Having just attended this course, I thought it would be good to write a review to give my views in order to help other people looking for courses to decide if it would be appropriate for them. I’ll start off with a disclaimer – I have no connection with Woodlore or any other bushcraft school and these are my personal opinions based on attending this one course – I have not attended courses at other schools so I do not have anything to compare it with. If any aspects of my review are seen as negative, they should be taken as constructive criticisms. I will be sending a copy of the article to Woodlore in any case, as I thought it would be useful for them to have some feedback.
I’ll start off with a much overused quote: “It does what it says on the tin”. The title of the course tells you what is going to happen – this is a gentle introduction to bushcraft, possibly aimed at the ‘experience’ market – the vast majority of the 20 students had been given the course as a birthday present that had been booked 12-18 months in advance – so don’t expect to come away with lots of new skills. Sharps are not used in the course, so this does restrict the activities. Having said that, I enjoyed the two days and did learn some new things. If nothing else, it was a good opportunity to live in the woods for a while and to play with fires.
We were asked to assemble at 09:30, when we would be taken to the ‘secret location’. Some students rang through to say that they would be late so it was about 09:50 by the time we set off for a very hectic drive trying to keep up in convoy to the private farm where we parked cars, kit was loaded onto a landrover and we walked the half mile or so into the woods. It was a good location, in a nice mature mixed woodland. We were asked to find an area and to pitch our tents, before assembling for a brew and the course introduction.
It must have been getting on for 11:00-11:30 by the time the course proper started and I was a little disappointed that (with the 16:00 finish time for the second day) it was effectively only going to be about a 1 ½ day course. We were shown the facilities – student area under a parachute with a kettle boiling over the communal fire, washing area, food prep area and toilet facilities (hole in the ground) and then onto the two activities before lunch. Clever idea (to me at least) for privacy at the toilet: toilet roll, anti-bacterial wash and matches (for burning the paper) were kept in a waterproof box in the main site. When you want to go, you pick up the box and go to the pit. If the box it isn't there, then the toilet must be occupied so you wait until the box returns.
One of the four instructors gave us a talk on bushcraft kit and how best to pack a rucksack, using a whiteboard and marker. Some useful information, though I think it would have been much improved by having him show us his rucksack and contents rather than drawing a picture on a whiteboard. We were then shown how to pitch a tarp (Australian hootchie). I found this very good, as I learned some new knots, and we were then issued with tarps and went off to pitch them so that those who wanted to could sleep under them that night.
My bed for the night
Following this was lunch. This was a DIY affair, with some very good food having been provided for us. There were fresh loaves, a whole ham, salami, various cheeses, salad leaves and tomatoes, fresh fruit, two-pot yogurts, cakes. We sat around the fire chatting, eating and drinking tea until the afternoon activities started.
The main event was a 2-3 hour ‘nature walk’ around the farm with plant and tree identification, bird spotting, being chased by cows. I’d never knowingly seen a hornbeam before and it was good to learn things like not using holly for cooking (toxic to humans) but OK for warmth. When we returned, it was time for a brew and then instruction on how to light a fire using one match, at which time we were split into groups of 4 and had to gather wood for our fire then organise it for burning before we were given our one match.
We delegated the fire lighting to the cub leader in our group and he did us proud, lighting the birch bark with the one match and getting the fire going while two of us prepared the billy can stew for our evening meal. We were given a pack of diced stewing steak, and a pile of root vegetables (swede, carrot, onion, potato, garlic) and there were also various herbs, spices, stock cubes, sauces to put in. We sat around the fire chatting while our dinner cooked and then had a good meal. Once this was over, we returned to the main parachute area and chatted over tea /coffee and cakes and the instructors issued those of us who wanted them with bivi bags. It was starting to drizzle by 22:00 so I got into my sleeping bag in the bivi bag under my tarp and had a good night’s sleep, despite the heavy rain throughout the night. I stayed warm and dry and was secretly pleased that I was one of only 4 or 5 people who slept under the tarp.
