Sleeping in a giant pine

Today we look back to a fabulous night in a giant pine this week back in 2021…

Sleeping in trees is possibly my favourite thing in the whole world. Before Storm Arwen, a giant Black Pine rose out of the beech wood at top outdoor adventures venue run by our friends at Foxlike Adventures near Dunbar in East Lothian.

We’d scaled it once before to look right out over the East Lothian coastline, truly something special. For our return we arranged a canopy campout out in this beautiful tree, all part of a big fundraiser helping forests round the world.

As the tree was so big and ‘busy’ up there, rigging ropes took a chunk of time and we were glad of head torches for the final touches. Once up there we set about setting up a cosy sleep spot and Elaine takes up the story from here…

Sleeping in the portaledge

“Tonight we're camping...near the top of a flippin’ gorgeous 30 metre black pine tree! Snug and cosy on my portaledge, Tim in his hammock, listening to the rain falling on the tarp. All this is in aid of the BigCanopy Camp Out which is raising funds and awareness for sustainable tree planting and forest protection projects worldwide.“

“For 2021,  the focus is the Siekopai Indigenous Amazonian Youth Foundation, six young leaders from a community of 53 families living on the banks of the Aguarico River in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon region. These indigenous people depend on the Amazon rainforest for their survival and are working to protect the biodiversity of their territory, their ancestral culture and their lives. A fantastic cause and an amazing adventure for us sleeping out here in the wild. Thanks to Foxlake Adventures for letting us use their lovely tree, and shout out to all the other canopy campers!”

Check out some more photos below of our adventures in this tree which sadly is no more as, perched on hill it was very exposed and was one of the many victims of Storm Arwen ending possibly 200 years of growing.