So my plan was to do a big 60km reccy of a gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award route in Perthshire, running it in two days travelling really lightweight, sleeping in my hammock and cooking on a fires - so no stove. My rucksack weighed 7kg with food and water and all my overnight kit. I …
Continue reading Hammock camping, campfire cooking trail runner
Spent the day exploring Whinny wood near Balloch. This mixed woodland is on two small hills on the southern shore of Loch Lomond. It's managed by the Woodland Trust and has a super network of paths allowing you to explore and reach some lovely vantage points with views across the loch to the Luss hills …
Youth Vision is a charity based in the Pentlands, at a cottage near Harlaw reservoir. Its committed staff and volunteers run forest schools, gardening and wilderness experiences for young people from Edinburgh. Their base is a fantastic place for young people to learn and be inspired. The cottage is like a comfortable well resourced bothy …
There are a lot of considerations in finding a suitable site for teaching bushcraft. You need the permission of the landowner to have fires and use cutting tools; you need the right mix of woodland, ideally with hazel, birch, willow; you need a supply of materials and thatch for shelter building and lastly the forest …
Here's a recent video of me using the bow drill to get a fire going. Was a bit tricky because it had been raining and the birch twigs I was using weren't very dry. The bow was made of willow and I used paracord with some beeswax to make the cord grip better. The …
This a review of the 180 Tack Stove, a natural fuel stove made in Colorado in the US http://www.180tack.com. There are many natural fuel stoves on the market: cylindrical gasifier stoves and fire boxes of different sizes. The big benefit of stoves like this is that you can have a small efficient fire, with pot …
It took me three trips to separate woodlands to find a suitable site for a natural shelter. I needed a site that had water nearby, was dry underfoot with a good supply of building materials: branches for the structural pieces and thatch. I found this site in July in a deep sided river valley. The …
