Tracking

I've recently been out in the woods for a weekend, camping and cooking on an open fire.  When I went down there, I was wrapped up in myself and thinking only of me, my problems, what I was doing with my life.

My Basha - Army surplus desert cammo pattern

The first night I was entirely on my own, I didn't light a fire and sat listening to the sounds of the woods as night closed in.  I had my camera and wandered off to where I knew there was a badger sett - after sitting there for an hour poised to snap an emerging badger I'd had enough.  Plenty of badgery noises but none appeared in camera range.  Returned to my sleeping site, but rabbits were redigging their warren and their noises kept me awake, so I retreated to my people carrier to sleep.

Up at first light I stalked out.  The rabbits and squirrels here are shot by the gamekeeper so are very wary.  I'm getting quite good at stealthy movement and only set off one lot of bird alarms as I moved.  Finally got in position to snap a group of grazing rabbits.  Check camera settings, very slowly raise my canon with its long telephoto and - "CAW CAW CAW". A rook in the tree above had been watching me and must have interpreted the camera as a gun.  The rabbits shot off at high speed and the woodland emptied of creatures.

Alert Rabbit

Later in the morning my friends turned up.  We built our camp, lit our fire and settled in to a weekend practising bushcraft skills.  Immersed in nature I slowly came out of my self absorption and aware of all the flora and fauna around me.  I relaxed.  It's truly astonishing how living in a densely populated urban situation causes me nagging low level stress all the time - something I don't even recognise until it goes away.  A huge Buzzard flew over, circling repeatedly, a bird I'd never seen before.  All activity ceased as we stood and watched this magnificent creature of the skies.  As it disappeared behind trees we just smiled at each other, no words were needed for this shared experience.

Up at first light again the next morning, off on my own on another camera sortie.  Moving quietly down a ride a sudden 'crack' to my right makes me freeze.  Looking carefully in the direction of the noise, nothing to be seen.  Birds start their alarms.   I stay motionless, listening to the alarms and trying to pinpoint the source of the disturbance.  The alarms sound a little odd - you get to recognise the calls for Fox, dog, cat, dog walker and this was somehow different.  Nothing emerged, so a few minutes later I continued on, slower and quieter and with a raised sense of anticipation.  Reaching a more open part, I looked again toward the disturbance source.  Looking backwards to check I wasn't silhouetted, I crouched and brought up my long lens.  Odd.  Very odd.  A horizontal log had a most unnatural looking leafy bump on it.  Stayed static for several minutes and no movement, but the birds certainly weren't happy still.  From behind 'thump thump thump' a heavy footed person was approaching rapidly, not in view yet.  I stood up and retreated beside some bushes - not hiding but so I'd see who this was before they saw me.  A fully camouflage clad figure stomped round the corner going fast.  A few words exchanged, we had permission to be camping so I had no problem, but I asked if he was army, as he was in full combat uniform, and he was a bit evasive.  Off he went again at high speed.  I decided to follow to see what he was up to.  He'd disappeared into the distance but his heavy footed high speed gait had left an easy trail of dust spurts, even on the hardest ground.  100yds up the ride there was a patch of soft mud, containing a plethora of British Army boot marks.  Crouching, I worked out what they showed.  They were in a wide rut anyone would normally avoid, so it had been dark when they were made.  There were large and small size prints.  Looking at how they overlayed, two taller/heavier guys had led the group followed by one slightly smaller and two much smaller people.  Finally maybe two larger sets of prints brought up the rear.  I say maybe as these prints were twisting and turning.  Interpretation - a group of army cadets had gone along this track as a tactical patrol.  The older members had led and brought up the rear with the younger ones protected in the centre.  The last 2 or three guys had been turning to keep an eye behind and to the sides.  Continuing on the trail I met up with the original guy coming back along his route.  We stopped and had another chat, he said he'd come and talk to our group.  I really surprised him when I asked him about the cadets and the tactical exercise they were doing!  The disturbance I'd heard was the cadet patrol, the odd lump on the log was a head peering at me.  Apparently they'd thought I was the enemy (I was in cammo gear) and they'd radioed in 'enemy in sight' and were about to turn my lights out.  To their credit, everyone did their job properly and I was id'd as a non-combatant.  I did finish tracking the sergeants dust plumes and found their HQ...    The night after meeting the cadets was enlivened by the climax of their exercise, a brief firefight with blank rifle fire, flashbangs and a maroon.

Hairy footed fox track

The rest of our camp was spent foraging, identifying plants, gathering firewood and cooking.  Everything takes far longer than with domestic conveniences, but it's all far more real.  After a couple of days in the woods, instead of looking inwards I had become part of the natural system, I had a proper place in the world.