I was up at 06:30 and hung around until the instructors brought a bag of self lighting charcoal (!) for our fire – to be fair they needed a bed of embers quickly so that we could cook breakfast. They then brought us sausages, eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms and bread and left us to get on with it, using (I can’t remember the name) big disks on tripods for cooking. Once this was done, we got onto the morning’s activities.
Me cooking sausages - should have put my hat on to hide the thinning hair!
We had various demonstrations of fire lighting: modern firesteel and birch bark and we were all given a brand new firesteel to keep; traditional flint, steel and charcloth. I hadn’t come across the ‘birch bark cigar’ for developing an ember into a flame, so that was something that I want to try in the future. We all played with our firesteels trying to light our birch bark, and also had a go with the flint and steel. We then got onto the bit I particularly wanted to see – bowdrill. It was very useful to see how the ember is managed once it has started smoking – I gained a lot of useful information from this demo. Next, it was our turn. The instructors produced a giant bowdrill that needed 5 or 6 people to operate and we all had the chance to have a go. The ember it produced could be split down into 6-8 smaller embers, that we could then use to ignite handfuls of dry grass. We took our tents down while it wasn’t raining.
Lunch came after this, then instruction on how to take down and fold the tarp (and taking down our own tarps) followed by the afternoon activities, concentrating on the senses. One activity was visual, walking down a trail where various man-made items had been placed and trying to spot them. This meant that there was a fair bit of hanging around while other people did the trail, though people filled in time by playing with their firesteels. The other activity was touch, sound and smell. You were blindfolded and taken to a tree and had to ‘memorise’ the tree by touch, you were then taken some distance away and spun round a few times and then, with the blindfold off, had to find the tree that you had been touching.
And that was it. Walk out of the woods and go home.
Conclusions
I enjoyed the course and I am glad I went on it. If I had gone to a course at a different school then I would probably always have wondered if Woodlore would have been better, given that popular opinion would probably say they were the best.
I had already learned quite a lot of things from reading, from browsing and asking questions on BCUK and playing down the bottom of the garden but I did still learn some very useful things from the course. If you know little or nothing about bushcraft then I would recommend the course, but if you do have a basic practical knowledge already or want to cover things in more detail then I think you may be better considering a more advanced course.
Although I have no experience of other bushcraft schools, I can’t think of any reason to recommend this course over any other schools. Ray Mears didn’t show up, but to be fair to Woodlore his presence was never advertised or promised (he was evidently in Australia at the time of the course). If he had taken even one of the classes, then I’d probably have been singing the course’s praises. I travelled a fair way (about 3 hour drive) to get there, so if I were to go on a more advanced course, I’d almost certainly pick one closer to where I live.
Although the course covered a fair amount, I would have liked to see some more background activities. There were times when I felt we were hanging around waiting for something to happen (particularly on the second day). Maybe if we had been shown something like cordage making on the first day and given some raw material then we could have carried on making this at quiet times during the course.
I felt that the activities on the second afternoon were a bit ‘weak’. Observation and use of senses are a big part of bushcraft, but the way they were presented seemed a bit childish and could perhaps have been replaced with something a bit more ‘core’ bushcraft (e.g. water purification, cordage, flint work).
Value for money? A qualified yes. Although this is probably the most expensive 2-day course I found I don’t think it is that much above the average cost of similar courses. However, for the cost I would like to have seen two full days instruction. In particular, I’d have liked the opportunity to stop over the night before the course proper so that we could make a prompt start on the first day.
Waiting times? Woodlore courses seem typically to be booked up at least a year in advance. I chanced upon a cancellation, so I only waited about 2 months. If I had booked up a year in advance, I think I would probably be regretting not going somewhere more readily available and getting that basic bushcraft knowledge now, rather than a year in the future.
