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Bushcraft: An introduction

Bushcraft: An introduction

When the Editor asked me to write this column, he thought that some of the readership might be asking who I am, what bushcraft is and why I should be the one to write the column. So here is a brief autobiography and outline on ‘my’ bushcraft.

I was born overlooking Windsor Castle in 1957, but from the time I was walking I was brought up in Herefordshire, mostly in the countryside, and spent my teens living in Belgium. To escape from the city, I spent a lot of time in the Foret de Soignes and walking in the Ardennes.

After I was 16, most of my holidays involved toting a rucksack around Britain rather than searching out on sun, sea and sand etc, and I taught myself a lot about living outdoors in comfort.

I failed to get a commission in the RAF due to a small measure of colour blindness (they would not let me fly and I was not interested in other options) and trained in computer programming instead. Doing very well in my computer exams I found employment in a commercial bank’s computer department on a vast salary – but found I hated the job! I quit the bank after a year and returned to Britain, spending most of the next year blowing my savings, spending three months over the winter in the Cairngorms learning how not to die in the snowy hills, getting trained as an instructor in outdoor pursuits and trying to walk Land’s End to John O’Groats. I failed the big walk, badly spraining my right knee after walking almost exactly 1,000 km, or as I saw it, half of the trip (I was not going the shortest way, but the wildest I could find).

Rest and Recuperation

After spending my 21st birthday recovering from the injury it was back to ‘on the job’ training as an outdoor skills instructor, with a brief return to Brussels and a job in another bank computer department to get more cash together before I permanently returned to Britain. Aged 22 I got married and moved to west Wales and have stayed there, still married to the same fantastic woman (she does my typing!) ever since – with a few side trips for work and excitement. I decided to ditch the computers and work in outdoor pursuits or, as I put it “not to make rich men richer, but to make people’s lives richer” and most of the work I have done has been involved with ‘personal development’ through the media of the outdoors. I worked in various outdoor pursuit centres in North, South and Mid Wales and, for my holidays, went solo long distance hiking. My skills base included climbing, kayaking, orienteering, caving and mountain safety, while my other interests included military history (can anyone living near Waterloo and WW1 trenches not get interested?), outdoor clothing and equipment design, archaeology, alternative medicine and drama, art, and shooting (rifle, crossbow, catapult).

In my 30s, various skeletal/muscular issues developed from my knee injury and I took a couple of years out of outdoor pursuit instruction to go to college and study how to make outdoor gear. No clothing tech courses were available in my area so I ended up with a BTEC OND in ‘fashion design’! I managed to turn all my projects to outdoor clothing designs and when I came out of college I obtained freelance work with, among others, Craghoppers and Snowdon Clothing. I had also developed an interest in ‘survival’ and I started writing for Survival Weaponry and Techniques, doing gear reviews, with a unique viewpoint of someone who used it, knew how it was made and had an ability to write reasonably coherently. I went on to write for a host of magazines in the ‘outdoor’ sector and have produced books on walking and cycling in Wales and making DIY outdoor kit. I also got back into outdoor pursuits instruction and worked for organisations such as the Princes Trust, held a warrant as a Scout Leader for 15 years and led expeditions for ‘World Challenge’ and ‘Raleigh International’, taking groups of teens on expeditions to Eastern Europe, West and South Africa and Asia. My interest in ‘Survival’ morphed into an interest in ‘Bushcraft’ and I started running and staffing bushcraft courses, as well as running my own open canoe training business. A venture into outdoor clothing manufacture was not a great success. At present I do a bit of writing, a bit of bushcraft instruction and a bit of work with people with learning disability. I have run bushcraft courses for major companies, individuals, schools and specifically for those with physical and learning disabilities.

My paper awards and qualifications include the Mountain Leader Award, a BCU Level Four Coach Award in Open Canoes, and I was the first person in the world to achieve the Bushcraft USA Bushclass ‘Advanced’ Award. My leisure time is mainly spent relaxing in the woods or investigating the archaeology of Orkney.

“Old, fat, bearded, baldy guy who likes being out in the wilds.” Yeah, that’s me!

Well, What is Bushcraft?

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Well, bushcraft is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It can cover everything from stalking and shooting to making home-made wine, can cover making your own gear to being super-efficient high-tech in your approach to gear, but to me, bushcraft is about having a set of skills that allow you to be comfortable in the outdoors without having to carry too much kit, spend too much money or having to ‘rough it’! Ray Mears popularised the term ‘bushcraft’ and has taught many folk the joys of bushcraft via courses and TV programmes. A few quotations sum up bushcraft for me:

“We do not go into the woods to rough it; we go to smooth it. We get rough enough at home” – George Washington Sears, also known as ‘Nessmuk’.
“Any fool can be uncomfortable” – Anon
“KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid” – Anon
“Leave no trace” – Anon

‘Survival’ and ‘Bushcraft’ often get lumped together, but to my mind they are two sides of the same coin, sharing many of the same skills, but a different mindset. I see ‘Survival’ as ‘Get out of the wilderness and back to civilisation as fast and efficiently as possible, then relax’ but ‘Bushcraft’ as ‘Get into the wilderness and away from civilisation as fast and efficiently as possible, then relax’.

Different bushcrafters emphasise different aspects of the ‘catch all’ name ‘bushcrafters’. Some use tents, camp beds and stoves; some will build a natural shelter, sleep on a bed of bracken and use a wood fire; many use hammocks and tarps. Some dress in modern synthetic fibre clothing and use high-tech rucksacks, some insist on natural fibre clothing and use canvas and leather packs, many use Army Surplus. Some do day trips only, some rely on overnights for ultimate pleasure. Some subsist on MOD ratpacks, others hunt/trap and forage for their food. The majority mix and match. The ultimate aim is to enjoy being ‘out there’.

My own preference emphasises the ‘craft’ element of Bushcraft and I like to use as much home-crafted kit as possible (I can literally go into the woods clothed and equipped entirely with gear I have made myself), but often use commercial kit as it can be more suited to my aims and comfort for my intended activity. I do not always travel light, although I can, and have gone into the woods for an overnight stay with no more kit than will fit into a trouser pocket – and remained comfortable. I like to wear and use natural fibre clothing and equipment – but often use synthetic fibre gear. I can make cordage from plant materials, but get through miles of paracord… and so on!

However you plan to enjoy ‘bushcrafting’, certain things need to be addressed to enjoy being out there:

Shelter: Which includes clothing and equipment
Fire: Keeping warm and being able to cook food
Water: How to find it and make it safe to drink
Food: Foraging, packing it in, trapping etc
Hygiene: Keeping clean and healthy
Location: Finding somewhere to go to practice bushcraft skills, choosing a site etc.

In future articles I intend sharing some of the skills, tips, techniques and equipment ideas that I use to enjoy my take on bushcraft.

I have to emphasise that my way is not the only way. I like to build my own bush chair in the woods (time and materials allowing), but there is nothing wrong with packing in a folding camp chair if you have other skills you want to explore in the limited time you have available. To me, bushcraft is about enjoying being out in the woods and is a set of skills you can employ to make life comfortable and relaxing – an antidote to the pressures of modern life.

We may not all want to bin our PC and router and become full-time, offgrid, spoon whittlers, but you may find that a little bit of the ‘bush-life’ will ease the strain of modern life.

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