Evening with Ray Mears last night

[ArkAngel]

Very enjoyable evening,

Despite the winds, 13 lorries blown over on the way down from North Yorkshire we arrived in plenty of time.
A great time, and interesting subject delivered humbly and with humour. Great photo's from his own collection

I was tempted to get a flint knapped arrow to the prize pilchards who despite the anouncements still proceeded to "entertain" us with their mobile phone ringtones! WHY? no-bodies life is so important that they can't turn their phone off for 2 hours! What did we do without them?!

five and a half hours down there.........two hours lecture......five and a half hours back through roadworks and diversions to arrive home at 3:30am

Was it worth it?.......................

......every single second of it

 

[Phil562]

Very enjoyable evening,

Despite the winds, 13 lorries blown over on the way down from North Yorkshire we arrived in plenty of time.
A great time, and interesting subject delivered humbly and with humour. Great photo's from his own collection

I was tempted to get a flint knapped arrow to the prize pilchards who despite the anouncements still proceeded to "entertain" us with their mobile phone ringtones! WHY? no-bodies life is so important that they can't turn their phone off for 2 hours! What did we do without them?!

five and a half hours down there.........two hours lecture......five and a half hours back through roadworks and diversions to arrive home at 3:30am

Was it worth it?.......................

......every single second of it

Rep for you

 

[pibbleb]

I was stunned by the number of people who can't cross their legs for 2 hours and feel the need to run to the loo! (More than once) The buggers!

 

[ArkAngel]

I was stunned by the number of people who can't cross their legs for 2 hours and feel the need to run to the loo! (More than once) The buggers!

indeed, didn't their mothers tell them to "go before you go"?

My favourite was the couple who arrived 40 minutes late (ok bad weather allowed for, the traffic was terrible) procceded to rustle and kick my chair. She seems to have terminal plurasy and then at Q&A said of one of the roots "i would have put it on the fire".......Rya's reply "did that, ridiculous amount of time to extract minimal goodness"

like he wouldn't of tried that first

 

[pibbleb]

Just quickly for those who feel they have missed out. With the exception of last year. This I seem to remember is an annual event for Ray Mears. So perhaps diaries to check his website from December for next years dates.

Feel free to correct me if this info is incorrect!

P

 

[Fallow Way]

Very enjoyable evening,

Despite the winds, 13 lorries blown over on the way down from North Yorkshire we arrived in plenty of time.
A great time, and interesting subject delivered humbly and with humour. Great photo's from his own collection

I was tempted to get a flint knapped arrow to the prize pilchards who despite the anouncements still proceeded to "entertain" us with their mobile phone ringtones! WHY? no-bodies life is so important that they can't turn their phone off for 2 hours! What did we do without them?!

five and a half hours down there.........two hours lecture......five and a half hours back through roadworks and diversions to arrive home at 3:30am

Was it worth it?.......................

......every single second of it

I had a simliar expereience. I attend my second lecture of Ray`s the other year and there was a problem with the fire alarms duringthe interval so the show had to be stopped. Which added up to 4 hours drive there, 40 minutes of a lecture, then 4 hours back lol

 

[Jodie]

I had a fantastic time - enhanced by the fact that I was convinced I wouldn't
get there (a tree* landed on the train in front of the train in front, near Tonbridge)
and managed it with just two minutes to spare! I was trying to be optimistic on
the train - at least I was warm, being offered free tea, reasonably comfortable
and not under a tree - but I would have been hugely disappointed to get stuck
on the train and miss it. I felt really sorry to see a handful of empty chairs and
know that people would have been stuck in traffic and missing out.

After the talk I joined the queue and managed to overcome my guilt and mild
discomfort at intruding further onto his time and the fame / hero worshippy
aspect and say hello. He stayed very late so everyone could meet him and I
was one of the last people there - didn't leave the building till 11.30pm, got
home at 3am and got up again at quarter to seven - bit of a lie-in tomorrow I
think. But as ArkAngel said, totally worth it.

My favourite photo was the tent with a fire glowing inside and the moon - really
stunning and I don't think I've seen it before. Just for the visual aspect of it, there
were other photos that had more resonance perhaps, because of the people in
them or the technique that was being demonstrated but I like the eerie shades of
bluey white with the orange fire.

Once I've had a look at my scribbled notes I might post again - lots of cool stuff
in there, but I'm not going to transcribe it (that's a bit like going and seeing a
stand up comedian and posting all their jokes!)

Jo
*Yes, I did wonder what sort of tree it was.

 

[pibbleb]

Jo

I'm glad you had a good time and managed, against all the odds to get there in time.

The picture you refer to was available on his website to buy, I'm not sure whether it still is but was thinking of getting it myself as a keep sake!

I was planning on doing a review but forgot to take pen and paper with me, I'd been with clients and court stuff all day so no real excuse! so I may leave that to your better organised self!

