What are we really

draybo

Member
Sep 21, 2022
30
21
57
Nottinghamshire
Are we in the Bushcraft community frustrated Kids we hide away from other people and build dens in the woods in secret. For me personally it is just the fun of it but is there more to it.
 
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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
8,490
8,369
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
I think we all view things slightly differently. As I have said previously, and probably ad nauseum, I don't subscribe to the concept that there is an activity of 'Buschcrafting'. Bushcraft, for me, is a set of skills that I apply to a wide range of outdoor activities such as camping, canoeing, walking, backpacking, fishing, hunting, and even overland trekking, and those skills allow me to enjoy the activities more comfortably and more safely. In my youth we would just have called them wilderness skills.

And yes, I do enjoy sitting around a campfire whittling a spoon but that's definitely not the limit to 'bushcraft' :)
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,774
Berlin
The wilderness or bushcraft skills simply allow me to use all the space between the towns and villages in a comfortable way and they make me independent of other people when I travel.

For me it's less a sport than the real life and otherwise the civilisation rather a weird thing.

I don't live in a survival shelter of course but there weren't so many days in the last decades were I didn't use some wilderness skills in daily life, even if I just use in town orientation skills or whatever.
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,831
3,783
66
Exmoor
For me it's part of everyday life. I do something connected to "bushcraft" most days.
I don't think of it as bushcraft, just how I live, but then I have spent a fair bit of time working out in the woods, camping or actualy living off grid, so a lot of those skills are transferable.
Even though I live in bricks and mortar nowadays, I can't help but use the walk into town for milk etc to keep hunting for anything from a mushroom, to twigs for kindling for the woodburner.
 

Fadcode

Full Member
Feb 13, 2016
2,857
895
Cornwall
isn't it about self attainment, relaxation pushing the boundaries, in reality it is no different from any other hobby, (unless it involves living off grid or getting away from society permanently)and like any hobby or pastime you can go into it deeply or just use it to relax, some people like to go walking, fishing, take photographs or even pop down to the allotment for a few hours, enjoyment is the key word, if you enjoy what you are doing, even if you don't do it well, then that is reason for doing it.
 
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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
I didn't know that all the bits and pieces of things I foraged, gathered, used, the resouces I found, the skills I learned and used as I lived in the natural world, were 'bushcraft'.
Like WoodyGirl, they were and are just part of everyday life.
I live within the seasonal round, I 'need' to live within that seasonal round.

I like the chill out asap aspect of it :) I think it's healthy, not just for the body, but the mind and spirit too.

We belong in that natural world, even with our very modern lifestyles.

M
 
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Kav

Nomad
Mar 28, 2021
452
360
71
California
My avocations; field archaeology, mule packing and environmental
activism required extended camping. I just enjoy it. Explainingn it is like Louis Armstrong’s reply about Jazz.
 

Lean'n'mean

Settler
Nov 18, 2020
744
464
France
Not sure what bushcraft is but I doubt I do it. Wild camping has been my thing, though my motivations have changed over the years. When I first got the calling in '79, it was a means to escape the leafy suburbs of North West London & dream of adventure, then it became an alternative lifestyle for a short period & now, decades later in the rural idyll of western France, it is a need to connect (to what I don't know) to disconnect from technology & to do nothing but think. Time whizzes by at breakneck speed & we're not aware of it until it's too late, so throwing out an anchor from time to time, slowing down a pace, taking stock & contemplating anything & everything, is prehaps the only self indulgence I allow myself.
 

Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,540
705
Knowhere
It's a state of mind really and an excuse to dress up :) It is also about stewardship of the land and being in harmony with it. I enjoy nothing so much as watching my trees grow in my latter days. I like to play with sharp things and utilise what I find to make things that are vaguely "bushcrafty" To be perfectly honest I could just become a hi tech hiker and probably be more comfortable but there is something about the aesthetic of canvas and leather, wool, ventile and wax that is satisfying and of course making a brew up in the woods.
 

Ystranc

Settler
May 24, 2019
535
404
55
Powys, Wales
I’m a fairly ordinary person who has picked up a few tricks that help me enjoy the great outdoors. It’s not all about kit, it isn’t even all about knowledge. For me it’s about attitude and loving being outdoors.
 
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