Bear v Mears

I know this is old news but hey, what can I say! Take a look at this article in the Daily Mail regarding an interview with Ray Mears - Bear v Mears.

What interest me about the article is this -

'I think the viewer knows that if you want to really know how to take care of yourself in the wild, I'm the person to talk to.'

Very modest Mr Mears, very modest!

Ray Mears

Bugs save pest control man!

This is a survival story from the BBC a few months ago that I have only just discovered - Bug feast save Outback pest man

I won't copy out the whole story but I will describe the salient points. A former pest control officer got lost in the Australian Outback and thought he would die until he stumbled on a termite mound and "got stuck in".

Theo Rosmulder survived for 4 days eating termites and other insects before being found by local Aborigines. All he had with him was a penknife, a torch and a metal detector. He believed he wouldn't be found so decided to "crawl into a hole and just call it quits". After spending the night in a cave, he chanced upon a termites nest, knocked the top off and began to eat them. A Western Australia Police spokesperson said the termites had provided him with moisture and protein!

Mmm, let's think about this for a while. It certainly makes a great story but how likely is eating a bunch of termites going to keep you hydrated? Personally, I don't think it would help at all and could possibly worsen the situation - here's why.

To start with, there is going to be very little protein in your average soldier termite. They are going to be mainly chitinous exoskeleton and not a lot else. The body uses water to metabolise food, and protein is the worst culprit for using up your internal stores of water. So, that being the case, by harvesting and eating these termites he may well have used up more water than he would have gained and thus compromised his own survival! You can certainly live for quite some time without food so, again, eating the termites was probably not the best plan. If you have little or no access to water it is better not to eat - even if the food is available due to the amount of water used during metabolic processes.

He said he was holed up in a cave and had basically given up hope. To me, this means he probably spent a lot of time in the cave where it was cooler and shaded and didn't do much 'work'. This would have reduced the amount of water he lost through perspiration. That is probably what saved him - not the termites! He may well have been well hydrated before he got lost and this would have helped considerably as well.

Overall, I don't think the termites helped at all but like I said, it makes for a good story!

survival

Cows point the way.

This is an amazing piece of research conducted by scientists (so it must be true). It would seem that the humble bovid has a tendency to orientate themselves on a north-south axis!

Researchers have shown that cows have a good sense of direction and tend to point towards north. They are also pretty good at weather prediction. Scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen studied images of cattle from Google Earth and noticed that they tend to face in north-south orientation. These images were from a number of different countries and continents, at different times of day and in a variety of daylight conditions, so the scientists concluded that the common factor in all cases had to be the earth's magnetic field. Pretty cool, eh! Many of the images weren't clear enough to show which way the cows were pointed, in other words whether they were head onto north or tail on.

The researchers also looked at deer and found that they tended to face north when grazing or resting in a similar way to the cows. This ability of cows to find north is thought to be a throwback from the days when their wild ancestors needed to migrate across the plains of Africa, Asia and Europe.

I always knew there was more to a cow than meets the eye. How useful this could be in terms of natural navigation, I'm not sure. My gut feeling is that there will be a lot of local factors that will influence a herd of cows but I shall certainly be taking more notice of them in future to see if the there is any 'truth' in the whole thing.

The waiting is over!

Well at last I can reveal what my 'secret' project is all about. Through my contacts in the film and media industry I am going to be presenting a new survival series! Yep, that's right - a new series - not a Ray Mears clone, nor a Bear Grhylls fiasco but little old me doing my best.

There is a small band of us involved in the project. We aim to keep full control over every aspect of the production so it doesn't get hijacked by well meaning but clueless TV execs. This means as well as presenting the show I'm having to write it as well. No pressure then! We are starting more filming in September and aim to finish the bulk of the first series by Christmas. At the moment there is no guarantee that it will be aired on telly but we do have contacts at the Discovery Channel which could help considerably. The main aim is to produce a quality product that can be sold on DVD or bought as downloads from the internet, getting on TV would be a bonus. The whole thing is being shot professionally using the latest camera equipment and in full HD to broadcast standards. It's not being shot using consumer level equipment - very serious stuff indeed!

