The title will make some sense if you are a Goons fan! If not then it is imperative that you remedy the situation immediately.
Anyway, the other day when I was out for a walk I was thinking about the fact the we humans are real creatures of habit. We find comfort in the familiar and we often don't like change. By maintaining the status quo we are probably just being a bit lazy because we don't have to think about what we are doing. The reason I was thinking all this was because I noticed that the last 3 or 4 times I had done that particular walk I had used the exact same route.
So next time round I reversed the route and went backwards (in a manner of speaking) and it was incredible the different perspective it gave me. For a start I saw a number of things that I just couldn't see when walking the other way - such as a tree that had been barked by a deer and some mushrooms hidden behind a bush.
I think all I'm getting at with this post is to say that it is important to keep a bit of variety going in your daily routines, look behind occasionally and just keep your eyes open for all the sights that are out there.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
British backpacker found alive in outback
This is one lucky hombre!
Jamie Neale, a British backpacker has been found alive and remarkably well, after being lost for 12 days in the Australian Blue Mountains. This is the longest that anyone has survived in that area before.
He got lost whilst on a trek to Mt Solitary. He survived by eating berries and weeds and sleeping under logs. He had seen rescue helicopters pass overhead, but had not been able to flag them down.
Eventually, two bushwalkers stumbled upon him off the southern end of the Narrowneck Plateau, several kilometres from the Ruined Castle rock formation where he was last seen. His rescue has been hailed as a "miracle" by police, who had grave fears for his safety during the freezing nights and bitterly cold days of the past two weeks.
I like a good survival story.
jamie neale, survival
Jamie Neale, a British backpacker has been found alive and remarkably well, after being lost for 12 days in the Australian Blue Mountains. This is the longest that anyone has survived in that area before.
He got lost whilst on a trek to Mt Solitary. He survived by eating berries and weeds and sleeping under logs. He had seen rescue helicopters pass overhead, but had not been able to flag them down.
Eventually, two bushwalkers stumbled upon him off the southern end of the Narrowneck Plateau, several kilometres from the Ruined Castle rock formation where he was last seen. His rescue has been hailed as a "miracle" by police, who had grave fears for his safety during the freezing nights and bitterly cold days of the past two weeks.
I like a good survival story.
jamie neale, survival
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Raven' mad?
Over the last few days we have had at least one raven fly over the house each day. So I thought I would look into the 'meaning' of raven.
In the native American tradition, raven, throughout time, has carried the medicine of magic. Raven magic can give you the courage to enter the darkness of the void, the Great Mystery. Raven is the messenger of the void. If Raven appears to you it means you are about to experience a change in consciousness. This portends "You have earned the right to see and experience a little more of life's magic". Black can mean many things in Native teachings from the seeking of answers, the void or the road to spiritual or nonphysical.
Raven represents that something special is about to happen. The deeper mystery is how will you respond to the synchronicity of the moment when it happens.
In European folklore ravens are portents or omens that auger both good and ill. It was widely believed that a raven seen at the start of important activities such as hunting or fishing was a good omen. Unfortunately many of the superstitions are negative. An Andalusian belief is that it will be an unlucky day if a raven croaks over a house and there will be a death if it croaks three times. In parts of Germany it was thought that ravens contained the souls of the dead.
Of course an alleged centuries old tradition surrounds the ravens at the Tower of London. It is said that if they leave the Tower, Britain's downfall will soon follow. It has been shown recently that it is probably a Victorian invention. During World War II all the birds were killed during air raids and were not replaced until 1946 when the Tower reopened.
Ravens have also been messengers in many legends. In Tibet they were believed to act on behalf of a supreme being, in China it was believed they caused a storm through the forest to warn people that the gods were about to pass. The Vikings revered raven as it was the symbol of their chief god, Odin. It features in some native world creation myths and in some European traditions is believed to possess magic stones that can perform various functions such as healing and invisibility.
All in all, ravens are steeped in myth and legend. I for one love to see and hear them flying over the moor and I'm going to go with the idea that they are a good omen and something magical is about to happen!
raven, mythology
In the native American tradition, raven, throughout time, has carried the medicine of magic. Raven magic can give you the courage to enter the darkness of the void, the Great Mystery. Raven is the messenger of the void. If Raven appears to you it means you are about to experience a change in consciousness. This portends "You have earned the right to see and experience a little more of life's magic". Black can mean many things in Native teachings from the seeking of answers, the void or the road to spiritual or nonphysical.
Raven represents that something special is about to happen. The deeper mystery is how will you respond to the synchronicity of the moment when it happens.
In European folklore ravens are portents or omens that auger both good and ill. It was widely believed that a raven seen at the start of important activities such as hunting or fishing was a good omen. Unfortunately many of the superstitions are negative. An Andalusian belief is that it will be an unlucky day if a raven croaks over a house and there will be a death if it croaks three times. In parts of Germany it was thought that ravens contained the souls of the dead.
