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Post by ThreeperMan Wed 15 Jul 2009, 15:22

Question Is there anywhere you are aware of, or any way of finding out, where I could try out my tracking, hunting and survival skills in the UK?

Asked by Mr Jason Hanlon

Answer

Many people have been drawn to learning more about hunting, tracking and survival skills as a result of programmes on TV featuring the likes of Ray Mears and Bear Grylls. And, in fact, Ray Mears actually has his own school called ‘Woodlore’ which is based in Etchingham in East Sussex. There he runs a range of courses from understanding the basics of bushcraft such as how to start a fire using natural means, animal tracking, the importance of identifying edible plants and how to build a shelter from the resources around you and much more besides. Woodlore run numerous courses of varying difficulty. There are introductions to bushcraft, special family programmes going right the way up to week long survival expeditions. Due to Ray’s popularity and commitments, however, you’re more likely to be taught by one of his instructors although he does give occasional personal talks all over the country.

If you go onto the internet and type in ‘survival courses uk’ or ‘bushcraft courses uk’, you’ll see there are a number of similar bushcraft and survival courses all over the UK so you should be able to find one reasonably close to where you live. The length of these courses can vary – from simple one day classes to residential week long courses and many of these schools even run survival courses abroad.

Woodsmoke in Cumbria and the Survival School in Stroud, Gloucestershire are just two and there’s also one called National Pathways in Canterbury, Kent which, as well as offering courses at the school, they will also come out to where you live to teach you the basics of survival and wilderness bushcraft.

Therefore, all you have to do is to decide which course you want to go on. Some courses will teach you a little bit about many skills to give you a basic overall understanding whilst others will offer specialist courses in a specific discipline if you want to become more of an expert. Some will also focus more heavily on bushcraft skills whilst others will be more involved with wilderness survival, although there will inevitably be some crossover.

However, whether for the serious enthusiast, a corporate team building day or for a family day out to learn just a little bit more about survival techniques, many people find that these courses teach them so much – not just about nature and survival but about themselves too and they are great self-confidence builders as well as being extremely useful and very informative.

Thanks to http://www.thesurvivalexpert.co.uk/where-can-i-try-out-survival-skills.html
ThreeperMan
ThreeperMan
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Post by ThreeperMan Wed 15 Jul 2009, 15:17

Question Just wondering if it's possible to find flint in woodland?

If it is where are the best places to have a look?

Asked by Mr Geraint Radford


Answer

It has been assumed here that you want to look for flint in order to use it as a natural means to start a fire. If so, you can find flint wherever you can find chalk and the likes of uprooted trees and creek beds are usually a good place to start. Granite or any good quartzite will also do the job.

However, if you’re faced with a survival situation, time will be a precious commodity especially with regard to keeping warm and the last thing you want to be doing is searching around for something to spark a fire so the best thing you should do is to buy a flint fire starting kit. You can pick these up for around £20 from most specialist outdoor adventure shops. As well as the flint stick, the kit will comprise a piece of steel and the many outdoor enthusiasts say that the best ones consist of a magnesium block as the shavings you get from that will produce an intense heat far more quickly.

When you strike the spark, you’re basically shaving off minute fragments of steel with the sharp edge of the flint –the harder the steel, the hotter the fragments and the sharper the flint, the more sparks you will generate. Strike downwards at an angle on the steel so that the fragments fall onto the tinder you’ve collected and eventually the tinder will catch alight. Depending on the heat you’ve been able to generate, you may need to cup the tinder in your hand as soon as you see any signs of smoke and blow on it gently to make it ignite.

This is a skill which is quite easy to master and there are plenty of survival courses you can go on to learn how to do it. And, as fire is one of your greatest priorities when faced with a survival situation, it is a skill that you should definitely learn, especially if you go trekking in remote places. Things like lighters can fail and matches can get wet so it’s good to know how to start a fire by natural means and as these little flint fire starting kits are small, they are easy to carry around and should be an essential item to put in your survival kit.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for flint to make tools with, there are plenty of flint knapping courses available too which may be of interest.

Thanks to http://www.thesurvivalexpert.co.uk/where-are-best-places-find-flint.html
ThreeperMan
ThreeperMan
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Posts : 537
Join date : 2009-07-12
Age : 74
Location : Galveston, TX

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