This weekend, together with colleagues Les and Brett from Wildcrafts, we helped out with a wild camping weekend organised by the National Trust.
It wasn’t a course as such, but we were on hand to provide a bit of safety and guidance to the participants and carry out a couple of demos.
Les and Brett started with a fire lighting demo complete with a demonstration of their patent pending, leave no trace, fire-square which will reduce the scarring on the ground.
In the afternoon, we all went tracking. It wasn't too long before one of Austin’s lads spotted several fallow deer on one of the paths. We all stalked up to a good position to get a few photos. We then turned to find that a second small group, including a fawn, were behind us on an opposite path. We were actually hemmed in by deer!
This was a great experience for the youngsters, who, by the way, consisted of equal numbers of girls to boys. JP gave other sessions on cordage and supplied the excellent evening meals with a new wood-burning stove.
On Saturday evening, JP and I went to practice some evening tracking. Spectacularly, we managed to get as close as I’ve ever been to some badgers; and it was the same for JP. There’s some footage at the end of the post.
It was great to meet Chris, Austin, Paul, Dave and their families.
After taking down the parachute on Sunday, we immediately made our way to the cafe at Hatfield where JP and I ran our Countryside and Woodland Awareness Course. Again, the two families were wonderful and it was refreshing to see how all of the kids, Monica, Joshua, Benjy and Elisabeth, seemed to enjoy the afternoon, and how quickly they got into wildlife, tracking and the deductive processes involved in tracking.
The afternoon finished up with another amazing close encounter where everyone (including the Mums, and Dads) all managed to stalk to less than 10 yards away from a young squirrel. Even though it appeared a bit drowsy, it really showed how much they’d taken on board and that the squirrel didn't see anyone as a threat. Brilliant stuff – and thanks to Chika and Tony for signing up to the afternoon. Hope to see you all again.
No comments:
Post a Comment