PowerSwitch

On the 9th of September 2005 I am going on a long weekend course learning about basic survival skills that could come in useful once we start on the down slope of the oil curve. The course covers everything from building basic shelters to learning to build traps and how to cook and prepare food you have caught.

When I get back I will be posting my experience on the forum so people can see what was involved. Hopefully it will be a worthwhile experience so maybe we could get a group together in the near future from powerswitch and go on one of the trips.

This should be a good practical experience on living off the land and may prove very useful for the future. If you are interested the website is:

www.uksurvivalschool.co.uk

I will let you know how I got on.

How did it go?

Maybe Koba didn't survive

Here's another one:

http://www.cambriansurvival.co.uk/course-1-1.html

A survival nut at work recommended it as an excellent beginners course. I was planning to go on the December one, but sadly it's fully booked and the 2006 dates aren't up there yet. I'll be keeping an eye on it though...

Well I am finally back, and yes I did survive!

Sorry I have not got back to you sooner but I have also been in the process of moving so I have not had access to the internet for the last month.

The course was brilliant and I had a great time and learned a whole host of skills.

The weekend started off with building shelters that we would be sleeping in for the next couple of nights. What we ended up doing with was a basic shelter that was made up of using fallen trees and branches rather than chopping down living trees for obvious reasons about preservation. We then proceeded to cover the shelters in bracken which was all over the forest. The whole process took us about four or five hours and most of that time it was raining so we had to work fast which meant the shelters were not as good as they should have been... but we all learnt some valuable lessons about protecting ourselves from the elements. Because it rained the whole weekend most of us spent the entire weekend wet from top to bottom but it was fun none the less.

After the shelters were built we had to prepare rabbits and fish which had been caught and killed the day before by our instructors. I had never had to skin and gut a rabbit before in mylife and I was sure whether I was going to be sick or not, but I got through it. I will save the gory bit for another time, if you want to know how to skin a rabbit just email me and I will tell you. Everything was cooked over an open fire and it tasted wonderful... it is true what they say rabbit does taste like chicken!

During the first night we went animal tracking learning that animals follow the same paths through the woods just like we usually take the same routes to work and to the shops. At first it was very hard to spot the tracks but after a couple of hours most of us found an odd track here or there.

The second day was spent making ropes from natural materials such as reeds and long grass and then learning how to set snare traps using the information we had gained on the animal tracking. That night after dinner we learnt map reading and how to use a compass properly using grid coordinates then once we had our route planed out we had to set off a follow our route. No one got lost but we did go off course just a little bit.

The last day was spent walking around the forest and hedgerows looking for food and natural medicines. Learning what we can eat and can't eat was fascinating, and a whole host of other things from how to filter water, what can be used as asprin, and what to use if we had of poisoned ourselves such as charcoal.

The most important lesson that I leant was that there are no short cuts and everything needs planning and preparations if you want to stay healthy and safe. The trip was well worth the ?150 pounds... I am going to go on the next trip in feb of next year for a week.

If you want to know more just email me.

Good to see you back and thanks for filling us in.

I'd like to know more about the others on the course (numbers, M/F ratio, motivations, backgrounds, etc) Did you talk about peak oil?

Rabbit skinning tips?

I would also like to know which of the courses was the one you went on. A lot of the uksurvival school courses seem to be very similar but with different names and slightly different emphasis.

I am definitely going to go on at least one either this winter or next spring.

Glad to hear you made it Koba. I'm thinking of doing a hiking trip to Wales if anyone is interested? Just 3 or 4 days on terrain, hiking and sleeping rough. I have a van and could take 3 other people + rucksacks.

I've just about got all my kit together now.. decent rucksack, sleeping bag, bivvy bag, gortex clothing, boots, cooking equipment etc.

I was thinking sometime in mid/late November? Should be nice and cold by then

hatchelt, could you see if you can get another two who would be interested. I'm off to the highlands for a couple of weeks and won't be able to post. I'll try and find an internet cafe. mopo

The course that I went on was the 'essentials' which was mainly for beginners and only lasted for the weekend. The other courses Tess were for one week and would incorporate hiking and survival above the tree line. You should go it was so much fun!

There were 17 people on the course, 10 males and 7 females so it was a good ratio. Most of the people were around the age range of 20-35yrs. All in all there was a good mix of people...no weirdo's carrying rambo knives!

I did speak to a few of the group about Peak Oil, but it was still the same old response of "It won't happen in my lifetime". But it was nice talking about Peak Oil around the camp fire!

I think that this is the way forward for those aware of Peak Oil... Practical skills that will help us in the future. Lets face it the people in power already know about Peak Oil and are not going to do anything about it (Well nothing that is going to benefit us!) so I believe that all our energies should be going towards Post-Peak survival.

By the way I am up for some more trekking etc mopo!

koba wrote:I think that this is the way forward for those aware of Peak Oil... Practical skills that will help us in the future. Lets face it the people in power already know about Peak Oil and are not going to do anything about it (Well nothing that is going to benefit us!) so I believe that all our energies should be going towards Post-Peak survival.

I agree to a very large extent. However, I think it's still worth lobbying the government for policy change - if only as a damage limitation excercise.

They currently have a lot of control over how resources are allocated. While the country is clearly going to be f*cked post PO, I still feel it's worthwhile putting pressure on the government to allocate resources responsibly to make the UK slightly less f*cked after PO, so that for the job of trying to get along afterwards is easier. For example, taking the decision building one more wind farm now could mean that one more hospital can keep the lights on in the future...

The best way to exert pressure on government is to get the issue planted firmly in the psyche of the electorate.