Hi guys,
I posted my beginners bushcraft kit ages ago, I need to update it now. It had to take a back seat as I found more work and had no spare time, but the upshot is that I managed to get some more money together to buy some more kit!
Anyway, my Mrs kindly bought me some vouchers for Woodland Ways for my birthday last year, £100 worth. They need to be used within 18 months and it's been the best part of a year already.
I had planned to spend it on the weekend intro to bushcraft course, which is nearly £200 in total, but as I'm gradually getting to the point of booking this thing, I find myself somehow wondering if the vouchers could be better spent. Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning the expertise at all and I'm sure that if I go ahead and book it, it will be an invaluable experience. But I've always learned better from teaching myself from books than from actual teachers - and although I'm not socially inept, I do prefer my own company or that of one or two others, rather than a large group. There's also the fact that I'm still on a budget and want to spend the vouchers as best I can, plus I could also be putting the extra money toward actual camping (i.e. wild camping friendly sites, travel etc.)
So I'm just wondering if I should spend the vouchers on a different course. It seems that a lot of what is taught on the weekend BC course can be learned from books, the web and fellow BCers, and I could practise it myself on wild camps. Or am I being foolishly optimistic?
Would I be better off spending it on the "Stoneage" course - where flintknapping is a much harder skill to learn by oneself? Or perhaps one of the foraging courses, for the same reason - it's so much harder to learn from a book.
Woody
I posted my beginners bushcraft kit ages ago, I need to update it now. It had to take a back seat as I found more work and had no spare time, but the upshot is that I managed to get some more money together to buy some more kit!
Anyway, my Mrs kindly bought me some vouchers for Woodland Ways for my birthday last year, £100 worth. They need to be used within 18 months and it's been the best part of a year already.
I had planned to spend it on the weekend intro to bushcraft course, which is nearly £200 in total, but as I'm gradually getting to the point of booking this thing, I find myself somehow wondering if the vouchers could be better spent. Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning the expertise at all and I'm sure that if I go ahead and book it, it will be an invaluable experience. But I've always learned better from teaching myself from books than from actual teachers - and although I'm not socially inept, I do prefer my own company or that of one or two others, rather than a large group. There's also the fact that I'm still on a budget and want to spend the vouchers as best I can, plus I could also be putting the extra money toward actual camping (i.e. wild camping friendly sites, travel etc.)
So I'm just wondering if I should spend the vouchers on a different course. It seems that a lot of what is taught on the weekend BC course can be learned from books, the web and fellow BCers, and I could practise it myself on wild camps. Or am I being foolishly optimistic?
Would I be better off spending it on the "Stoneage" course - where flintknapping is a much harder skill to learn by oneself? Or perhaps one of the foraging courses, for the same reason - it's so much harder to learn from a book.
Woody