A week with Ray Mears

[BirchBark]

I have to tell you all about a great week I spent with Ray. After 8 years of not attending a fundamental bushcraft course, Ray was back last week, and I was on it. It was great, not only was the course really good and non-stop from the Saturday evening all the way through the week to the Sunday, but also I had the pleasure of listening to Ray's stories first hand, and to learn directly from him. Prior to the course I was an armchair bushman, having read and watched many different books and programs on survival and bushcraft, so to try out many of the things ive learned, including fire by friction, was awesome. I have come away from the course with a strong drive to do much more. Next year im hoping to hike some of the Appalachian Trail in the US (if I can find some other poor sole to drag along with me) and also within the next few years attend the Journeyman Course through Woodlore, plus many of the other courses (depending on if I get on them or not).
Anyway, if you want to know more just reply, and I will go into further details about my week in East Sussex, or about my plans for the Appalachian Trail.

Thanks for listening.

 

[ScottC]

Sounds great! I for one would love to hear some more

 

[Sean13]

Hi,
It sounds great, you were lucky to be there with Ray and experience the benefit of his experience and knowledge first hand.
I'm interested in knowing more about what the course entailed.
Tell us more!!

 

[bambodoggy]

If you do a search I'm sure Chris Claycomb did a review of the fundamental course he did a while ago....and if you search "fundamental" you 'll find loads of people on here who've done the course and are talking about it.

As you're new you may not know but the search function is at the top'ish of the page towards the right

In the meantime here's a link to Chris's review:

http://www.bushcraftuk.co.uk/reviews/woodlore_fundamental.html

and the kit he recomends to take:

http://www.bushcraftuk.co.uk/articles/kit_notes.html


I wouldn't do the course myself as it doesn't sound like my cup of tea but it's good that you enjoyed it and clearly got lots out of it. And a big well done for getting out and doing something.... If you fancy doing a bit more then I only live round the corner from you in Frimley....pm me and you'd be welcome to come next time I go out if you fancy it

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[Yohny]

Hi - I used to live close to where the AT cut through the North Carolina mountains. Beautiful country. They filmed the majority of the Daniel Day Lewis version of the Last of the Mohicans in the region to give you an idea of the land! My wife at the time knew a guy, Eustace Conway, who lived in a tipi (I think he has a log home now) in a community at Elk Creek. He has literally lived from the land most of his life, including making his own buckskins etc. He walked the entire Appalachian Trail living on what he could hunt & gather. Really interesting fellow! I always wanted to do the trail myself. Did a whole lot of camping out & hiking while I lived there & spent time with local Cherokee communities. Good luck if you get to go...

 

[maddave]

You definately have 'the bug' now Birchbark......

Get out there and have a great time, life will never be the same

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi - I used to live close to where the AT cut through the North Carolina mountains. Beautiful country. They filmed the majority of the Daniel Day Lewis version of the Last of the Mohicans in the region to give you an idea of the land! My wife at the time knew a guy, Eustace Conway, who lived in a tipi (I think he has a log home now) in a community at Elk Creek. He has literally lived from the land most of his life, including making his own buckskins etc. He walked the entire Appalachian Trail living on what he could hunt & gather. Really interesting fellow! I always wanted to do the trail myself. Did a whole lot of camping out & hiking while I lived there & spent time with local Cherokee communities. Good luck if you get to go...

Hi mate,
thanks for the tip about the guy, as he is living already what I plan to do! I am checking right now the right place to buy up here in sweden.
Abbes camp
When I searched the net I even found out that someone had written a book about him check it out here:
The Last American Man

thanks for the info mate
cheers
Abbe

 

[Tony]

Excellent experience BB. Ray sometimes comes to visit the students but as you say, it's been years since he spent much time on one. Count yourself lucky, although I get the impression that you already do!

Let us know any points that stand out to you

 

[AJB]

HI,

I’d like to hear more, especially about your plans for the trail. And, Birch and Bam thanks for bringing back memories of my youth spent in and around Farnborough, used to date a girl in Frimley and Quiz night in the Prince of Wales? in Fleet was a must.


AJB

 

[sandbender]

...Eustace Conway...

There is a film about Mr Conway and his life...

http://www.roomandboardfilms.com/

and a quicktime trailer for the film...

http://www.roomandboardfilms.com/pages/movie.html

 

[Abbe Osram]

There is a film about Mr Conway and his life...

http://www.roomandboardfilms.com/IMAGES/Full_Circle_TheMovie.swf

and a quicktime trailer for the film...

http://www.roomandboardfilms.com/PAGES/trailer.html

thanks mate,
great stuff!!!

yours
Abbe

 

[Yohny]

Very welcome - I wouldn't mind getting hold of that book!

 

[Yohny]

Sanbender - many thanks for the links to Eustace Conway!

 

[Mutley]

On topic - it sounded like you had a fantastic time with Ray, amazing how most his courses are booked for the next 3 or so years!

 

[Celt_Ginger]

Hi BB. I'm due to attend the same course in May 2006. I'd love to hear more about it.

 

[BirchBark]

It was great. Yep I spent a week with Ray listening to his stories and
learning loads of interesting skills. We spent 4 nights under hoochies and two nights in shelters we built, they were hot but dry (although they only got tested for
dryness on one day, as the rest of the week was good weather; we were really
lucky, two weeks before the group had a week of non-stop rain).

I managed to start a fire with Bow-drill which was cool, we were taught all
about the different uses of the plants in the forest. We carved a spoon out
of a piece of willow, created twine from Willow bark and made a fishhook.
We were taught different ways of fishing and snaring, both legal and
illegal. We had to fillet a fish, and gut and skin a rabbit, both then
being cooked and eaten. Everything was cooked over open fire. Also got to
try nettle soup - very nice but then all the other ingredients we added
probably helped with that.

We were taught the correct way of living in the woods, leaving no trace.
Putting our a fire, making sure no underground fire has been started,
scattering any coals left, covering up the blackened ground and where you
have slept, etc.

The final day we were tested, with a number of tasks to do and then a quiz
on tree and plant identification, which I passed with a merit grade.

All in all the week was great but very tiring, I was up most days around
6:30am and the day continued all the way till 10pm when food was finished,
the night we had rabbit we did not eat until midnight.

 

[redcollective]

The woodlore course is pricey but from your description you get a lot of time for your money. Can you tell us a bit more about the shelters you made and what they were like to sleep in? Also, I know the groups are quite large - how did you find that? - did everyone sit around and talk in the evenings together or were the multiple campfires?

 

[Marts]

I assume the shelters were the same as when I went - 2-man leaf shelters with a central support pole.
16 is the usual group number on the fundamental. I can't speak for every group but the one I was on all got on very well and several evenings were spent under the central parachute working on projects or just chatting. Several other nights were ended in 2-person groups. Generally it doesn't feel like too many people and your tents or bashas are pitched apart. Although one night when we went off and everyone slept under bashas the numbers did make it difficult to find a suitable spot free from tree roots.

 

[BirchBark]

I agree with Marts, it was pretty much the same for my week, some evenings everyone was too tired, others we sat around the main fire and talked as a group or at the shelters in smaller groups of 4.

My personal opinion about size of group is that they could do with cutting the group size down to 10, even though they had Ray and 3 assistants, each project generally only had two people present at a time helping, which ment people were queuing up for help and of course they had some people on the course that needed more help than others. This meant that we were not taught as much as we could have, which I was disappointed with. We were also competing for wood for shelters, fires and for projects, which I felt uncomfortable about and did not like.

Although as I said in my other posts, I was very happy and pleased with the course altogether, and would still recomend it to anyone who asked, as I did learn a lot.