Living from the land

[hootchi]

Hello all fellow bushcrafters.

The British Isles today has a very varied terrain and climate. If given the chance where would you prefer to live from the land, assuming the law did not apply.

Would you chose a place with varied plants to forage, an abundance of animals to hunt, extensive woodland to provide materials for shelter or tools, high groud or low ground, north or south? Would you chose to migrate and follow the deer herds, live on the coast or inland, moors, plains or countryside?

Looking foward to your input.

Thanks.

 

[tomtom]

south devon coast where i am now.. warm and fertile!

 

[Ed]

Where ever it was, for me it would have to be beside the sea.... somewhere on the coast as I love foraging on the coastline..... the amount of food available is phenomenal.


Ed

 

[Ahjno]

Just like Ed: somewhere at a sea coast (after all I'm dutch - we need water ), with preferably with some pine woodland in the deeper country and some small hills. Would be great if there was a small stream with fresh water

Something like where Ray was in his very first episode of his new series while he was foraging the coats for limpets etc. - Can't remember where it was though

 

[chris chris]

Totally agree with the coastal choice, so much food as Ed says.

 

[Stuart]

coastal would be my choice as well, near an estury prefurably, myther mawr would be my idea place for living off the land.

dunes full of bunnys, an estury with lots of freshwater fish, the sea for molloscs and sea food, lots of woodland packed with edibles, and sandy soil ideal for mushrooms.

 

[Tantalus]

there is plenty food in the hills too

except it has a habit of wandering off when you try and catch it

coatsal is nice but what happens if it is so stormy you can not collect limpets for 2 weeks?

and who wants to eat limpets for weeks on end ?

ok only kidding, there is plenty other food in the sea, but getting it often involves serious risk, from hypothermia to undertow that can drag you out to sea etc etc

doesn't a nice piece of quiet wooded hillside and a small flock of semi tame animals appeal

oh and fresh water without worrying who piddled in it upstream, cos you are upstream

Tant

 

[Toddy]

I'm with you on this one Tant...someplace with good riverine soils for a bit of concentrated seed scattering for next years bread would be good too.....see I've got a Neolithic not Mesolithic outlook

Someone once worked out the protein comparisons of one red deer versus limpets. You need to howk off literally thousands of limpets to equal the protein in one deer.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Snufkin]

I'd stay right here in Norfolk, loads of deer. Red, roe, muntjac and chinese water. Rabbits and pigeons galore. Loads of foragables and just a few miles to the coast and the broads. Lots of wood to make bows and arrows and flint everywhere to make arrowheads.

 

[almir]

The point of survival is to be able to survive in a variety of situations. So the answer is wherever it is required.
Nice to be able living off sea, but what if you never reach your holiday destination, coz your airplane crushed in the hills.
You would have to eat a lot of passengers before you make it to the seashore

 

[moko]

I guess you have to look at it much the same way as our ancesters did. Stay put and live by the the sea making use of everthing the oceans have to offer or keep tame animals, grow and hunt seasonal foods in a perminant location. On the other hand, travel with the herds in a nomadic life style hunting on the run.
I read some where that modern man developed more complex technologies in coastal communities due to brain enriching proteins found in fish! I wonder if choosing the environment is more a question of personality that it is of practicality? apologies for poor spelling.

 

[hootchi]

Thanks for the insight folks. I have to agree I do like the coast, although I don't forage much, even I can find some food. Having not lived on the coast before and after moving to the coast I realised how good it is. I would choose a coastal environment on the west coast of scotland near the reds.

cheers

 

[Gail]

How about by a scottish loch with an abundance of freshwater molluscs, on a shingle shore surrounded by woodlands !

 

[Eric_Methven]

On the shores of Loch Fyne would do me, between Inverary and Lochgilped. Not exactly on the coast, so I'd be protected from Atlantic weather to some degree, but still right by salt water so the sea's bounty would still be within my reach. Plenty of clear, clean mountain streams with brown trout nearby as well, not to mention bunnies and deer for meat and clothing.

Eric

 

[Snufkin]

Those scottish deer are a bit puny. We grow 'em bigger in the east

And these shots don't even include the dominant stag!

 

[george]

Hootchie

I reckon I would stay just where I am - N. W Highlands down by the coast. Interestingly enough where I live has some of the earliest recorded settlements from way way back. (not sure of the exact timings) but some of the old rock shelters were part of an archeological survey a couple of years ago. The results were published as part of the Scotlands Early Settlers project and showed that the diet that people lived on here was pretty varied, from wild boar to huge fish!. Of course there are no wild boar left up here and the Inner Sound is pretty much fished out but the shellfish is still plentiful and you cant move without tripping over a red deer or 20.

Snufkin - I was reading an interesting piece recently that spoke about the fact that since victorian times we've been shooting any stag that grows big enough to make a trophy. Effectively we've been selective breeding for 150 years to ensure that growing a big set of antlers is not a desirable survival trait! The deer in your pics are monsters compared to the scrawny "rats with antlers" we sometimes get here after a bad year.

George

 

[Snufkin]

George, it's also a question of diet and climate. Down here deer have it easy.