In summary, therefore, if you live close to Woodlore and don’t know much about bushcraft or wilderness living, then go for it – but try and get a cancellation. I enjoyed the time on the course, learned some new things, I’m glad I went but I probably wouldn’t go back to Woodlore unless Ray was definitely going to teach some of the course. My feeling is that there are other schools that are just as good and more convenient for me to get to.
Hope this helps.
Geoff
I’ll start off with a much overused quote: “It does what it says on the tin”. The title of the course tells you what is going to happen – this is a gentle introduction to bushcraft, possibly aimed at the ‘experience’ market – the vast majority of the 20 students had been given the course as a birthday present that had been booked 12-18 months in advance – so don’t expect to come away with lots of new skills. Sharps are not used in the course, so this does restrict the activities. Having said that, I enjoyed the two days and did learn some new things. If nothing else, it was a good opportunity to live in the woods for a while and to play with fires.
We were asked to assemble at 09:30, when we would be taken to the ‘secret location’. Some students rang through to say that they would be late so it was about 09:50 by the time we set off for a very hectic drive trying to keep up in convoy to the private farm where we parked cars, kit was loaded onto a landrover and we walked the half mile or so into the woods. It was a good location, in a nice mature mixed woodland. We were asked to find an area and to pitch our tents, before assembling for a brew and the course introduction.
It must have been getting on for 11:00-11:30 by the time the course proper started and I was a little disappointed that (with the 16:00 finish time for the second day) it was effectively only going to be about a 1 ½ day course. We were shown the facilities – student area under a parachute with a kettle boiling over the communal fire, washing area, food prep area and toilet facilities (hole in the ground) and then onto the two activities before lunch. Clever idea (to me at least) for privacy at the toilet: toilet roll, anti-bacterial wash and matches (for burning the paper) were kept in a waterproof box in the main site. When you want to go, you pick up the box and go to the pit. If the box it isn't there, then the toilet must be occupied so you wait until the box returns.
One of the four instructors gave us a talk on bushcraft kit and how best to pack a rucksack, using a whiteboard and marker. Some useful information, though I think it would have been much improved by having him show us his rucksack and contents rather than drawing a picture on a whiteboard. We were then shown how to pitch a tarp (Australian hootchie). I found this very good, as I learned some new knots, and we were then issued with tarps and went off to pitch them so that those who wanted to could sleep under them that night.
Following this was lunch. This was a DIY affair, with some very good food having been provided for us. There were fresh loaves, a whole ham, salami, various cheeses, salad leaves and tomatoes, fresh fruit, two-pot yogurts, cakes. We sat around the fire chatting, eating and drinking tea until the afternoon activities started.
The main event was a 2-3 hour ‘nature walk’ around the farm with plant and tree identification, bird spotting, being chased by cows. I’d never knowingly seen a hornbeam before and it was good to learn things like not using holly for cooking (toxic to humans) but OK for warmth. When we returned, it was time for a brew and then instruction on how to light a fire using one match, at which time we were split into groups of 4 and had to gather wood for our fire then organise it for burning before we were given our one match.
We delegated the fire lighting to the cub leader in our group and he did us proud, lighting the birch bark with the one match and getting the fire going while two of us prepared the billy can stew for our evening meal. We were given a pack of diced stewing steak, and a pile of root vegetables (swede, carrot, onion, potato, garlic) and there were also various herbs, spices, stock cubes, sauces to put in. We sat around the fire chatting while our dinner cooked and then had a good meal. Once this was over, we returned to the main parachute area and chatted over tea /coffee and cakes and the instructors issued those of us who wanted them with bivi bags. It was starting to drizzle by 22:00 so I got into my sleeping bag in the bivi bag under my tarp and had a good night’s sleep, despite the heavy rain throughout the night. I stayed warm and dry and was secretly pleased that I was one of only 4 or 5 people who slept under the tarp.
