Whether you’re embarking on an expedition in remote wilderness or just want to be better prepared while hiking, camping or canoeing, you will benefit from learning basic bushcraft skills. This course is the perfect introduction to outdoor survival techniques. Find out more from Bushcraft weekend course.
This weekend will help you develop a full understanding of a wilderness mindset to enable you to maximise resources around you. This will greatly improve your ability to survive in the outdoors.
Basic skills
Whether we’re talking about survival skills or bushcraft, these courses offer the opportunity to learn fundamental skills in a safe environment and under professional supervision. You can take shelter building and fire lighting courses that give you the skills to live off the land just like our ancestors.
The basics include identifying and collecting wild food, tracking and trapping game, and building shelters with the use of basic survival equipment. You’ll also need to know how to find water and protect yourself from insects.
One of the most important things you need in a wilderness survival situation is clean drinking water. A good bushcraft course will teach you how to find and collect water, and how to disinfect it so you can stay hydrated. Having the right cooking equipment is important too. Having the ability to grill meat or boil wild berries can make a big difference in off-grid living situations. You should also have bug protection to help you survive the midges and ticks.
Shelters
The unsung hero of survival is a good shelter, a lot more reliable than fire and often requiring less calories to maintain. You can make a sturdier version of the traditional tent from a bivvy bag or create a more comfortable survival hut using moss and bark.
You can even learn how to build a debris shelter that can protect you in the event of a wilderness emergency without a fire. This is a very useful skill because if you are lost in the woods with no fire, the most important thing is to stay warm and dry.
Many bushcraft schools offer wilderness survival courses that can be taken as part of a weekend course or as an advanced week-long immersion. There are also online courses and family bushcraft weekends that can bond you and your loved ones while imparting essential outdoor skills. Some examples of these include Alderleaf Wilderness Survival Training, a weekend course that is similar to an adventurous camping trip. The programme includes lessons on wilderness survival techniques, plant identification and safe knife use.
Cooking
During this weekend course you will learn the essentials of bushcraft and survival techniques. You will learn how to light fires, identify edible plants, create water purification systems and build shelters with a variety of materials. You will also learn traditional cooking skills and how to hunt rabbit, fish, birds and deer using a bow and arrow, atlatl, and harpoon.
This is the perfect primer for anyone who wants to begin learning wilderness survival and bushcraft skills, or who just wants to feel more at home in the woods and reconnect with nature. The course is fun, informative and challenging (not an endurance event!). You will be given a Bushcraft knife to keep and will be loaned all the essential bushcraft gear you need.
Water
Water techniques are a vital part of survival and wilderness living. You will learn how to source, purify and drink clean water. You will also learn how to make a variety of hunting tools such as atlatls and darts, as well as how to trap and catch rabbits, birds and fish.
The course provides an immersive experience where you will explore a wild 560 acre island surrounded by stunning white sand beaches and coconut groves. This is the perfect location to build resilience and enhance survival skills, with an opportunity to connect to nature in its most unspoiled form.