Thread: hunting incompetence

Set up camp in the Tukituki riverbed not far from Daphne hut one night. Set my stoney creek bivvy on a flat site in the riverbed, all looked hunky dory, stars were shining bright, night was clear and calm and the pointy end of the bivvy was pointed upriver.

I had the guy ropes tied to decent sized stones and one tree, and the tension belt between each end of the pole under the groundsheet as you do, with pegs in the loops where I could get them in to the ground.


Woke up at 3 am to a sudden jerk from under my back and my dog howling his head off. I scrambled round for my torch, couldn't find it and I felt suffocated, my dog was still howling like mad, his howling got further and further away.
Found my torch eventually after getting out from whatever it was suffocating me.
The wind had gotten up to near gale force from downstream, ripped all my pegs out of the ground, the tension belt moving out from under the groundsheet was the sudden jerk, and the dog howling was him getting tangled up in the groundsheet along with me. The fly was saved by the one guy rope tied to a tree and was flapping round probably 8 or 9 feet above my standing height .

Once I'd gotten the fly and groundsheet stashed under a huge pile of rocks I had to find the dog, who'd buggered off 2 or 300 m downriver in his terror.

I pick my camps a bit more carefully now