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…
In the presentation I explore the value of learning and using bushcraft skills which have proven their worth on wilderness expeditions but also much closer to home, highlighting the key areas of knowledge and how they can be integrated into your day-to-day outdoor life…
Lisa Fenton joins me to talk about her academic research in the realms of anthropology and ethnobotany, in particular her research into the relationship between bushcraft and indigenous knowledge, which formed the basis of her doctoral thesis…
Another full session with answers to questions on knife storage at home, knife grinds for bushcraft, pooping in the woods, how to cook cat-tail rhizomes, how to re-proof bivvy bags, recommended work gloves, billy can sizes, what one item I would take to the woods, and how to move beyond kit obsession…
Recently I was able to spend a couple of days paddling on the Tees. The first day I paddled tandem from Cotherstone to Barnard Castle, a run I have done multiple times before but the water levels are always different so there is no lack of variety. It’s also a very picturesque section of river…
Canoe maestro Ray Goodwin joins me to answer questions on inflatable canoes and kayaks, sleeping in a canoe, avoiding wrist pain when paddling, the merits of back-paddling, advice for a first-time multi-day canoe tripper, canoe saddles, bug suits, skills for a River Spey trip, transporting canoes, moving to larger rivers with rapids and stronger currents and more…