Bush craft adventure!!
27th March 2018
What an absolutely fantastic day this week! Learning new bush craft skills!! A lot of fun, hard physical work, great team work and huge sense of satisfaction!! Oh and a cut finger hahaha
We started our day at the entrance to Skipton Woods, a beautiful old woods that has serviced Skiption Castle for 100’s of years. I didn’t even know it was there….! On the lovely walk to camp our guide Jonny told us about ways the woods have served the castle, about the wildlife and their calls as we got nearer to them and their warnings to pals throughout the woods. Below are a few images from the walk into camp, a beautiful old curved waterfall, the reflections and a lovely conservation area full of moss covered fallen trees.
We started our day at the entrance to Skipton Woods, a beautiful old woods that has serviced Skiption Castle for 100’s of years. I didn’t even know it was there….! On the lovely walk to camp our guide Jonny told us about ways the woods have served the castle, about the wildlife and their calls as we got nearer to them and their warnings to pals throughout the woods. Below are a few images from the walk into camp, a beautiful old curved waterfall, the reflections and a lovely conservation area full of moss covered fallen trees.
As we arrived in camp the fire was already burning and the kettle was already hot. After a brief chat we got down to our first task, making damper bread! I’d done this years and years ago camping in the Australian outback so it was great to spark these old memories! We mixed flour and water, made our dough and added chocolate chips for sweetness. We used the lid of Jonnys Dutch oven to cook our little bread baps. Laid on top of two lumps of wood and scraped a few of the embers between the wood to heat the plate. Fifteen minuets later, lovely sweet bread, great for breakfasts when camping! I love my dutch oven – well seasoned, lives in the Landy and amazing hanging over a good fire with lots of hot chili.
So….. next was our shelter….! I loved this task, I’m a real sociable character and this was working as a team and our team was just great!! Jonny our instructor told us what to do but never showed us what to do so learning as we went was great…. Making our “Y” as our strong anchor point and collecting branches was our first task, then adding more green to make it waterproof. Our team stood around the shelter with great puffed out chests, patting each other on the back at how amazing we were as the entire shelter starting leaning to one side and then collapsed in a large heap of fire wood!!! Hahahaha – well Jonny just shrugged and said, “well you best start again then!” LOL – the second time it was awesome and actually stayed up!!
Next on the list was fire! I love fire! I camped for three years when I was travelling the world and got to learn exactly what wood I needed to cook, to stay warm, that burnt a long time but I always had a lighter! We were split into different teams again and one team used the “bow” method… not going to lie that looked REALLY hard work and no one actually lit a fire lol – I went for the magnesium fire starter! Hehehe – this is so much fun, I’ve had one of these for ages and never knew how to use it! A little cotton wool, spark the flint onto the cotton wool and hey presto we had fire… First strike!! It soon went out so my whopping was short lived so I decided to use my gorgeous new Columbia camping knife! (link below – it’s a thing of beauty) to shave some wood to add to the cotton wool – well after shaving a large chunk of my finger off and covering everything in blood I decided to call that task a day! hahahaha
Lastly we were onto fish… I’ve gutted and filleted more fish than I can count over the years but learnt a new method, the Canadian way…really fun to do and learn, like a fish flag hung over the fire…..lol
A really fabulous day, lovely to meet like minded folk, get as muddy as possible and learn new skills. Thanks to Jonnny from Yorkshire dales Bush Craft for a great experience. Some of the cool equipment is linked below…. leave me a comment – let me know your bush craft tales!
Paula Beaumont
A really fabulous day, lovely to meet like minded folk, get as muddy as possible and learn new skills. Thanks to Jonnny from Yorkshire dales Bush Craft for a great experience. Some of the cool equipment is linked below…. leave me a comment – let me know your bush craft tales!
Paula Beaumont
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