with my lamp and lurcher to see what wildlife there was about after a hard days work. On a few of the farms I was allowed to set a few snares or take my air rifle (An old BSA Stutzen) and get a few rabbits or pick fresh mushrooms or the occasional puff ball. (The wife never realised that puffballs were not only edible but they were really delicious) The rabbits were never wasted and would make a great stew (Cooked in a glass of cider with plenty of chunky cut root veg) which we both thoroughly enjoyed! (I should add that my wife had very little experience of wildlife and the countryside at the time and she often found it really fascinating to see all of the wildlife just before and after dusk.)
I will never forget the first time we spotted a fox in the distance in the beam of the lamp. All she could see was the pair of eyes looking straight at us so called it up to us by squeaking it in with just my lips and the back of my hand. The fox got to within about 10 yards from us before it realised that I had my lurcher with us and that it was in mortal danger so flight was the best option (Much to my lurchers frustration as I would not let him run it!)
A similar thing happened with a big old badger which was the first one she had seen in real life. It came trundling up to within about 10 feet from us before turning and then pushing it's way through the hedge grunting away.
Those childhood days camping and mooching through the woods were the happiest days on my life but I guess that children of today would not be allowed to do that nowadays because of all the reports about child abduction etc: and of course most youngsters are more interested in their x-boxes, laptops and gaming machines etc to want to go out and get some exercise and fresh air.
So did any of you guys like to spend your time as youngsters in this or a similar way or was i just a weirdo or a bit of an odd ball?
Let's hear your stories and experiences.

 

[VSS]

Yep, spent most of every summer living under canvas in an unkempt corner of my parents' smallholding. Wandered miles in the surrounding countryside either alone or with a few mates. Setting snares, ferreting, or just being out and about exploring new territory.

 

[FrenchieBoy]

Yep, spent most of every summer living under canvas in an unkempt corner of my parents' smallholding. Wandered miles in the surrounding countryside either alone or with a few mates. Setting snares, ferreting, or just being out and about exploring new territory.

One of the best ways any lad could spend their "childhood days"!

 

[Taff]

I used to walk the streams and rivers where we lived whenever I could, during the six week summer holidays most of the kids in the village would camp out up the mountain living on beans and potatoes baked in the fire, black on the outside raw in the middle, but the taste is never forgotten.

 

[Jon P]

I used to disappear for the weekend up into the mountains behind my house, no tent , just a sleeping bag and my first jack Russell terrier, she was a good hot water bottle and good at cleaning my Frying pan off with burnt baked beans before I wanted to use it again, I was probably around 11 yrs old at the time. I was a free range kid from not a happy household. Social services would probably be involved now letting a kid go off like that these days

 

[Len the dog]

I used to go on a week long Scout camp every summer, back in the days when you could carry a sheath knife on your belt, only proviso being that it was sharp. We seemed to spend a great deal of each day collecting firewood followed by a couple of hours each evening setting light to it as fast as it would burn. When my son was in scouts they weren't even allowed to toast their own marshmallows, the leaders had to do it for them. I remember one camp, where I was the accompanying Scout mentoring the Cubs on their camp, there was a big old Elm tree at the bottom of our field that was long dead. I asked if instead of scratching round for wood if we could saw a limb off it. We rigged up a rope seat and were hoisted up to take turns in sawing away at the limb until finally we got it, can you imagine kids being allowed to do that now?
I heard my first fox barking on one of those camps and remember what a blood curdling sound it was to a young kid. I got my camp cook's badge for cooking burgers over a ridiculously over enthusiastic fire for the Cubs, got rave reviews for my food too but I suspect it was the addition of plenty of ash and cinders that gave it that little difference.
Happy days that I would return to in the blink of a now watery eye.

And that's not to mention the many many hours learning from my father about shooting and fishing for trout, and my father's friends taking me under their wing to teach me about keepering and game rearing.

 

[FrenchieBoy]

Some great replies, thanks!
I think the biggest problem we have nowadays is that with all of the new technology we have at hand for our children nowadays combined with "health and safety" of course parents being over protective (Quite rightly in some cases and areas) children just aren't allowed to be children any more in the same way as we were allowed to back in the days when we were children!

