Canoe capsize recovery skills are important for any canoeist who ventures onto open water, even as part of a group. Windermere is England’s largest natural lake and the venue of the Expedition Canoeing Skills course that Ray Goodwin and I run there every summer. Part of the course programme involves learning and practising canoe…
In this episode, I answer questions about compass bubbles, old man’s beard, hand-drill use in the UK, physical fitness for the outdoors, long-log fire lays and sparks from Gransfors axes…
I’ve had various comments on some of my videos and articles along the lines of “tarps are OK until it rains”, or “good luck when it rains”. Here is a short response…
How to get over a fear of wild edibles, is Leave No Trace completely at odds with Bushcraft, which other methods of fire by friction work in the UK, my view on firebox stoves, whether wood stoves get around no-fire rules, ideas on DIY sleeping bags and can you use two sleeping bags together for the winter, plus what shirt am I always wearing?
#AskPaulKirtley returns with questions on vapour barriers, firesteels on lanyards, what to do in electrical storms, trekking poles and pitching tarps, dehydrating your own meals, especially favourite recipes, how to know when to stop bow drilling. The latter makes for a neat case study. AND there is a nice sneak preview in the middle of the video as well as a fun little blooper reel at the end. Enjoy…
The River Greta underwent significant change as a result of Storm Desmond in December 2015, which caused severe flooding in many parts of the UK, particularly in the Lake District. Ray Goodwin, Paul “Spoons” Nicholls and I were running two week-long Expedition Canoeing Skills Courses in the Lake District. On our day off in between courses, we went for a real mini-adventure on the Greta…
Al Humphries is best known for the concept of microadventures and his book of the same name, following his Year of Microadventure. He’s no stranger to big adventures either, though. Al joins me on this podcast to talk about adventures great and small, what motivates him, how he chooses his adventures, the challenges of making a living as an adventurer and what he does when things go wrong…
Many people spend more on a good quality bushcraft or survival knife than they do on an axe. In an environment where an axe is important, it is often as valuable if not more valuable than a knife. A good axe of a traditional design has several components made of materials which require some maintenance. If you look after your axe, it will give you many years of service…
We all need some outdoor clothing, more so as we move away from the equator. In particular, our clothing forms the first line of defence against hypothermia. Here, I recommend three combinations of thermal layers and shell garments which I find are greater than the sum of their parts…
The downside of simple pot hangers is that they typically only afford one fixed position over the fire. If you want to have some degree of variability in the heat you can apply to your cooking and your kettle, then you’ll need some form of adjustibility in any cooking rig or crane that you are using…