I was up at 06:30 and hung around until the instructors brought a bag of self lighting charcoal (!) for our fire – to be fair they needed a bed of embers quickly so that we could cook breakfast. They then brought us sausages, eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms and bread and left us to get on with it, using (I can’t remember the name) big disks on tripods for cooking. Once this was done, we got onto the morning’s activities.
We had various demonstrations of fire lighting: modern firesteel and birch bark and we were all given a brand new firesteel to keep; traditional flint, steel and charcloth. I hadn’t come across the ‘birch bark cigar’ for developing an ember into a flame, so that was something that I want to try in the future. We all played with our firesteels trying to light our birch bark, and also had a go with the flint and steel. We then got onto the bit I particularly wanted to see – bowdrill. It was very useful to see how the ember is managed once it has started smoking – I gained a lot of useful information from this demo. Next, it was our turn. The instructors produced a giant bowdrill that needed 5 or 6 people to operate and we all had the chance to have a go. The ember it produced could be split down into 6-8 smaller embers, that we could then use to ignite handfuls of dry grass. We took our tents down while it wasn’t raining.
Lunch came after this, then instruction on how to take down and fold the tarp (and taking down our own tarps) followed by the afternoon activities, concentrating on the senses. One activity was visual, walking down a trail where various man-made items had been placed and trying to spot them. This meant that there was a fair bit of hanging around while other people did the trail, though people filled in time by playing with their firesteels. The other activity was touch, sound and smell. You were blindfolded and taken to a tree and had to ‘memorise’ the tree by touch, you were then taken some distance away and spun round a few times and then, with the blindfold off, had to find the tree that you had been touching.
And that was it. Walk out of the woods and go home.
Conclusions
I enjoyed the course and I am glad I went on it. If I had gone to a course at a different school then I would probably always have wondered if Woodlore would have been better, given that popular opinion would probably say they were the best.
I had already learned quite a lot of things from reading, from browsing and asking questions on BCUK and playing down the bottom of the garden but I did still learn some very useful things from the course. If you know little or nothing about bushcraft then I would recommend the course, but if you do have a basic practical knowledge already or want to cover things in more detail then I think you may be better considering a more advanced course.
Although I have no experience of other bushcraft schools, I can’t think of any reason to recommend this course over any other schools. Ray Mears didn’t show up, but to be fair to Woodlore his presence was never advertised or promised (he was evidently in Australia at the time of the course). If he had taken even one of the classes, then I’d probably have been singing the course’s praises. I travelled a fair way (about 3 hour drive) to get there, so if I were to go on a more advanced course, I’d almost certainly pick one closer to where I live.
Although the course covered a fair amount, I would have liked to see some more background activities. There were times when I felt we were hanging around waiting for something to happen (particularly on the second day). Maybe if we had been shown something like cordage making on the first day and given some raw material then we could have carried on making this at quiet times during the course.
I felt that the activities on the second afternoon were a bit ‘weak’. Observation and use of senses are a big part of bushcraft, but the way they were presented seemed a bit childish and could perhaps have been replaced with something a bit more ‘core’ bushcraft (e.g. water purification, cordage, flint work).
Value for money? A qualified yes. Although this is probably the most expensive 2-day course I found I don’t think it is that much above the average cost of similar courses. However, for the cost I would like to have seen two full days instruction. In particular, I’d have liked the opportunity to stop over the night before the course proper so that we could make a prompt start on the first day.
Waiting times? Woodlore courses seem typically to be booked up at least a year in advance. I chanced upon a cancellation, so I only waited about 2 months. If I had booked up a year in advance, I think I would probably be regretting not going somewhere more readily available and getting that basic bushcraft knowledge now, rather than a year in the future.
In summary, therefore, if you live close to Woodlore and don’t know much about bushcraft or wilderness living, then go for it – but try and get a cancellation. I enjoyed the time on the course, learned some new things, I’m glad I went but I probably wouldn’t go back to Woodlore unless Ray was definitely going to teach some of the course. My feeling is that there are other schools that are just as good and more convenient for me to get to.
Hope this helps.
Geoff