Of course an alleged centuries old tradition surrounds the ravens at the Tower of London. It is said that if they leave the Tower, Britain's downfall will soon follow. It has been shown recently that it is probably a Victorian invention. During World War II all the birds were killed during air raids and were not replaced until 1946 when the Tower reopened.
Ravens have also been messengers in many legends. In Tibet they were believed to act on behalf of a supreme being, in China it was believed they caused a storm through the forest to warn people that the gods were about to pass. The Vikings revered raven as it was the symbol of their chief god, Odin. It features in some native world creation myths and in some European traditions is believed to possess magic stones that can perform various functions such as healing and invisibility.
All in all, ravens are steeped in myth and legend. I for one love to see and hear them flying over the moor and I'm going to go with the idea that they are a good omen and something magical is about to happen!
raven, mythology
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Bowdrill experiments
Whoa, ho, ho, ho - sinister Peter Cushing-type laugh. Time for a little experiment. Enough of this nonsense.
I had some bits and pieces of wood lying around drying out that were just begging to be abused. So I dug out a pine hearth, a hazel drill, a holly drill and my trusty teak bearing block (salvaged from an old table leg). I decided to go against the grain and have a little experiment with drill shape. I fly in the face of convention, ha!
In one of Ray Mears' books he says that the rounded end of the drill should go in the hearth because of greater friction and the pointy end should go in the block because of less friction. Seems logical but I was bit bored and decided to have a go with my rather eclectic mix of kit. My thinking was this, if the pointy end was in the hearth then due to its smaller circumference you would achieve faster rotations relative to the amount of effort put in. You would also be able to apply proportionately greater pressure for the same amount of force due to its smaller surface area. Elementary physics something to do with woman in high heels, elephants and who you would prefer to be stood on by! I believe that there are specialist websites for that sort of thing. I'm not sure what happens if the elephant is wearing heels though?
By contrast having the rounded end in the block means that it generates less heat due to slower rotation speeds even though it is presenting a larger surface area. Of course my physics could be completely cr*p!
Either way I went for it. I managed smoke very easily and after a couple of passable attempts at recreating the bouncing bomb effect with flying drills I got a really good ember. This worked for both the hazel and holly drills and didn't take much effort. The reverse configuration seemed to work well though the penalty was greater wear on the pointy end.
An interesting way to spend an hour on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The question is - has anyone else flown in the face of wisdom and tried doing it differently (the bowdrill that is)?
bowdrill,fire by friction, bushcraft
I had some bits and pieces of wood lying around drying out that were just begging to be abused. So I dug out a pine hearth, a hazel drill, a holly drill and my trusty teak bearing block (salvaged from an old table leg). I decided to go against the grain and have a little experiment with drill shape. I fly in the face of convention, ha!
In one of Ray Mears' books he says that the rounded end of the drill should go in the hearth because of greater friction and the pointy end should go in the block because of less friction. Seems logical but I was bit bored and decided to have a go with my rather eclectic mix of kit. My thinking was this, if the pointy end was in the hearth then due to its smaller circumference you would achieve faster rotations relative to the amount of effort put in. You would also be able to apply proportionately greater pressure for the same amount of force due to its smaller surface area. Elementary physics something to do with woman in high heels, elephants and who you would prefer to be stood on by! I believe that there are specialist websites for that sort of thing. I'm not sure what happens if the elephant is wearing heels though?
By contrast having the rounded end in the block means that it generates less heat due to slower rotation speeds even though it is presenting a larger surface area. Of course my physics could be completely cr*p!
Either way I went for it. I managed smoke very easily and after a couple of passable attempts at recreating the bouncing bomb effect with flying drills I got a really good ember. This worked for both the hazel and holly drills and didn't take much effort. The reverse configuration seemed to work well though the penalty was greater wear on the pointy end.
An interesting way to spend an hour on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The question is - has anyone else flown in the face of wisdom and tried doing it differently (the bowdrill that is)?
bowdrill,fire by friction, bushcraft
Ramblers in the mist!
Dianne Fossey I'm not. Anyway, a couple of days ago I went for a walk on Dunkery Beacon with my dog, well puppy really, Barney. Nothing particularly special about that really except we were engulfed in a rather thick mist.
I decided I fancied having a little walk out in the mist mainly because I hadn't done it for so long. It was pretty hairy driving up there because visibility was about 20 feet. Needless to say there were no other cars parked up there when we arrived. Perhaps no one else was stupid enough to deliberately go for a walk in really thick mist. Well, it's an easy path and it wasn't as if I was going to get lost, was it?
