Ever wanted to explore some of the worlds most remote environments. ‘Ronnie Sunshines’ and Jason Ingamells can show you what it takes to survive the wilderness from the relative safety of the British woodland. There have been many popular survival TV programs by the likes of Bear Grylls and Ray Mears, but this weekend course will show the reality of survival.

I had very little knowledge of what bush craft was beyond what I had seen on TV and I half expected to be lead into the middle of nowhere with only some ex-SAS guy as a guide, his face blackened and a wild look in his eyes. Whilst the woodland ways instructors (Jason, Alec and Ruth) do take their profession seriously, they are not so serious, that the fun is taken out of the experience.

My bush craft experience was to be with ‘Ronnie Sunshines’ who have teamed up with Jason Ingamells’ Woodland Ways to provide a range of bush craft courses. The weekend course I attended was situated in the Chiltern hills in the south of the UK, and serves an introduction to the fundamentals of survival fire, shelter, food and water.

Fire

The campfire is the hub of the camp, and aside from warmth and cooking, the fire is also the place where you’ll meet and socialise whilst carving your spoon. The campfire was already lit when we got there, but we were told it would be necessary to keep it going all weekend. Therefore our first task was to gather enough wood to see us through. This was easy; we were in the woods after all. It is up to the team to maintain the fire and in the morning it would only take some dry twigs and a good set of lungs to relight the fire from the embers. Later in the course you’ll be shown various fire lighting techniques including fiction fire lighting. Though it is best not to rely on this technique as those who tried found it difficult and tiring.

Food

You’re not going to last long in the wilds without something to eat and on this course you’ll learn how to ‘catch it, kill it, eat it’. You’ll only get hands on experience with preparing your food as the game has already been caught and killed by professionals. That being said you will still learn to trap and snare along with how to humanely dispatch your quarry. The game we had for the weekend consisted of wood pigeon, rainbow trout and rabbit. They had been freshly killed and you’ll be doing the preparation yourself which can be bloody and gruesome, so may not be for everyone. You are able to opt out and vegetarian options can be made available. Though on my course everyone just got stuck in. I’m sure the food tasted better for preparing it ourselves.

You’ll get your own bushcraft knife for the weekend which is necessary tool for some of the food preparation. As with everything else on this course safety comes first and you’ll be instructed in how store, use and care for your knife. Your knife will be in constant use during the weekend from cutting branches to making soup stirrers to carving your very own spoon.

Shelter

The first nights shelter was in the form of a hammock strung between two trees with a basher to keep the elements out. A basher is a tarp shelter. After our well earned evening meal everyone retired to their hammocks, it was at this point I realised the reality of where I was. Even whilst wearing my head torch, the woodland at night was unrecognisable. I knew that my hammock was only about 10m away, yet it still took me a few minutes to find it in the darkness. After a few failed attempts to get into my hammock whilst in my sleeping bag, I settled down to good night sleep.

For our second night we were to be sleeping in a shelter built solely out of materials found in the woodland. A few felled trees and a lot of team work later, we’d created a communal shelter capable of sleeping ten people and a few one-man ‘kennel’ shelters. The communal shelter was built a few feet away from the fire, the heat from which meant I slept better than I’d had for a long time. I’ll apologise now for my snoring, to anyone who was within ear shot of me that night.

Water (from trees)

According to the rule of 3, the human body can only survive without water for 3 days. Dirty water is probably going to be your most likely source of illness, so you’ll be glad hear that clean drinking water is provided throughout the course. You’ll be given a brief introduction into water gathering, filtration and purification, but you will not be expected to put them into practice. Week long courses are available, where over the week you’ll lose all your creature comforts and by the end of the week you’ll be living entirely off the land.

Fun

I’m sure a lot of what you’ll learn can be found in a book, but where is the fun in that. You’ll be gutting game, felling trees, building shelters; it’s kind of like being a kid again. Both the instructors and my fellow participants provided none stop amusement. My  group consisted of people of varying backgrounds, therefore there was never a shortage of something to talk and laugh about. Especially on the final day when we were invited to participate in a sweat lodge. Fifteen people, who hadn’t washed in two days, crammed into a confined space under a parachute while someone threw water onto hot rocks filling the place with steam. The situation was so absurd that no-one could stop laughing. Cries of “Who’s hand was that” and “Hot stuff coming through!” left everyone in stitches.

Conclusion

Whether you’d like to pursue bushcraft as a hobby or you just love the outdoors and want to try something a little different, then I can recommend this course. I found it to be professionally run, but with a focus on having whilst you learn. A weekend course will only set you back £180 with ‘Ronnie Sunshines’ a small price to pay your continued survival.