Why do you do it?

[gliderrider]

Sorry guys, but I forgot to tell you my reasons. They are three fold, Harvester and Mick W have givven two of them, the last being FAR too much litriture in my life. From Jack Londons White Fang/ Call of the Wild, Kiplings jungle books, and tolkiens LOTR(I want to be aragorn) but also tales of charictors like Robert Rogers, Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie, frontiersmen that lead a romantic life, living from the land & in harmony with it.

If only "The Good Life" was a documentary.

 

[Man of Tanith]

i do it because i can. it gets me out and away from my job and helps me centre myself as to what is important it isnt risk assessments and legislation its living in my natural environment not a box that i can control temperature etc at the flick of a switch.
think assorted books had an influence on my thinking always leant towards fantasy and like the ideas in those stories.

 

[RonW]

I remember being a young lad, about 8 or 9 years old, allways running around in the woods with a small group of friends, building shelters, making fires, roasting potatoes, eating berries, using our folding knives to make spears and "hunt". We slept, ate and played out there and I still remember that feeling of freedom, of joy..... So, appearantly it comes naturally...
When in the military many years later, that feeling came back to me, being on exercises, making shelters again, sleeping under the stars, moving through the woods, preferably at night.
And since a few years, about 3 or so, the sickening stress of everyday adult life jumpstarted the longing for that peacefull feeling of being, again. My life and my being felt so unreal, untrue, fake.... I just had to go back again!

I do not like to be dependant, but want to be able to take care of myself and my family, going back to basics, doing those basics, relearning the connection of all things living and figuring out what my place in that might be and it's also a spiritual journey for me, as I firmly believe there's more out there than we can see....
I have only started to scratch the surface of the of this thing we call bushcraft and I will never learn it all, because there's just too much that can be learned. It isn't just bumming about in the woods. It is becoming a way of life! This means slowly working my/our way to grow and find our own food, living of the grid, using nature's gifts and be thankfull for them, living with the seasons.....
I think you know what I'm talking about....

 

[Graywolf]

I was taken into the Australian bush for a camping trip at the age of 6,got eaten alive by mosies,and absolutely loved it,just feels right when I am out there.

 

[adventure]

mine would be...I remember I watched the TV show lost and thought survival looked fun, they I started actually doing stuff and come into contact with bushcrafters and that set it of, eventually the new tech started to annoy me and the forest is a way of getting away.

That is probably one main reason most do it, for an escape from real life ( or modern )

 

[SI-Den]

I just enjoy living out doors,

On one level I get great satisfaction by being able to keep warm, dry & fed no matter what the weather does - kind of a battle against the elements!

And on another level it's good to be able to do the above while working with nature & the elements - using what's about to make things more comfortable.

As for what got me started, a group of friends back when we were 15 who all wanted to join up and though getting out and camping in fields & woods would be a good way of getting used to army life! Oddly enough when most of us did join up we found that it was bloody different to what we had thought when we were 15!!!

Den