two-day course bare hands bushcraft

location: nr Nutley, Sussex

How would you manage in a survival situation with next to nothing? No firesteel, compass, sleeping bag, shelter, metal knife, survival kit, paracord, pots and pans? This course will show you the techniques, skills and knowledge to survive with nothing but the clothes you are standing up in.

The course is planned as three phases. This first phase is not a 'living off the land' - participants may bring food, tent etc and some modern materials will be used, however techniques for survival with next to nothing are the aim of the course. The plan is to produce two more phases - a second phase to look at trapping, hunting, game preparation, fire by friction and cooking and a third phase applying what has been learnt in order to survive with nothing but bare hands and common sense.

Content of the course includes: making simple tools, natural methods of navigation, foraging and cooking, water collection/preparation, shelter building, fire with natural materials only

At the end of the course participants will know how to:

• make a simple blade from flint
• cut and carve wood without a metal knife or saw
• make cord and withies from natural materials
• make fire with two rocks (flint and iron pyrites) and natural tinder (no modern/artificial materials)
• make a shelter with bare hands that will keep a person warm and dry through a winters night without a sleeping bag
• find the best available water and make it safe
• forage for plant foods in the forest and cook them without a pot
• dig latrines and maintain hygiene in survival situations
• navigate without a compass

dates: see 'book online' below

more on bushcraft           more on wild food

the venue is a woodland near Nutley in Sussex