An axe has more weight, more leverage and more momentum than a knife. Moreover, when out camping or making a journey, we tend not to be wearing any sort of protective clothing or footwear. Our protection from injury with an axe has to come from care, attention and good habits. Adhering to best practice is particularly important in more remote settings…
In this episode I answer a bunch of questions about water. What are the advantages of Millbank bags? Can you use a bandanna to filter water? Do Steripens work? How do you deal with herbicides and pesticides in water? Can you use activated charcoal to filter water? Is it safe to drink water from springs and wells? These are the jumping off points for a wide-ranging discussion about producing safe drinking water outdoors – close to home or further into the wilds…
Staying dry under a tarp is down to intelligent consideration of several macro and micro placement factors combined with using your equipment correctly in combination…
Questions about boots for bushcraft, 3-season sleeping bag choices, carbon steel knives and flint for sparks, how to avoid shredding your knuckles while using a firesteel, long distance hiking, lightweight gear and bushcraft, how do I know when do you know enough for wilderness, and what would I do in a particular wilderness canoe expedition survival scenario.
Mark Hines, professional adventurer, endurance athlete, exercise physiologist and biomechanics researcher, author and lecturer joins me for a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion on adventure, endurance, diet and health…
In previous articles and videos I’ve discussed equipment choice and ways of lightening the load of your pack. In this article, with video, I look at one particular tarp and bivvy bag set-up which is light, compact and protective…
Shelter bedding, sustainable birch bark harvesting, martial arts and teaching bushcraft, higher or lower for optimal camp temperatures, cod liver oil tablets for survival packs, heavy tents, outdoor career advice and what’s best – tarp or tent?
These days we all have a camera in our pocket. Most of the time we carry a smart phone. Increasingly we use our phones to make notes for later. It’s very easy to take a photo of text in a museum or take photos of something we see out and about, to act later as memory joggers. It’s not necessarily anything to do with the art of photography. It’s memory extension, brain augmentation. So, what details of members of the carrot family Apiaceae should be recorded so you stand a good chance of identifying the species?…
Raspberries, blackberries, rowan berries, hawthorn haws, sloes are in fruit and there a good many seeds around for eating and for other uses. Yet many lush green edible leaves are still to be had and some common plants still in flower. This time of year is one of transition as the seasonal shift takes us from late summer to early autumn. As always there a subtleties worth exploring…
In this episode, I answer questions about how we might look after our teeth and nails without modern tools, natural meds and charcoal for stomach upsets, the edibility of beech nuts, bow drill woods NOT to use, shorts in the bush (are they a good idea?), some curious rings around a tree, uses of Himalayan balsam and pot lifting – what on earth are we doing?