Scotsman

Scotsman’s reviews

1. After a week spent taking part in the Woodlander course, learning wilderness bushcraft, I know that I will never own a PlayStation. No amount of sitting in front of a television exercising my thumbs could possibly have the magical effect of this supremely absorbing subject. Strangely, producing fire by friction is an emotional moment. I feel initiated. There is something quite primal about the process, as if I’ve connected in some significant way with my ancestors. I feel more tuned-in with the outdoors than I have ever felt. I also have an irrepressible grin etched across my face. The course takes place in one of nature’s most beautiful classrooms on a remote 300-acre private forestry estate to the west of Lake Windermere, with a spectacular backdrop of mountains, lakes and rivers. Such a location gives the participants - a maximum number of 12 taught by five instructors - the chance to really commune with nature on a very intimate level. In my ten years of enjoying outdoor pursuits, mainly climbing and mountaineering, with a healthy dose of mountain biking and hill walking thrown in, I’ve never really engaged with my surroundings in this way until now. Before I arrived, I did have concerns about the nature of the subject matter, in particular whether it would be an exercise in Rambo-style machismo, an initiation into tree-hugging pseudo-spiritualism, or a sentimental regression into the past. Thankfully, it is none of these things. Rather, it encourages me to see what I’ve been missing when out walking. (Written by James Reynolds published in The Scotsman on 19 June 2004)

   Scotsman reviewing Survival & Bushcraft Courses in the Lakes