Where do you go to practise bushcraft?

[Wayne]

Practicing bushcraft skills is a mind set. Learning plant and tree id. Plant pathology, tracking skills, Volunteer for your local wildlife trust and coppice group. Loads of opportunities to practice tool skills whilst putting something back into the communities. Even in urban settings the are friends of parks groups, the London Orchard project. Spoon clubs the association of Greenwood workers and Pole lathe turners etc all have local projects and crafts folk that need a hand and are willing to share skills.

Approach your local bushcraft schools and volunteer your services as camp helper. Dont expect it to be free training or glamorous but your will learn new skills and get access to private woodland to practice.

Many areas have Bushcraft Clubs that offer cheap access to woodland such as the Sussex Bushcraft Club.

Talk to landowners and forestry workers. Ask yourself why they should give you access to their land that feeds their families. If you can make a good case then its likely that they may offer you something.

 

[Robson Valley]

Preparing tinder to reliably catch a spark. What have I got, where ever I am, that will catch the spark? All I need to see is flame, 1" tall x 1" wide and that's success.
Second thing is spark making. That's a big deal or there would not be such a variety of possibilities. I'm determined eventually to make a coal with a bow and drill in a hearth stick. I've seen it, smelled it, but nothing that I have ever been able to repeat. You are strictly limited to the materials that I can find here in the west side of the Rockies. Obviously, it works all over the world with many kinds of materials.

See? the thing is, I can do all this, squatting on my front door step. Practice, practice, practice to look like an absolute ace out in the forest.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Wherever I’m fishing

 

[Hedge Monkey]

What skills do you need woods for?. Skills are knowledge, and Woods are good. Once you've cooked your steak on a fire and had an uncomfortable night's sleep, you reconsidered what you am achieving. I could barely name a bush or a tree, what wild edibles taste like. The UK is far from wild and that is a shame, all the knowledge you need for this country can be practiced every where. Mostly at home if you don't have a garden.
Knots, recipes, knife skills, simple whittling projects. Coming up with a bed system that truly works. Increase you pay load with food, get rid of gadgets, my little Swiss army knife is brill. Small knife, bigger brain.
My advice is to plan a trip give it ago. You will be mostly walking.
What you can identify on the way is the best bit. A day and a night is usually enough.