Do You Know How to Survive?

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Saturday, September 12th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Do you have any bushcraft skills? If you were lost in the wild would you be able to build a shelter, find water or start a fire? #?

Living, as we do, in our supermarket served modern world many people have lost touch with the sources of their food. Some children grow up in cities with hardly any idea of where vegetables come from or, in some cases, where certain meats come from. I once met a young man who had no idea that burgers were made from beef. I can’t imagine what he thought they were made from.

If you are lost in the wild you might be surprised to find that there are no all night supermarkets. It’s a useful skill to be able to recognise what is safe to eat and what is potentially harmful. You may have seen Bear Grylls surviving in some of the most inhospitable locations on the planet where he always finds and eats whatever he can find. Something you may have noticed is that Bear is never without his bushcraft knife, an essential survival tool.

Wild berries can be a valuable form of food. Our ancestors would have gathered nuts, berries and grain when in season and either eaten these raw or prepared them in some way. There are many wild berries which are actually deadly poisonous.

For example, Yew berries are the cause of the greatest percentage of berry poisonings each year. They are very bright scarlet in colour with an indentation at the base, about 8 to 10mm in diameter. The berries look deceptively appetising which has resulted in many young children being taken to the emergency room.

Deadly Nightshade is another berry that results in many visits to the emergency room each year. The clue is in the name. This plant is also commonly known as Belladonna, producing sweet berries that can be irresistibly attractive to young children.

A potential source of protein, although somewhat distasteful to many, are insects. It may seem surprising but most insects are actually edible. Many species are actually very low in fat and high in protein.Grasshoppers, crickets, wood grubs and mealworms are all a safe bet for eating. Most insects taste better when barbecued and you can even grind them up into a flour like powder.

Game, including birds, rabbits and other small animals is always good to eat, but can be enormously difficult to catch. This is particularly true if you are lost in the wilderness without any form of weapon. Without a weapon you will possibly need to construct some sort of trap if you really want to catch an animal.

You may have read this thinking that you will never be lost in the wild, so desperately hungry that you would eat your own socks. But it really could happen to you. All you need to do is stray from a main pathway through a forest and you can quickly become disoriented and be unable to find your way back to the path. That’s when you’ll wish you’d paid more attention to Ray Mears Extreme Survival.

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