Olga got me a great birthday present: a weekend bushcraft course in Oxfordshire! Building my own shelter, sleeping in the forest, preparing my own food, which meant turning a wood pigeon inside out on my first night, before gutting and filleting a trout for lunch on Saturday, and skinning and chopping up a rabbit for dinner. There were classes on foraging for food, firelighting, knife safety, shelter building, trapping and water purification.
There were 15 blokes and 1 one woman on this course, and we were blessed with perfect late summer weathe, and I even survived a Friday AND Saturday night without a beer...
There were 15 blokes and 1 one woman on this course, and we were blessed with perfect late summer weathe, and I even survived a Friday AND Saturday night without a beer...
Where I slept on the first night - we built our shelters on Saturday morning
My shelter takes shape
Cooking our gutted and filleted trout. I even practised my skills on trout from the fish market when I got home!
Lead instructor Martyn shows us how to deal with a rabbit. I brought the feet from my rabbit home as good luck charms for Olga
The instructors and some of the customers on the Sunday morning
The idea behind it was that when we move to Canada, I would like us to be able to go out and do the whole "wilderness camping" thing, and this showed me that I could gut a fish, skin a rabbit and get the meat from a wood pigeon, amongst all the other great things we learnt. I might never need to do it again, but if I'm ever in a situation where I need to, now I know I can.
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