New Series of Ray

[fred gordon]

Just finished watching Ray! I thought it was fantastic. I think its a real shame that some of our aborigeonal britain knowledge might have been lost over time! I cant wait till ray comes back to the UK and explores our native plants!

And you know that George man Ray was with, i met him in August on my work experience! How cool is that! He and Ray were testing out a tool that had been gound in archilogical digs. The tool consisted of a long wooden handle with a piece of antler on the end. I bet that tool will be shown in this series!

Any other thoughts?

I thought it was great too. If the other parts are as good then we are in for a real treat over the next few weeks. Personally I quite like the slightly scientific approach to this series. It will be interesting how much we all find out about our British Bushcraft food.

 

[scoutmaster]

I agree Jon. What a brillant episode. It's fascinating the way the aboriginals use simpler but more effective tools such as a snail shell for grating and a humble stick in place of a shovel for digging. :Wow:

Can't wait till next week.

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Realy enjoyed watching - even missed going down to the pub.

 

[dave k]

I agree Jon. What a brillant episode. It's fascinating the way the aboriginals use simpler but more effective tools such as a snail shell for grating and a humble stick in place of a shovel for digging. :Wow:

Can't wait till next week.

That snail thing was ace. I think this really hits home about the level of knowledge we can miss uncovering items from the past - if you just saw it at a dig site you'd just think it was a broken snail shell!

 

[anthonyyy]

Best yet! Thanks Ray and all the team!

 

[kata]

lol @ the little girl pulling the iguanas tongue out.....

 

[Eric_Methven]

Excellent programme! I liked how each plant had an aboriginal song related to it. What a great idea. Next time I go fishing for salmon, I'll sing the salmon song - you know the one, 'Salmon-chanted evening'. Or when I cut up meat, the butcher song - 'Butcher arms around me honey, hold me tight'. All in all, well worth watching. Can't wait till next wednesday.

Eric

 

[penvisser]

very nice episode of Mr Mears, a great man with an even bigger influence on us all!

 

[Mikey P]

Might break with tradition a bit here...

Whilst I enjoyed the first programme (I have a soft spot for Australian bushcraft - see some of my other posts - and if you really want to know about Australian bushcraft, watch the Les Hiddins programmes), I think that it was not as relevant as they stated. Whilst there were a few parallels, I think the connection between Australian and British bushcraft was tenuous at best. Perhaps they felt that they could get a jolly out of the BBC and chose Australia. Why not Africa? Asia?

I am actually more looking forward to the the stuff in the UK as I think that will be far more relevant to us. Let's not get carried away after only the first episode - the programmes have to stand as a series! Herecy!

That said, the broken-shell yam scraper was probably the most elegant bush tool I have ever seen...

 

[moocher]

i found talking to a few grandparents age people that lived around here and can remember the 2nd world war/rationing .throws up interesting facts like throwing sticks for squirrels,and pointed digging sticks for grubbing up the pignut bulb.or penknives were used ,spades were for gardening & road mending so in some rural areas i dont think the skills have been lost for long.oh and in a topic stealing moment a pensioner was cautioned for picking rowan berries on private land after a caretaker reported him to police,and they tracked his car reg using cctv,food for thought.

 

[Dave Budd]

I was a bit miffed that within 5 minutes ray had gone from Dover to down under, then after 45 mins realising he wasn't about to get on with what we had been so looking forward to (-British wild food), i was dissapoited and annoyed.

By the time it had finished I had come to the conclusion that he had made a bit of a mistake in spending the whole episode on ethnographic comparison, especially in a climate that is totally alien to that in Britain for severl million years. On the whole though I think he was trying to make a point about the mindset of a hunter gatherer society. This series looks set to be more of a look at the people who lived in pre-agrircultural Britain and what they ate, rather than a field guide for free food.

I will keep watching and see what happens, apart from anything else, I enjoy playing the "I know them" game with the various people they are likely to bump into when doing archaeological and bushcraft things (and a friend of mine will be appearing alongside a bunch of woven fish traps at some stage )

 

[JohnC]

.....I liked how each plant had an aboriginal song related to it. What a great idea. ......

Eric

Great programme! Looking forward to next week

It's not food related but Joe, my 7yo son chants a rhyme when trying a bowline.. There must be many other songs/rhymes for tasks still around (can't for the life of me think of any others just now though )

I think the idea of a present day hunter gather group was a good one, it'll be something to relate any theories they put forward in the rest of the series about Britain.

 

[dave k]

Les Hiddins

Bush tucker man Used to have a load of his video's.. class!

