Bushcraft Stuff

One Sunday a few months ago, back in December 2008 I had been out for a walk in my local woods with my dogs. The weather was foul, wind, driving rain and the temperature was pretty low. There was mud and water everywhere and I was pretty glad to get back home. I dried the dogs and got them sorted, changed out of my sopping wet clothes, made myself a cup of tea, collapsed into my comfy armchair and sat there, listening to the rain lashing against the window pane. What on earth was I going to do for the rest of this Sunday afternoon?

I then remembered that a few weeks before I had bought both seasons of Les Stroud’s Survivorman series on DVD and had not yet had a chance to watch them. So, an ideal opportunity to sit back and watch some other poor fool suffering in the great outdoors presented itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes I watched. Not only did they give me an entertaining afternoon in the comfort of my home but they also sowed the seeds of an idea for an up and coming adventure. A plan had started to form. It seemed like a good idea at the time but, bear in my mind that I had just spent a relaxing afternoon in front of the television in a warm dry room with an almost infinite supply of drinks and food close to hand.

So, what was my plan? Well, I had watched Mr Stroud put himself into different survival scenarios. Equipped with the bare minimum, he had on the most part managed to either survive for seven days until he was rescued or self rescue himself by making his way to safety. My plan was to give this a go.

Now, I wasn’t intending to book myself on a holiday to America where I would get some kindly soul to abandon me in the deepest darkest depths of the Amazon or drop me by helicopter onto one of the peaks in the middle of the Rockies. No, no, no, I decided I would start off small. My plan was to spend a few days in my local woods with just a few items in a day sack. The sort of items you could well find yourself equipped with when out on a day hike. Part of my reasoning for using the local woods was that being only about five miles away, if anything were to go wrong, I could easily pack up and walk out. Simple as that.

So, a few weeks later on yet another wet and Wintery day I set off for adventure. On my back I carried a small daypack. In it I had my waterproof jacket and trousers, a woolly hat, a couple of cereal bars, a pack of beef jerky, a lighter, an empty baked bean can and a Leatherman multitool. What more could a man wish for? And, so my adventure began.

TO BE CONTINUED……….

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