 

[Ratel]

Weekends Spring and Summer, 8 years old, no snaring until September. Half a dozen or more girls and boys would go camping down by the river. We could all swim but there were only a few deep holes. Breakfast was generally baked beans and moorhens or woodpigeon eggs. We swam hunted water voles with terriers and cattys, tied pigeon squabs to the nest with string to grow on and eat off sticks, cooked over fire a couple of weeks later. Nobody seemed to worry about funny blokes, sure we were warned, but being not too far from farms and the keepers house, I wouldn't have liked to have been any miscreant who fancied his chance. The girls were as wild as the lads and this happy state continued until the girls reached puberty. We swam naked we climbed trees we fought, wrestled and slept in heaps, both sexes. We knew we were physically different from one another but it didn't matter, we were just mates.
Come September me and my mate Joyce would start snaring and she was a dab hand at it and paunching rabbits, as we got older she could pull their necks as well. We grew. older and airguns appeared so mostly I was off on my own killing things and birds nesting. All of us stayed friends for many years and another pal and I were off following hounds on our bikes, whilst one or two girls had ponies and hunted them. I myself rode point to pointers out hunting, to qualify them to race but that came later.
In our early teens we used to travel about at night, skinny dipping in the lake by the big house until we got caught. We watched foxes and badgers and slept in barns at the local farm, but then some parents got a little worried about their daughters and that put an end to our early teen fun. I wouldn't have swapped those days for a lottery win and still have a couple of pals I meet up with, but sadly the girls have all passed away.

 

[Ade8mm]

"So did any of you guys like to spend your time as youngsters in this or a similar way ..."

Yep I did and still do when I get the chance.

 

[old keeper]

In those post-war years, I spent all available time out in the fields generally with an air rifle. Things were so very different then and providing we behaved (which we did back then) we were free to go pretty well anywhere.
It was a magical time for a young lad, I had ferrets and unlimited land to roam over. I even went to school, except for the days when the locals were spotted out ferreting when I would, without a thought join them.
Happy, happy days. I never had a tent but often slept out in a disused pig ark sometimes accompanied by a chicken I'd tamed!

So much has changed, and precious little for the better. I

 

[I. Farticus]

Growing up, I spent time every Summer and Easter on Dartmoor, collecting letter box stamps with my late Father, his mate and his son. Miles and bl**dy miles, in all weathers, but it was brilliant!

 

[Siggy]

My introduction to shooting was mucking about with air rifles at Scout camp, shooting at rats on the river Windrush...happy days

 

[Woodsmoke]

I used to love noting more than camping beside the river Clyde at Symington, and fishing all through the night in Summer. Fantastic memories

 

[thistledeyke]

Lots of camping, hiking in the souts, as has been said in days when carrying a sheath knife was the norm, asking farmers if you could camp for a night in their field usually resulted in go ahead and do you want some eggs & milk. Oh how times have changed.

 

[User00053]

Not much camping but constantly out and about mostly where we should have not been, woods, fields, streams, the works. Catty round neck with pockets bulging with pre selected ammo for different jobs, in truth nothing much was safe in those times if it stood still long enough and presented a shot. Then the airgun and things took a turn for the worse for some creatures. Then of course straw dens and girls!

 

[Kjf]

Still do ,and like the posts above ,,,,,,,,,

nowts changed since I was a sprog , but now I do it with a bigger gun and better kit etc, and also permission to do so lol , like all us likeminded folk it's a progressive obsession, since childhood lol

Sod being indoors

 

[Mike L]

I grew up feral in cornwall, hardly ever indoors, always had an air rifle on my shoulder.

 

[User00053]

 

[User00053]

Just remembered the joys of the throwing stick weapon of choice for close flushing pheasant, thanks fb. Dammed if I can remember the blond girls name with the fab boobies who could not keep them in

 

[Big Si]

Yep, spent many a summer holiday wandering round the fields of South Wales, used to disappear in the morning and be gone till dark, then spend the odd night out under the stars when mum would let me, great times.