There is a trailer available for viewing which lasts for about 4 minutes. It's a big file so the first play through is always very jumpy until the whole file has buffered down to the machine - second play should be a lot smoother (almost as smooth as an Italian gigolo). Please take a look and let me know what you think!

Follow this link to the website www.survivalmatters.tv and then click on the Vimeo link just above the contact form.

I really hope you enjoy it and like it - I'm taking quite a gamble on this :)

survival matters survival

A week of tracking!

A couple of weeks ago, I was up at Canonteign helping Max of Shadowhawk teach tracking. We started off with an Advanced course and then a back to back /fundamental and intermediate - 6 days worth of tracking. Fantastic!

We were lucky with the weather and the people we had. It stayed dry (which is unusual for the area) and the people we taught were brilliant. We pushed all of them hard and they managed to up their game each time. We had a really good time with the Advanced course because it gave us instructors more chance to be creative in our scenarios, shall we say!

The back to back guys picked up the principles very quickly indeed and gave us a run for our money trying to keep up with them. It was great to see all the 'eureka' moments that people had and there were a lot of those. I would like to take all the credit for their fast progress but it wasn't just down to me and the other instructors - they were all very good and quick learners.

On a separate note, I have been promised that there will be something for people to see, concerning my secret project, before the end of the week. I really hope that is the case because I'm busting to let people see what I'm up to and get some feedback.

I will keep you posted. Until later ....

tracking

Paperback writer.....

Well not quite! I have just had an article published in the Bushcraft & Survival Skills magazine on tracking. This is the first of many (I hope) and I think it looks good - even though I say so myself.

I really recommend you go out and buy the magazine because it is full of great articles, pictures and me (only kidding). Follow this link if you want to see my humble offering - tracking article and choose tracking.pdf.

Hope you like it!

Lifesaver Water Bottle (Part 1)

As promised, a first look at the incredible Lifesaver Water Bottle. This bottle may not be the most elegant of beasts but it is probably the most important invention to hit the survival/bushcraft market in recent years. It is a highly significant evolution in portable water purification systems. You may think this all sounds a bit OTT, perhaps it is, but the bottom line is that this is an awesome piece of kit, taking water purification to new heights.

In an earlier post (The OS Outdoor show aftermath) I mentioned meeting the inventor of the bottle, Michael Pritchard. A very nice chap whom I gave a rather hard time over the design and the principles of the system. He graciously answered all my questions and after 3 days I became convinced about the concept.

So, I put my money where my mouth was and bought one! So far, I have only primed the bottle because I had to give it to someone else for a trip to Russia and have only just received my replacement. Anyway, overall, the bottle is very easy to use but does take a little getting used to. The bottle comes with a fitted activated charcoal filter as well as a spare, a spare teat, a strap, a small pot of lubricant and an instruction manual. It is important to follow the priming instructions before you use the bottle in anger, so to speak. I did find that tap water still had a taint after the priming process so I just repeated the last stage another 5 or 6 times to lessen this - no doubt more use will reduce it totally.

To fill the bottle is simplicity itself. Unscrew the bottom, ensure the filter is covering the water inlet hole (this just removes large debris like leaves) and scoop up the water, screw the bottom back on, give it a couple of quick pumps and drink! It is a very fast process. You use your teeth to pull up the drinking teat and also to close it and you can literally start drinking it after pumping. The pumping process does pressurise the water meaning it will squirt out quite vigourously at first. This did catch me by surprise the first time I used it and I nearly choked! So be warned. It does mean that the bottle can be used at any angle (see picture below). That's not me in the picture by the way!


The beauty of this system is that there are no chemicals used in the purification process. It is all done through filtration. Speaking of filtration, it is still a good idea to pre-filter your water if it is very dirty. The only reason being that your filter will last longer! You can scoop up the nastiest, dirtiest water you like (except sea water) and the bottle will deal with it in its stride but it is always a good idea to choose the cleanest looking water you can find - no point in lessening the life of your investment unnecessarily, is there?

I will post another short review later when I have used the bottle in earnest. There is a full review of the bottle in the Bushcraft & Survival Skills magazine along with other water treatment systems. I'm not going to tell you what it says because you need to go off and buy the magazine and read it for yourself!

Go out and buy one - you know you want to!

bushcraft water survival lifesaver