How long could you survive?

[Martyn]

The story about the dead lad on Rannoch moor has got me thinking. Do you think you could survive in a British woodland, alone, with whatever you can fit in a rucksack, no money, no support network and no help? Do you really think you could trap and forrage enough food to live and thrive? How long do you think you could you survive?

I wonder if anyone would be up for actually spending a week in the woods with no food (and no guns) and documenting what they found to eat?

 

[Robbi]

a suicide pact ?

 

[mrcairney]

Probably until two days after the food ran out in my rucksack and I'm fine with that

 

[Chris the Cat]

Did Paul Kirtly do something like that on his blog?
Had a Wilky Dartmoor as his blade.
Chris

 

[Harvestman]

Not long, and I hope I never need to find out.

 

[mountainm]

Given we're talking hypothtical survival then are you allowed to break the law, (hunting with bow etc.)

 

[jonajuna]

Other than oats and a basic evening meal, yes, have done that for a week.

As for with no food being shipped in, yes, a week without food is very achievable, and in lowland woodland, you would get food fairly easily with some trapping knowledge and foraging for bugs etc.

A month? Wouldn't want to try, I don't like an empty tummy and while I could 'stomach' a week of it..... Longer, nah

 

[Andy T]

Surviving for a week doesn't seem too bad and i think it may be possible to survive for longer although it may not be by legal means. If i had to give this a go i'd head for a nice quiet part of the coast.

 

[Martyn]

I would think you'd get bored of nettle and dandelion soup very quickly.

 

[jonajuna]

I would think you'd get bored of nettle and dandelion soup very quickly.

Bored and nourished still equals alive though.

 

[salad]

Surviving for a week doesn't seem too bad and i think it may be possible to survive for longer although it may not be by legal means. If i had to give this a go i'd head for a nice quiet part of the coast.

Given the choice the coast would be where I would head to as you double your chances of food as you would have the coast to forage on and the surrounding lands to trap and forage on too . two different environments would give far more options .

But back to the question, yes I think I could survive for a week in british forests but I would expect to feel quite hungry at times and if the trapping was not good then hungry a lot of the time but I recon I could find enough calories to keep going for a week
Although there are a lot of large game animals here in germany like dear and boar , the UK countryside seam to me to have far more small game animals , this maybe due to the fact that hitler got rid of the hedgerows( habbitat for small game) here in order to increase the amount of farmable land . I would rather do a challenge like this in the UK

 

[mountainm]

Surviving for a week doesn't seem too bad and i think it may be possible to survive for longer although it may not be by legal means. If i had to give this a go i'd head for a nice quiet part of the coast.

A coastal location would certainly make it easier.

 

[Toddy]

There's a lot of food out there, but a heck of a lot of it's seasonal.
The reckoning is that we survive three weeks without food so long as there's plentiful water.

Could I ? yes, but then I'm a little fat lady these days so am unlikely to starve regardless of how uncomfortable I might find it. My dietary preferences, pretty much vegan, also means a dependance on plant material.
I'd also like to do it at a good season of the year.
Would I do it in the bitter cold of a wet, icy Winter ? Not if there were any way to avoid it.

Fergus the forager has a brilliant site full of wild food recipes and uses.

cheers,
M

 

[charleslockerbie]

If i was forced to "survive" id cheat and go after domesticated animals. Cos i could not do it for real.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

It's the sort of thing that you can never know until you try it...........but there is a difference between going into a venture prepared & finding yourself in a survival situation through no fault of your own..
It would be very difficult getting by staying in one place, i.e. not moving around & also by not breaking any laws.

 

[Ivan...]

I am with Salad and Jonajuna , not saying a week stood on my head , but yes very acheivable , beyond that a substantial fee , or some tacky TV programe , it's a lot harder than you think , but basing it on my own territory/backyard , not 5 miles out on the open moor , i would give it a go ( not detracting , in part , the original content of the thread ) I am quite lucky that i can condition my mind to go without food or water for 2 days , not to be admired but i can . Not saying it's possible hiking miles across open moor with a heavy pack .

But I feel a bit of a silly challenge coming on ( what season are we talking ? )

 

[JonathanD]

I definately don't think I could live through the colder months. Not a chance.

 

[toilet digger]

after fighting the urge to gag pretty much constantly, in a woodland/lowland environment; snails and carbs from typher can be found all year round and on the coast you have a greater variety of snot like and rubbery critters. so in theory as long as needed without resorting to fishing and hunting.
ultimately it depends on the strength of character of the individual involved but personally i'd like to think a couple of weeks .

 

[luckylee]

i think i could survive for a week, but anything after that, i'm not so sure, but like it has been said, you would not no until you tried it, i think, that i would survive on mainely grubs if i'm honest, that what most people tend to eat in those types of situations, you will be surprised what you will do when you no that death is coming, and that will to survive kicks in, i think that why some people get out of these situations and some don't i think some people just give up, and except that this is it, and some just would not, id like to think that i'm in the later category, as have been in some situations in my life, where i have proved this to my self.
would be nice to see if some one would take up the challenge.

 

[Martyn]

Oh I know you would all survive a week. You'd survive a week if you ate nothing at all. But I think it would be exceptionally lean. I think it would be an interesting exercise as you would go in healthy with lots of energy and develop a real feeling for how many calories are available from the woods. If picking are lean in that first week, it's only going to get worse. The coast would be much easier and obviously if it was about forced survival, then anything goes, but that is not the question. So the consensus that a week would be doable, but mainly because you'd be living off your fat reserves, biut anything longer would start to get pretty rough?