Hi all 
My friend and I were lucky enough to have been given a Christmas presents that we would actually enjoy from our better halves Bushcraft course!!!!
I promised a review so here it goes and its one of my first so please be patient plus my spelling and punctuation leave a lot be desired so if needed I will provide a decoder wheel later on .
I believe the course was between £120 and £140 ish pounds and was provided by www.Excite.co.uk but the actual course was with www.survivalschool.co.uk and located in Staffordshire.
We arrived on the Friday at 7.00pm at the pub car park to meet the course leader Jonny Crocket and yes I did wonder if it was his real name. We then proceeded by car to where the course was held which was a lovely varied broad leaf wood with areas of coniferous working wood. This was a perfect place as we had the high resin stuff to play with along with all the more native woods as well.
On the trip down I was wondering where we would be sleeping as turning up when dark is a little bit of a pain to find a nice spot but this was all taken car of as the nice guys at SS (going to call survival school that from now on) had already setup a nice fire/hot water for brews and 6 tarps for us all to kip under.
Once we had thrown all out kit down and the usual disclaimers had been sited it was time to go for a wonder and find some firewood for the night which due to the recent winds was plentiful. SS also had a spare frosts mora and Laplander saws for each person on the course. Once we had settled in the course instructors hung around for a bit to introduce them selves then scarpered off so that everyone could get to know each other and enjoy the fire.
The instruction started at 7:30am with a breakfast of boiled eggs and a flower and raisin mix which made a nice bread that was cooked on the open fire.
The first day one of the priorities was to make a shelter so we made a group lean-to and a few other small one man jobbies which was great fun. There was also game preparation (pigeon, rabbit, fish) of which we all had a go at and was very interesting and something I had always wanted to try especially as most of it was done by hand with no knives.
I am struggling to remember which order things went in and on which day as there was so much information and so intensive.
The course leaders also took us through fire lighting methods and we all got a go at fire by friction and I made it !!!!!!!!!!! what a feeling to create fire from nawt.
Water purification and collection was a great eye opener also. There was plant and tree identification/application, fire pit cooking, natural cordage, knife and axe use and sharpening, trapping and more. Prior to attending the course I though how much could you possibly cram into what was really two partial days and one full day but I was wrong we went through a massive amount of skill and information and surprisingly most of it stuck. The student to pupil ratio was completely unexpected as at times it could be about 2 or 3 to one. All of the material was very hands on and everything demonstrated we all had a go at. Finally to cap it all off we finished the course with a steam/sweat lodge, great time all round !
I would like to say a massive thanks to all at survival school for their patience and knowledge and I would look forward to meeting them all again on another course in the future.
Fire pit.
First nights pre rigged tarps...
Fire n food
instructor (left) and shelter
Me an me bushcraft homie
evening - alcohol of course
Lunch
PS no affiliation etc etc thanks for looking......................
My friend and I were lucky enough to have been given a Christmas presents that we would actually enjoy from our better halves Bushcraft course!!!!
I promised a review so here it goes and its one of my first so please be patient plus my spelling and punctuation leave a lot be desired so if needed I will provide a decoder wheel later on
.I believe the course was between £120 and £140 ish pounds and was provided by www.Excite.co.uk but the actual course was with www.survivalschool.co.uk and located in Staffordshire.
We arrived on the Friday at 7.00pm at the pub car park to meet the course leader Jonny Crocket and yes I did wonder if it was his real name. We then proceeded by car to where the course was held which was a lovely varied broad leaf wood with areas of coniferous working wood. This was a perfect place as we had the high resin stuff to play with along with all the more native woods as well.
On the trip down I was wondering where we would be sleeping as turning up when dark is a little bit of a pain to find a nice spot but this was all taken car of as the nice guys at SS (going to call survival school that from now on) had already setup a nice fire/hot water for brews and 6 tarps for us all to kip under.
Once we had thrown all out kit down and the usual disclaimers had been sited it was time to go for a wonder and find some firewood for the night which due to the recent winds was plentiful. SS also had a spare frosts mora and Laplander saws for each person on the course. Once we had settled in the course instructors hung around for a bit to introduce them selves then scarpered off so that everyone could get to know each other and enjoy the fire.
The instruction started at 7:30am with a breakfast of boiled eggs and a flower and raisin mix which made a nice bread that was cooked on the open fire.
The first day one of the priorities was to make a shelter so we made a group lean-to and a few other small one man jobbies which was great fun. There was also game preparation (pigeon, rabbit, fish) of which we all had a go at and was very interesting and something I had always wanted to try especially as most of it was done by hand with no knives.
I am struggling to remember which order things went in and on which day as there was so much information and so intensive.
The course leaders also took us through fire lighting methods and we all got a go at fire by friction and I made it !!!!!!!!!!!
what a feeling to create fire from nawt.Water purification and collection was a great eye opener also. There was plant and tree identification/application, fire pit cooking, natural cordage, knife and axe use and sharpening, trapping and more. Prior to attending the course I though how much could you possibly cram into what was really two partial days and one full day but I was wrong we went through a massive amount of skill and information and surprisingly most of it stuck. The student to pupil ratio was completely unexpected as at times it could be about 2 or 3 to one. All of the material was very hands on and everything demonstrated we all had a go at. Finally to cap it all off we finished the course with a steam/sweat lodge, great time all round !
I would like to say a massive thanks to all at survival school for their patience and knowledge and I would look forward to meeting them all again on another course in the future.
Fire pit.
First nights pre rigged tarps...
Fire n food
instructor (left) and shelter
Me an me bushcraft homie
evening - alcohol of course
Lunch
PS no affiliation etc etc thanks for looking......................
