Every now and again a piece of magic comes right up to your door. It stops you in your tracks. It happened to JP and me at the Scouts Reunion at Gilwell last weekend.
Woodlife Trails was at Gilwell as part of the Wilderness Gathering Travelling Show with Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft. As usual we brought the Table of Death of nature exhibits.
We had great interest from the scout leaders about our tracking and bushcraft courses, and the leaflets went quickly.
I demonstrated some tracking techniques while JP demonstrated bow-drill. The bow-drill proved particularly popular. At one stage, JP had an audience of 65 people around him. It was here that we first noticed 89 year-old Laurie, who was watching intently from his wheelchair.
After JP’s demo, Laurie explained that he had had polio at a young age and the illness was now causing severe muscular wastage. As a young scout he had briefly met Baden-Powell and was inspired to become a scout leader. After the second world war he helped disabled children become scouts. While he was becoming a scout leader (called obtaining the Wood badge) he was taught the bow-drill but never succeeded in getting and ember.
If you have three minutes or so, I would encourage you to watch this small clip. It is so inspiring on so many levels. For me it confirms the reason why JP and I decided to establish Woodlife Trails. No-one will ever tell me not to carry on doing what I’m doing, and what we are doing isn’t worth while.
Thanks for the visit.
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