So, the two great explorers headed out into the whiteness. It was great fun and I loved it! The mist was like a blanket of silence wrapped round you. There was total and utter silence and it was marvellous. As we made our way up to the beacon itself, I did indeed hear something in the distance. Voices. They were very faint to start with but were growing louder by the second. It was interesting hearing the conversation revolve around characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies. Eventually 6 young lads came marching out of the mist - clearly they were Duke of Edinburgh scheme judging by their poor equipment and overburdened rucksacks. Only one of them returned my jaunty greeting (perhaps too jaunty considering the weather). Hey ho!
We did reach the beacon in good time. Initially I did think we were alone until I saw a behatted individual huddled with his or her back up against a stone, seemingly engrossed in a book. They didn't look up which I thought strange but they may well have thought I was a nutter as only a nutter would walk up the beacon in a very, very thick mist. They may have been missing a point there.
We headed back to the vehicle after a few more minutes. No one lese joined us on the return trip and it was nice to savour the silence for a few more minutes. Ah, bliss!
I decided I fancied having a little walk out in the mist mainly because I hadn't done it for so long. It was pretty hairy driving up there because visibility was about 20 feet. Needless to say there were no other cars parked up there when we arrived. Perhaps no one else was stupid enough to deliberately go for a walk in really thick mist. Well, it's an easy path and it wasn't as if I was going to get lost, was it?
So, the two great explorers headed out into the whiteness. It was great fun and I loved it! The mist was like a blanket of silence wrapped round you. There was total and utter silence and it was marvellous. As we made our way up to the beacon itself, I did indeed hear something in the distance. Voices. They were very faint to start with but were growing louder by the second. It was interesting hearing the conversation revolve around characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies. Eventually 6 young lads came marching out of the mist - clearly they were Duke of Edinburgh scheme judging by their poor equipment and overburdened rucksacks. Only one of them returned my jaunty greeting (perhaps too jaunty considering the weather). Hey ho!
We did reach the beacon in good time. Initially I did think we were alone until I saw a behatted individual huddled with his or her back up against a stone, seemingly engrossed in a book. They didn't look up which I thought strange but they may well have thought I was a nutter as only a nutter would walk up the beacon in a very, very thick mist. They may have been missing a point there.
We headed back to the vehicle after a few more minutes. No one lese joined us on the return trip and it was nice to savour the silence for a few more minutes. Ah, bliss!
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Snow, ice and wolves - Part 5
Wild wolf tracks!!!! (Jump up and down and get all excited)
Well this is what we came for and finally we have found some wolf tracks made by a real live wolf and one that is not in captivity. Very, very cool. It has literally been a long slog to find these beauties but we did get there. This time round we were in a different park. We started off on the main track, split the group into three and each group started cutting for sign at different points.
Within 200 yards of our drop off we found day old wolf tracks. The other groups also found wolf tracks of differing ages and some even had urine associated with them. We even found scat in the middle of the track. Needless to say we were all a bit excited by now.
Next part of the plan was to move away from the track and see if we could cut across the wolves trail further on. Well we all slogged off in our different groups and covered quite a distance between us but none of us had any luck in finding more wolf.
We did find lots of other things. We saw a wild boar family unit in the distance, one of which had a very bad limp.
We later cut across their trail and saw them at close quarters and saw that there was puss and blood in the tracks of the wounded boar. It would be lucky if it survived the night. Evening was drawing on so we headed to an observation tower to see if the wolves were going to howl but despite our best efforts at imitating the calls, we had no luck in hearing the real thing!
Back at our digs we entertained the locals by testing out our gear at -18C who clearly thought we were totally crazy.
Of course they are completely right!
Tomorrow being our last day we plotted and planned as to possible routes to take, how many teams to use and the such in order to thrash the area and find more wolf tracks. The anticipation was hard to contain but we managed somehow.
tracking,wolf, Poland
Well this is what we came for and finally we have found some wolf tracks made by a real live wolf and one that is not in captivity. Very, very cool. It has literally been a long slog to find these beauties but we did get there. This time round we were in a different park. We started off on the main track, split the group into three and each group started cutting for sign at different points.
Within 200 yards of our drop off we found day old wolf tracks. The other groups also found wolf tracks of differing ages and some even had urine associated with them. We even found scat in the middle of the track. Needless to say we were all a bit excited by now.
Next part of the plan was to move away from the track and see if we could cut across the wolves trail further on. Well we all slogged off in our different groups and covered quite a distance between us but none of us had any luck in finding more wolf.
We did find lots of other things. We saw a wild boar family unit in the distance, one of which had a very bad limp.
We later cut across their trail and saw them at close quarters and saw that there was puss and blood in the tracks of the wounded boar. It would be lucky if it survived the night. Evening was drawing on so we headed to an observation tower to see if the wolves were going to howl but despite our best efforts at imitating the calls, we had no luck in hearing the real thing!