Paul

P. S. Just checked and it's out of stock, but at £80 I wouldn't be buying it sadly!

 

[Mikey P]

The man is extremely genuine. Why do people feel the need to judge what he does?

Because we learn nothing if we merely (no pun) accept what people say without question or without assessing it for ourselves and making our own decisions.

There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with something Ray Mears has said or done, or indeed judging what he stands for, as long as you have a valid argument and are being constructive.

Is that not what living in a democratic society is all about? (light blue touch paper, stand well back...)

I went to see Ray speak the first and second years he did this 'Audience with Ray' thing - once it was somewhere on the south coast, and once at Tonbridge. Although he repeated a couple of the anecdotes on the two occasions, it was still worth going to see someone who is so deeply involved in what he does.

Almost as interesting were some of the questions he refused to answer - probably tells you more about him than the answers he did give.

Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to get back from Germany to see him speak at the moment.

 

[RJP]

Went to the talk last night, very good and only 15miles from home so not too late a night.

I thought that it was very interesting and quite amusing in parts. Glad I met Ray afterwards, very pleasent and affable chap who seems very genuine.

Well done to all those who got there from afar, it was a truely horrible evening to be travelling.

RJP

 

[Jodie]

http://www.raymears.com/shop_item_desc.cfm?id=288&itemType=Art
It seems to be a painting (and a scarily good one at that) but I'd be quite
happy with a colour print out of the photo or have it as a screen saver!
I can see why a painting would be £80 but I think it would be a bit of
an indulgence for me.

Someone really should nip over to the Arctic and take a nice photo for me

I quite like the fact that there was a small amount of character-building
hardship involved in getting to the talk, but really feel for the people who
didn't get there.

 

[sugs04]

I trekked down from Shropshire to see him on the Thursday and I was glad we braved the weather to enjoy the night. I've never seen him before but he spoke passionately about stories surrounding the photos - a lot of which are from his books. He really brought them to life and the evening was gone far too quickly.

He stuck around to meet his public too and seemed to be enjoying the signing, photos and chat with fans.

All in all, a great evening and he came across as a really top bloke.

If I recall correctly one of his key messages was "There are too many people talking bushcraft and not enough walking it - get out there!"

See you at one of the meets.

Sugs

 

[hammock monkey]

i thought the story of how a siberian woman scares a bear off was really funny...especially as my wife's traced part of her lineage back to russian / mongol
great night - even if we did spend 10hrs travelling to T W.....ouch

 

[ArkAngel]

i thought the story of how a siberian woman scares a bear off was really funny...especially as my wife's traced part of her lineage back to russian / mongol
great night - even if we did spend 10hrs travelling to T W.....ouch

....and don't ask how the ceromonial paint on the aboriginal woman got smudged

 

[rheece hodgetts]

I attended on Thursday night and i'm glad to say I stuck with the traffic(200 yds in forty minutes no fun) This is the second time I have been to one of the evenings and as many people have already said what a great evening. Mr Mears seemed very relaxed and quite amusing on several occasions,especially the horse breaking in Mongolia. Hopefully this is an annual event as he said at the evening it seems that he has a couple of projects in the pipeline. All in all £17.00 well spent.

 

[hammock monkey]

One of the things that i was impressed at w.r.t making the tv shows extreme survival etc was the fact that they didnt have the whole thing particularly well planned - due to the nature of the environment.
to land there and have to start organising what you'll be doing (obv within reason - you have the local 'fixer' and a good few ideas of what you want to get on tape) and come away with that level of local knowledge is great testament to the whole crews character and level of ability, not just Rays.
that horse training might be a thing that could work with some of the local asbo's....only joking....sort of.

 

[sionhughes]

To be honest I don’t think you missed a great deal. Maybe its just me but notwithstanding the clear “educational” message my previous comments about this series so far hold true and might better be summed up in one word: PONDEROUS

Hmm, you could be right, but I'm happy with a bit of ponderous now and then in this fast-paced world.

Anyone know what his next series might be about? I'd like to see 'Ray Mears Practical Bushcraft' Where each hour long episode is an in-depth look at ONE thing only. Building a shelter - Edged tools - Taking a dump in the woods - whatever, but really focussing in on the techniques, problems, solutions, etc in much more detail than we've yet seen. I mean we can bang on for months, here, about the relative merits of two types of ferro rod, so surely Ray Mears can fill an hour.

 

[sionhughes]

Also I'd like to see him in the UK, in the woods, in torrential rain, light a fire. Ha!

 

[The Hunted]

It was a great evening, but like most enjoyable times it was over all to quickly. The only downside of the evening were the people with bladders the size of walnuts and the one person who couldn't stop coughing.

I hope the new series focuses more on techniques than the other series have done, but I fear the BBC would turn down the idea as they would think it would not appeal to a large tv audience.

 

[sionhughes]

True, true. Still, it's not as if the programmes can cost that much to make in the first place, relatively speaking. And who'd have thought Strictly Come Dancing would have had mass appeal