Last week, on a bright November day, I headed off to Mugdock Country Park, north of Glasgow, to practice making things with natural materials. On almost every visit to the outdoors, I'll end up making something. I'm always on the look out for different materials that I can bend and twist and weave and shape. …
Charring Punk Wood
The usefulness of punk wood for making fires, can't be understated. It is my go to material for sustaining an ember created from friction fire and it's a fantastic material to char and take a weak spark from a fire striker. Punk wood is rotten wood, wood that has become punky (soft and spongy) through …
Bushcraft Day at St Lucy’s Primary School
Friday was 'Bushcraft Day' at St Lucy's Primary School in Abronhill in Cumbernauld. We spent the day with around 45 P7 children for a special end of term, fun-packed day of outdoor learning. Arriving at the school first thing in the morning, the sun was shining. Our first activity of the day was learning how …
Dofe Expeditions during Covid-19
It's been a tough time for running an outdoor business. It's been very hard on freelance instructors, there is a very real prospect that many outdoor education centres in Scotland will close and for my business, an Approved Activity Provider running Duke of Edinburgh's Award expeditions, I'd say we've only just managed to get through …
Teaching Navigation
There are lots of lots of navigation techniques that help you either: navigate to a target or destination; or, to relocate (work out where you are when you’re lost). This blog sets out practical exercises that National Navigation Award (NNA) tutors can use to teach navigation skills. The exercises below are covered in NNA Tutor …
How to use edofe mapping
This blog is a practical guide to using edofe mapping: software that's available to Duke of Edinburgh's Award participants and leaders to produce maps and routecards for expeditions and training days. In the blog I'll cover: How to find edofe mapping in a participant and leader account Creating a new map Creating the route Editing …
No Tools Friction Fire
How and when was fire made for the first time? As to how fire was made, there’s two likely methods: the percussive or ‘strike-a-light’ method where a hard rock like flint is struck against iron pyrite to create tiny sparks; and, friction-fire. Iron pyrite and flint strikers have been found in the archaeological record but …
Navigation Skills: Gauging Distance
When teaching navigation some of the biggest errors I see arise from people either walking too far or not far enough to their target. This blog describes non-GPS techniques, like pacing and timing. With practice these techniques can give you a high level of accuracy in gauging distance travelled. Here's are the bits of equipment …
Navigation Skills: Strategy
Navigation strategy is about devising an effective plan to find a target. Walking in a straight line to your target in one leg can be effective when the distances are small and or when the feature you are navigating to is large and obvious; e.g. a prominent loch. It is important to note, however, that …
Fire with Thistle and Heather
August is the season for collecting thistles seed heads to use as an excellent tinder for firemaking. The flowers die back and the seed heads burst out in warm weather then disburse in the wind. There are lots of types of thistle in Britain; like Marsh Thistle and Creeping Thistle but one of the best …
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