Visit the Chilterns

Many thanks to Visit the Chilterns for joining me in the woods, it’s wonderful to be able to share my love of the woodlands, teaching Bushcraft and enjoying nature at her finest here in the Chilterns.

This lovely short film was created by Nicola Schafer, she along with Annette Venters, from the Chilterns Conservation Board, visited me in my favourite place of work, a Chilterns woodland!

The Chilterns is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), with rolling hills, chalk streams and of course, beautiful woodlands, and so much more. David was invited to take part in their “meet the makers” project, all part of their grand plan to attract you to the Chilterns!

For those of you who have yet to visit, The Chilterns is to the North West of London, just a short train ride or car journey, and you are in lovely countryside, with historic places to visit and wonderful things to do!

Continue reading “Visit the Chilterns”

What’s happening at Camp Wildfire?

Whittled spoons and cups from the woodlands

Last year’s Camp Wildfire was a great success, half adventure camp and half music festival for adults only. Located at a secret woodland location in Kent, with easy access from London, there was a huge range of activities to engage with; zip wires, archery, sword fighting, knife throwing, horse riding, yoga, painting, crafts and loads more and then music, dance and partying into the small hours. Continue reading “What’s happening at Camp Wildfire?”

What is Bushcraft?

So just what is Bushcraft? In a literal sense, it’s the skills required to live in the bush. The bush being a commonly used term to describe an area of wild country, one that is remote and does not generally have much if any habitation.

Living in the bush could be just the construction of a shelter, building of a fire and finding water and food. Whilst these are clearly important priorities, they are the bear essentials, they are more about surviving rather than really living. Living is more than just surviving (I hope you agree), so the skills required to live will extend beyond these basics as well as expanding upon them to make life comfortable and enjoyable, whilst living away from the conveniences of modern life. Continue reading “What is Bushcraft?”

That’s a useful knife for feather sticks!

Arguably the most useful useful piece of equipment to have when living outdoors is a knife. Sure you can improvise, perhaps using a piece of flint, having first knapped it into shape, but from a practical point of view a good knife is an essential.

There is much debate about what makes for a good knife and there are as many opinions as there are knives available, probably more! So having taken a pragmatic view on a selection of knives, the aim is to consider their merits of each for creating feather sticks – a stick that has been finely sliced to create curls of wood used for lighting a campfire (examples of curly feather sticks below). Continue reading “That’s a useful knife for feather sticks!”