 

[bushman762]

I was a bit miffed that within 5 minutes ray had gone from Dover to down under, then after 45 mins realising he wasn't about to get on with what we had been so looking forward to (-British wild food), i was dissapoited and annoyed.

By the time it had finished I had come to the conclusion that he had made a bit of a mistake in spending the whole episode on ethnographic comparison, especially in a climate that is totally alien to that in Britain for severl million years. On the whole though I think he was trying to make a point about the mindset of a hunter gatherer society. This series looks set to be more of a look at the people who lived in pre-agrircultural Britain and what they ate, rather than a field guide for free food.

I will keep watching and see what happens, apart from anything else, I enjoy playing the "I know them" game with the various people they are likely to bump into when doing archaeological and bushcraft things (and a friend of mine will be appearing alongside a bunch of woven fish traps at some stage )

~

I'm with you on this one...I too was very disappointed in the show, the format has changed to follow other adventure / explorer types, not a change for the better IMHO. I sure hope it was just in this first show and not a new trend. My wife pointed out like a few others on here that his shorts were too short...made him look like a big, bad, school cub!

 

[Biddlesby]

Good episode! It's a shame there wasn't any british food but I expect that will come later in the series. I can see why he chose australia as the first episode. It was interesting finding out about the mindset of a gatherer, more than anything.

Glad to see Mr Mears is back on TV! (and that the episodes are an hour long)

Anybody else think he has put on some weight? Perhaps it was the "testing" food for the series - or all those witchetty grubs!

 

[Jodie]

I thought it was great. Apart from the skills etc. already mentioned in
other posts I also enjoyed the fact that the film crew often crop up on
the screen - it just looks like a really fun thing to work on!

My dad said he was glued to the screen and found the whole sociological
aspect of things quite fascinating. He likes Ray Mears' programmes
well enough but I think he liked this episode most as there was less of the
"sooner or later he's going to set fire to something" emphasis. For me
that's quite a plus (the fire stuff), less so for my dad

I hope it's going to come out on DVD - ideally with subtitles as I missed
a lot of the names of people, plus it's quite helpful to have names of
plants pop up on screen. Happy to volunteer my audio-typing skills if
the BBC are reading

 

[Silverback]

Agree with the 'shorts' comments you could almost see his pignuts

 

[Klenchblaize]

At the risk of being barred from this site - or at least left off you 2007 Xmas card list, I’m afraid I was far from impressed with last night’s opener and, like others here, was rather too geared-up for foraging throughout this wee Isle. Fortunately though the trailer for the next few episodes looks far more exiting – but then anything involving eels always is!

That I considered the sight of a non-snorkelled Land-Rover Discovery wading dangerously close to its limit to be the highlight is my honest opinion of the EPISODE 1. Sorry if this offends RM disciples.

I just couldn’t help feeling we were going over old ground (no pun intended) with many of the basics ‘dressed’ and presented as something different. But then this is what happens with most interests - a classic example being the purchase of any “How To” magazine when, after the first 12 – 24 editions, you find the same stuff creeping in as conveyed in the early editions! Such is life I guess but am I alone in feeling it was as if RM was working through a rather ‘tired’ & stilted script as in: Ray goes to bush. Ray eats wriggly grub. Ray puts up Tarp. Ray lights fire. Ray has a go at woodcarving. Ray forages. Ray speaks passionately (and indeed he dose) about the loss and preciousness of such skills. I’d also like to have found out how they caught/hunted the lizard thingy!

In short for me this episode was neither fish nor fowl but acknowledge it would be inspiring to someone unfamiliar with bushcraft and RM.

Let the stoning commence!


Cheers

 

[WhichDoctor]

This series looks set to be more of a look at the people who lived in pre-agrircultural Britain and what they ate, rather than a field guide for free food.

Surely aren't those the same. The best way to find out what to eat in this part of the world is to find out what people in this part of the world ate, and viser verser. I for one have always wondered what stone age Europeans lived on, and as was stated in the program, archeology can't really tell us. This is a lot less pure bushcraft and much more the use of bushcraft to obtain knowledge, I've know doubt the information they uncover will be of use to bushcrafters, but also to archeology.

Also its attracting a more divers ordiance, my brother who is very interested in nutrition is watching it with grate interest.

 

[dommyracer]

I think it was a good set up show, particularly for those who may not have watched a Ray program before.

I expect that later on in the series they will be trying stuff out in Britain and experimenting by referring back to what they had discovered in Episode 1 when they met the aboriginals.