woodland ways weekend 23rd july2010

I have struggled with time since I came back off holiday and last week end I went on a woodland ways week end It was like a survival course.

We had to be at the White Swan at Walton on Trent to meet the Instructor at 7.00pm he then took us to a wood just out side the village. to meet up with the other instructors.

We met up with Martyn who was just the sort of guy you would expect to be an instructor Full of energy and rearing to go.

the other instructors were Kevin and Ruth.

Look out Ray Mears here we come .

After a talk about Knifes and saws and toilet facilities and where the spade would be left.

We were given a fly sheet or tarp and 4 bungee straps to put up our shelters as below.

After Putting up our shelter we all went and dressed a wood pigeon and cooked sweet and sour pigeon with rice for tea.

The kettle was on the fire most of the time so we could brew tea and coffee any time of the day.

On the Saturday we were shown how to build a shelter and set to work building our own the one above was my shelter as you can see it just looks like a heap of branches.

at lunch time we were shown how to bone a trout with your hands and leave no bones in it and cook it on the fire with new potatoes in butter done in the dutch oven.

The front of my shelter after completion we spent the night in our shelters it was well insulated and in the night I was sweating and when i took my arms out of the sleeping bag the mossies bite me.

Anne and Rob made a different shelter it looked very good more room than the one I built but they said there shelter was hot as well.

As you can see it was a tight fit.

Saturday night we had Rabbit Stew and we had to skin our own rabbits I have done that before so I watched Emma and Ben Skin a rabbit and cut it up for tea we had a bag of flour and seasoning put the rabbit in and shake about so as to cover the rabbit meat.

I then cooked it in a small drop of oil in a hot dutch oven until brown then added water and veg carrots Parsnips, potatoes to make the stew.

We had a foraging afternoon and we found some cherries and Ruth the instructor made cherry crumble which was Delicious.on Saturday we did a sit and watch in the woods and learned how to Light Fires with fire strikers and rubbing sticks and all sorts of ways to light fires.

We had to put the site back to how we found it on the Sunday before we left.

Sunday morning we had a talk on water By Kevin and how to find it and look after it Filter water for drinking.

After which Martyn gave us instruction on setting Traps for fish, Crayfish, and rabbits and squirrel.

At about 12.00 we left for home tired and feeling like a bath so when I got home the first thing was a bath and 4hours sleep in a soft bed.

Thanks to Kevin, Martyn and Ruth for a great week end and to all the others on the course.

It you want to try the woodland weekend have a look on the web site below.

www.woodland-ways.co.uk

It is an experience you may learn something to help you in the future but if not you meet some nice people.

I went down the drain bank tonight and got wet through it rained hard so the dogs and I were wet in minutes.

I will get round to telling you about my holiday when time permits.