Bushcraft, survival and wilderness skills courses

Whenever I am out in the woods I am always looking forward to my next brew, no more so at the break of dawn when Im just rising and thinking about the day ahead. Something that I cannot do without a good fresh coffee in hand. Coffee being so important I will some time dedicate a blog to my quest for the perfect camp brew.

of course after a long night its always a little disheartening to come back to the camp fire only to find a flat bed of white ash and a few blackened dog ends. But fear not as there is a simple and effortless way to bring life back to this heart of your bushcraft camp.

Some bow drill friction fire pointers.

Well although I have p[romised a few of you who have been on my courses that I would Blog a tutorial on Friction fire. So far every attempt to write it turns into a full blown hundred page manual. The final decision being that until I arrange to film it I will let people find the myriad other videos on you tube that already exist.

However for those that are trying themselves, as I have seen with my students often times there are a few very simple pointers that can make your friction firemaking so much easier.

It seems that there is more to schools in the forest than just forest schools.

Having been working recently with small groups of students from Bideford College I am starting to find all sorts of new potential for the wilderness as a true outdoor classroom. I have always felt that forest schools was just a scratch on the surface of all the potential that the wilderness has to offer in learning but kept schtum as with no true experience I had no right to comment.

However with the acceptance that it is only as good as the leader I have found that for certain students there is so much to learn in the woods and wilds. skills and subjects that are not often thought of and sometimes purposefully avoided by many schools.

Having worked closely with the SEN department at the college I am finding a great many ways that WildPath can help staff and pupils alike.

After a late show of interest in introductory courses we have decided to run an additional course in September. The course will be run in the Arlington Court estate and is part of the Wild camping trial that we have initiated with the National Trust. Certifying attendees that complete the course to return to stay in the woods overnight for the next five years.

The course is a introduction to  all the fundamental skills to start you on your way to being a fully fledged bushcrafter and although no two courses are ever the same will cover friction fire lighting, shelter building, wild foods, tracking and some rudimentary woodland crafts.

Attendees will leave the weekend with a good grounding and experience that should let them venture into the woods alone and spend a few nights in comfort enjoying the wilderness and honing their skills.

After the resounding success with Arlington courts oven I have been asked by a few visitors on the day whether I run Earth oven building courses.

Not something I thought would attract too many people however I did promise that if we could find a minimum of 6 people then we can run a one day course that will cover all you need to know on the basics of building an earth oven. So you can return home and start your own project in the back garden.

Whatever your chosen method for fire lighting is the fundamentals of establishing, managing and maintaining a fire will always follow the same guidelines. First off what is the fire for? A few possible reasons are heat, light, signalling, cooking or most importantly boiling tea water.

Once you've decided on that then it makes it all a lot easier, but before I get carried away let us just go through some of the basics of fire. Most should know of the trinity of fire if not you will by the end of this paragraph. Fire needs three key components Oxygen, fuel and heat.