SURVIVAL – IRISH S TYLE
Getting to work with a fi re bow. Sign up for a course
For more information, contact Aebhric and • 25-26 July – two-day advanced
Anna O’Kelly, Institute for Permaculture bushcraft
and Nature Awareness; web: www.ipna.ie; • 7-10 August – four-day combined basic
e-mail:
kerrytracker@googlemail.com; tel. and advanced bushcraft
(066) 948 1944.
Dates for bushcraft courses in 2009: There are also courses throughout the year
• 26-29 June – four-day combined basic in tracking, wilderness living, austere and
and advanced bushcraft first-responder medicine, as well as long-
• 11-12 July – two-day basic bushcraft term residential programmes.
to the Holy Grail of wilderness skills them in one.“Well, firstly reading in a
– making fire by rubbing two sticks book is one thing but it’s way better to
together. Or rather spinning one stick be shown something and to be able to
against the other using a fire-bow. ask questions,” he mused,“and from
Drilling wood into wood faster and now on I’ll remember to always, always
faster until there was a wisp of smoke carry a lighter and some rubber strip
was hard and frustrating work.Then it’s for fire lighting so I don’t have to do it
about increasing the speed of the bow the fire-bow way.”
to produce a tiny glowing ember, that Aebhric’s summing up of our
flipped into a ball of tinder and, given achievement at the end of the four days
a few gentle puffs, suddenly turns into was positive.We had learnt to do far
a blaze of fire in one’s hands.It was the more than survive, and we’d learnt it
oldest, the most elemental and magical under particularly testing if typical Irish
of skills. conditions.“If you can make a five-
But the effort it required to work minute fire, find or make shelter, and
fire out of the wood was meant to teach forage food here you can do it prpp etty
the wellbeing of the seven coming us other, deeper lessons.Stephen got much anywhere in the world.”
generations.
A burst of sun –‘the heat tab in the Basic grab-bag emergency kit
sky’– found us on the beach practising
tracking, making it easy on ourselves
by translating dog prints in the sand Emergency equipment to always have matches, tinder (cotton soaked in
and the slap-footed marks of a jogger with you when heading out into the Vaseline, more rubber), extra lighter.
into a record of their movement.This wilderness is organised in layers • Cord – all thicknesses; a roll of
lesson digressed into other subjects; according to importance. dental floss is strong and light.
flint-knapping crude blades and
Apart from good weatherproof • 2 large plastic binbags (one dark anddiscussing the best seaweeds to eat.
clothing appropriate to your trip, the one clear) for shelter, condensing water,Every bit of newly learned knowledge
was making our environment more most basic and indispensable kit, which signalling, rainwear and more.
interesting, as if we were learning to should always be kept on your belt or •Button compass.
read nature like a book, even if it was in a pocket, is a good knife (preferably • Water sterilising tablets or drops.
still the BIG PRINT version with the easy fixed blade and full-tang; bigger within • A small metal pot or tin for boiling
vocabulary. reason is better but bear in mind the legal water and cooking.
“My job is to throw as many things implications) and several ways of making • Large needles and safety pins – for
as possible at you,” Aebhric told us, fire. The latter might include a lighter, mending kit and for use as fishing
“archery, fire making, plant food,
strips of inner-tube rubber (the surest hooks.carving, cord spinning, camouflage,
way of starting a blaze even in the wet), • Stock cubes – as important for saltsling stone, spear-fishing, bird calls,
tracking, whatever...just so you find and a spark-steel and magnesium block. and morale as for actual food value.
your passion.For me it’s austere The items in the next layer • Piece of hacksaw blade, or ideally a
medicine,Tom, for you it looks like the of emergency kit can be changed bush saw.
archery...”Tom had really got into the according to where you’re heading and • Medical rubber gloves or condoms
spirit of the course. After the three of us based on experience. Pack them into a – can carry water, be used as elastic in
had spent an hour harvesting branches waterproofed pouch, tin or sealed plastic catapult or to start fires.
to pile into a one-man debris shelter, box that’s small enough to always • Water bottle – plastic bladders are
Tom decided to test it by sleeping
carry on you. Basics (arguably – and tough, and light.under it in just his clothes.The next
bushcrafters love to argue emergencymorning he was cold but cheerful –“not
the worst night I’ve spent in my life, kit – in order of importance) should The next layer of kit would ideally
even if it was closer to survival than include: include a large waterproof poncho/bivvy,
comfort, but it was what I wanted to • Another knife. a blanket or light sleeping bag, spare
learn – how to live in the wilderness • More fire making kit: waterproofed clothing and basic foods.
rather than fighting against it.”
Our last morning was dedicated
OUTSIDER|June-July|47
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