Back at our digs we entertained the locals by testing out our gear at -18C who clearly thought we were totally crazy.
Of course they are completely right!
Tomorrow being our last day we plotted and planned as to possible routes to take, how many teams to use and the such in order to thrash the area and find more wolf tracks. The anticipation was hard to contain but we managed somehow.
tracking,wolf, Poland
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Snow, ice and wolves - part 4
Basically, this our fourth full day, was to be a travel day, as we moved areas in order to try our luck in a totally different part of the country.
Our first stop was by a river where we hoped to find sign of beaver. And beaver we found! There was plenty of evidence of beaver gnawing through trees and we found a couple of slides where the trees had been dragged down to the river.
You can see the teeth marks on this stump! (above)
One of the things about European beaver is that they don't build dams. Their lodges are built into the banks and are, in effect, underground. One of the guys managed to find the lodge - by putting his foot through the roof! Luckily beaver are used to repairing damage to their homes. We didn't see beaver in the flesh but we did see where there feet had been :)
We did also find plenty of mink tracks as well as the anal secretion from our beaver friends. I don't think I'll post a picture of that though!
Time to move onto a wildlife sanctuary run by a conservationist who is very keen on reintroducing the lynx back into the wild in Poland. It was a slightly strange place with lots of different enclosure for things like elk, deer, wolves and grouse - an eclectic mix of species to say the least. We entered the park through one enclosure which housed some very friendly elk. So friendly they would give you a good barging if you had the audacity to ignore them! Lovely creatures that could make a very plaintiff and quiet noise but could also do you a lot of damage if they wanted to.
We then moved onto the wolf enclosure and had very good views of the wolf pack and its behaviour - from the aggression of the alpha to the apparent 'aggression' of the omega wolf who would bare its teeth as if it was being aggressive but was, in reality, just reaffirming its place in the pack. Fascinating to watch.
Needless to say we spent quite a bit of time watching the wolves interact with each other and with us!
This is when it started to get a bit surreal. The owner said that he takes a rehabilitated Lynx out for a walk and would show us except that he had left his lead at home. Well being trackers and bushcrafters we soon knocked up a lead. He disappeared off and we were hanging around to see him walk his Lynx on the lead. Well, we were wrong on that score - the first thing we saw was a very high speed Lynx go shooting past us followed a minute later by the owner with his dog on the lead! Not only that but he also had a young deer with him too. It turns out that the deer and the Lynx were best of friends and played together all the time.
Like I said - a bit surreal but a brilliant thing to watch them play and chase with each other. Awesome!
lynx,tracking, wolf, Poland
Our first stop was by a river where we hoped to find sign of beaver. And beaver we found! There was plenty of evidence of beaver gnawing through trees and we found a couple of slides where the trees had been dragged down to the river.
You can see the teeth marks on this stump! (above)
One of the things about European beaver is that they don't build dams. Their lodges are built into the banks and are, in effect, underground. One of the guys managed to find the lodge - by putting his foot through the roof! Luckily beaver are used to repairing damage to their homes. We didn't see beaver in the flesh but we did see where there feet had been :)
We did also find plenty of mink tracks as well as the anal secretion from our beaver friends. I don't think I'll post a picture of that though!
Time to move onto a wildlife sanctuary run by a conservationist who is very keen on reintroducing the lynx back into the wild in Poland. It was a slightly strange place with lots of different enclosure for things like elk, deer, wolves and grouse - an eclectic mix of species to say the least. We entered the park through one enclosure which housed some very friendly elk. So friendly they would give you a good barging if you had the audacity to ignore them! Lovely creatures that could make a very plaintiff and quiet noise but could also do you a lot of damage if they wanted to.
We then moved onto the wolf enclosure and had very good views of the wolf pack and its behaviour - from the aggression of the alpha to the apparent 'aggression' of the omega wolf who would bare its teeth as if it was being aggressive but was, in reality, just reaffirming its place in the pack. Fascinating to watch.
Needless to say we spent quite a bit of time watching the wolves interact with each other and with us!
This is when it started to get a bit surreal. The owner said that he takes a rehabilitated Lynx out for a walk and would show us except that he had left his lead at home. Well being trackers and bushcrafters we soon knocked up a lead. He disappeared off and we were hanging around to see him walk his Lynx on the lead. Well, we were wrong on that score - the first thing we saw was a very high speed Lynx go shooting past us followed a minute later by the owner with his dog on the lead! Not only that but he also had a young deer with him too. It turns out that the deer and the Lynx were best of friends and played together all the time.
Like I said - a bit surreal but a brilliant thing to watch them play and chase with each other. Awesome!
lynx,tracking, wolf, Poland
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