Hi everyone, last week i attended the Woodsmoke abo' course up in the lake district, i thought i'd do a little write up about it a share some pics.
The first 2 days of the course was ensureing that we were all up to scratch with our bow drilling and shelter making etc, we were given a demonstration how to skin and fillet a rabbit and prepare a pigeon.
Ben gave us all a detailed demo on fungi and wild food including nutritional values, chemicals etc and a section happily entitled "How not to Die" in which we looked at toxic fungi.
Ben took us on a long walk around the whole estate to show us all the resourses that we were to live off for the next 4 days, it was very interesting and informative.
On the afternoon of the second day We made "Basha Boats" out of brush and tarps.
we had 2 teams, 2 boats. after the boats were complete we had a race to the middle of the tarn and back with each member of the team, the winning team would get a big bar of chocolate...........We lost, but the other team graciously shared it with us.
That night we settled down for tea, we made bread, pies, fried chips on the maurika (spelt wrong im sure) and had some of the rabbit stew we had made the night before.
after dinner and a bit of chatting around the fire we headed to bed for our last night in our equipment.
In the Morning we got up and packed away our gear, chucked it in the landy, collected our billy cans and set off into the forest, wondering who we would see running round naked screaming and covered in mud first
.
We went to our site which we had selected the day before, a section of conifourous woodland near a recently felled area, we had chose the location because of its proximity to a large fallen beech.
Our First prioritory - Fire,
so we got our bits of wood started drilling....No Go,
second attempt...No fire,
then we get a visit from ben who was kind enough to tell us it was going to rain
then by the 4th attempt... FIRE!!!!!
So now we had fire, this was a great moral boost so we made a pot hanger and got some water on the go as we were all becoming dehydrated.
Next on the agenda was shelter, We began work on constructing a 3 man tipi from spruce bows.
Half way through construction the promised rain set in but still we battled on.
And finally we had shelter!!
it had taken around 3 hours to build.
We all clambered inside onto our make-shift beds, we were surprised how waterproof it was as it was lashing it down and only a few drops got in.
In the centre of the shelter we had our beech Star fire on a spruce block kicking out plenty of heat.
That night we settled in for a rough night on our beds, already starting to feel drained as we had been doing alot of chopping, carrying and moving around.
.......
After a long cold sleepness night we began the daily tasks of get firewood, put thatch on shelter, try to get food.
Our food gathering that day didnt go well - a hand full of hawthorns and some acorns which we roasted.
To cut a long story short the next night was a bit better as we improved our beds, on the second day we gathered some Hedgehog mushrooms; Ben regularly popping round to check the food.
Thursday night was another sleepless one, by friday we were all very weak from lack of food, we would have to stop every ten paces to rest, that day was mainly try to rest and eat, our attempts to get meat had failed.
Friday night was Very long, at least it felt like that, we were told we could return to the boathouse at 9.30 am after dismantling our shelters for breakfast.
finally dawn came, we were so happy , we scattered our shelter and fires and sluggishly made our way to the boathouse .....
where we were greeted by steve frying bacon and sausages, ben came out with fresh, warm pastries, we had pancakes, chocolate, eggs, beans - after a week of no food it was fantastic, we stuffed ourselves.
after breakfast, which felt like christmas, ben set up a commando style zip line over the tarn, we all took it in turns to have a go, having a laugh at others misfortune going over the water
Then we headed to our cars said our goodbyes and set off home.
I can definitely say it was one of the best experiences in my life and will be doing it again, it was a physical and mental challange which not many people can claim to have done.
Thanks to all the team at woodsmoke :You_Rock_ you will be seeing me again.
Thanks
Matt.
P.S Apologies for any spelling a grammer mistakes, it was written in a rush as i have to go to work now, but i will return later to correct it and add more pics.
The first 2 days of the course was ensureing that we were all up to scratch with our bow drilling and shelter making etc, we were given a demonstration how to skin and fillet a rabbit and prepare a pigeon.
Ben gave us all a detailed demo on fungi and wild food including nutritional values, chemicals etc and a section happily entitled "How not to Die" in which we looked at toxic fungi.
Ben took us on a long walk around the whole estate to show us all the resourses that we were to live off for the next 4 days, it was very interesting and informative.
On the afternoon of the second day We made "Basha Boats" out of brush and tarps.
we had 2 teams, 2 boats. after the boats were complete we had a race to the middle of the tarn and back with each member of the team, the winning team would get a big bar of chocolate...........We lost, but the other team graciously shared it with us.
That night we settled down for tea, we made bread, pies, fried chips on the maurika (spelt wrong im sure) and had some of the rabbit stew we had made the night before.
after dinner and a bit of chatting around the fire we headed to bed for our last night in our equipment.
In the Morning we got up and packed away our gear, chucked it in the landy, collected our billy cans and set off into the forest, wondering who we would see running round naked screaming and covered in mud first
.We went to our site which we had selected the day before, a section of conifourous woodland near a recently felled area, we had chose the location because of its proximity to a large fallen beech.
Our First prioritory - Fire,
so we got our bits of wood started drilling....No Go,
second attempt...No fire,
then we get a visit from ben who was kind enough to tell us it was going to rain
then by the 4th attempt... FIRE!!!!!
So now we had fire, this was a great moral boost so we made a pot hanger and got some water on the go as we were all becoming dehydrated.
Next on the agenda was shelter, We began work on constructing a 3 man tipi from spruce bows.
Half way through construction the promised rain set in but still we battled on.
And finally we had shelter!!
it had taken around 3 hours to build.
We all clambered inside onto our make-shift beds, we were surprised how waterproof it was as it was lashing it down and only a few drops got in.
In the centre of the shelter we had our beech Star fire on a spruce block kicking out plenty of heat.
That night we settled in for a rough night on our beds, already starting to feel drained as we had been doing alot of chopping, carrying and moving around.
.......
After a long cold sleepness night we began the daily tasks of get firewood, put thatch on shelter, try to get food.
Our food gathering that day didnt go well - a hand full of hawthorns and some acorns which we roasted.
To cut a long story short the next night was a bit better as we improved our beds, on the second day we gathered some Hedgehog mushrooms; Ben regularly popping round to check the food.
Thursday night was another sleepless one, by friday we were all very weak from lack of food, we would have to stop every ten paces to rest, that day was mainly try to rest and eat, our attempts to get meat had failed.
Friday night was Very long, at least it felt like that, we were told we could return to the boathouse at 9.30 am after dismantling our shelters for breakfast.
finally dawn came, we were so happy
, we scattered our shelter and fires and sluggishly made our way to the boathouse .....where we were greeted by steve frying bacon and sausages, ben came out with fresh, warm pastries, we had pancakes, chocolate, eggs, beans - after a week of no food it was fantastic, we stuffed ourselves.
after breakfast, which felt like christmas, ben set up a commando style zip line over the tarn, we all took it in turns to have a go, having a laugh at others misfortune going over the water
Then we headed to our cars said our goodbyes and set off home.
I can definitely say it was one of the best experiences in my life and will be doing it again, it was a physical and mental challange which not many people can claim to have done.
Thanks to all the team at woodsmoke :You_Rock_ you will be seeing me again.
Thanks
Matt.
P.S Apologies for any spelling a grammer mistakes, it was written in a rush as i have to go to work now, but i will return later to correct it and add more pics.
