Hi All,
On Friday I went down to the south east coast of England to join in with a basic survival/bushcraft weekend which was run by a friend for the first time. Having loads of nights in the woods but zero doing beach camping I was very interested in joining in for the weekend to learn some new skills.
I traveled down from Oxford on Friday afternoon to Mersea Island and joined up with my mate Clive from The European Bushcraft School and his group and went by rib boat to our location on the shore near and old disused power station. (Bradwell Power Station)
Not knowing the location and what we may find I found it pretty hard to work out what shelter to pack, in the end I opted for a cheap 1 man tent, knowing pitching in sand would interesting I packed some small plastic bags act at small sandbags instead of pegs, however on arriving to our shingly shore with semi firm ground i found that nither my bags or tent legs worked. But a quick walk up the shore line i found some abandon tent poles which I uses like 2 foot long tent pegs and I managed to secure my tent in place.
The first afternoon was pretty chilled after setting up camp we went though some basic snares and legality of using them in the UK, to earn our dinner we had to identify an animal track and set a snare (which was removed after the exercised) On completing the task we we each given a rabbit and the group was shown how to prep it for cooking.
Bruce a friend of both Clive and mine set up some traps in low tide and were left for the tied to come in overnight and be ready to be checked the next morning. We settled in for the night around the camp fire and got to know everyone in the the group.
The next morning Bruce headed out to check his traps, pulling them both in he must have caught 200 crabs.
The little crabs were released and a few of the larger ones kept for the pot along with some oysters that were littering the shore.
Bruce and myself set up some long lines and bated them ready for the sea to once again return, this time low tied would be around 11pm. (sadly forgot to take any photos.
In the afternoon the group went up the coast of a wild edible forage and where show great deal and tasted lots, personally I was quiet amazied how much there was as we walked along and dipping into a salt water marsh found even more to eat.
After getting back from our walk and needing to cool down a few of us dipped into the cooling water for a swim, a much needed refreshment from the sun.
After drying off and having a bit of a nap the group got on to their own devices for a while. Some rested, some fished, some practiced with a catapult, and I tried to do all of the above and more.
As the evening cooled down we had a game of football cricket and also I spent some time showing people on the weekend how to use the flint and steel kit and each of them started a fire using the kit.
When the sun went down we sat around the camp fire and were able to watch the Mersea Island Regatta fireworks from the shore.
When Bruce and myself checked out lines and nets we found that they had been distroyed by a boat that came into shore earlier in the day. Givign up hope we brought the remain messing of tangled up nets and line in. The tide was not fully out so we had to wait to get the half of my remaining line. When we mananged to get to the post Bruce found my line managed to catch and keep hold of a Sea Bass
Although too small to keep and was returned it proved that the method worked.
The next day was spent doing some naviagtion skills with the group and a few other short lessons including a session of findng rubbish along the shore line and disusing possible uses in a survival situation. Bruce did a short video of fire using a found trainer.
[video=youtube;ycz0SoFpc9o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycz0SoFpc9o[/video]
After packing up the havens opened and we were rained on before we were pick up by the rib boat and taken back to Mersea Island.
Here is a video of the weekend which i hope gives the general vibe of what we got up too.
[video=youtube;9l2q_CE7Ot8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l2q_CE7Ot8[/video]
On Friday I went down to the south east coast of England to join in with a basic survival/bushcraft weekend which was run by a friend for the first time. Having loads of nights in the woods but zero doing beach camping I was very interested in joining in for the weekend to learn some new skills.
I traveled down from Oxford on Friday afternoon to Mersea Island and joined up with my mate Clive from The European Bushcraft School and his group and went by rib boat to our location on the shore near and old disused power station. (Bradwell Power Station)
Not knowing the location and what we may find I found it pretty hard to work out what shelter to pack, in the end I opted for a cheap 1 man tent, knowing pitching in sand would interesting I packed some small plastic bags act at small sandbags instead of pegs, however on arriving to our shingly shore with semi firm ground i found that nither my bags or tent legs worked. But a quick walk up the shore line i found some abandon tent poles which I uses like 2 foot long tent pegs and I managed to secure my tent in place.
The first afternoon was pretty chilled after setting up camp we went though some basic snares and legality of using them in the UK, to earn our dinner we had to identify an animal track and set a snare (which was removed after the exercised) On completing the task we we each given a rabbit and the group was shown how to prep it for cooking.
Bruce a friend of both Clive and mine set up some traps in low tide and were left for the tied to come in overnight and be ready to be checked the next morning. We settled in for the night around the camp fire and got to know everyone in the the group.
The next morning Bruce headed out to check his traps, pulling them both in he must have caught 200 crabs.
The little crabs were released and a few of the larger ones kept for the pot along with some oysters that were littering the shore.
Bruce and myself set up some long lines and bated them ready for the sea to once again return, this time low tied would be around 11pm. (sadly forgot to take any photos.
In the afternoon the group went up the coast of a wild edible forage and where show great deal and tasted lots, personally I was quiet amazied how much there was as we walked along and dipping into a salt water marsh found even more to eat.
After getting back from our walk and needing to cool down a few of us dipped into the cooling water for a swim, a much needed refreshment from the sun.
After drying off and having a bit of a nap the group got on to their own devices for a while. Some rested, some fished, some practiced with a catapult, and I tried to do all of the above and more.
As the evening cooled down we had a game of football cricket and also I spent some time showing people on the weekend how to use the flint and steel kit and each of them started a fire using the kit.
When the sun went down we sat around the camp fire and were able to watch the Mersea Island Regatta fireworks from the shore.
When Bruce and myself checked out lines and nets we found that they had been distroyed by a boat that came into shore earlier in the day. Givign up hope we brought the remain messing of tangled up nets and line in. The tide was not fully out so we had to wait to get the half of my remaining line. When we mananged to get to the post Bruce found my line managed to catch and keep hold of a Sea Bass
Although too small to keep and was returned it proved that the method worked.
The next day was spent doing some naviagtion skills with the group and a few other short lessons including a session of findng rubbish along the shore line and disusing possible uses in a survival situation. Bruce did a short video of fire using a found trainer.
[video=youtube;ycz0SoFpc9o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycz0SoFpc9o[/video]
After packing up the havens opened and we were rained on before we were pick up by the rib boat and taken back to Mersea Island.
Here is a video of the weekend which i hope gives the general vibe of what we got up too.
[video=youtube;9l2q_CE7Ot8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l2q_CE7Ot8[/video]
and super impressed on the crab pots yield, what bait did you use? 
