Bushcraft

Y7 Bushcraft trip 2022

Day 1 – Monday 27 July

Today we started off at school at 8:45am ready for a 2 hour drive down to our campsite in East Sussex. After what felt like a long coach journey we finally arrived. To get started, the team introduced themselves to us and explained the background and purpose for the camp. Shortly after we started our first activity, the walk of doom. This activity made us gain trust and confidence within ourselves and the group. We got into pairs of our choice and selected one of us to be blindfolded, we then felt with our hands a rope that led around a series of trees with guidance from our friends. Once we all had a chance at giving it a try, we returned to the camp for lunch and participated in ball games, before beginning to tuck into the task of putting up our tents. It was challenging but with guidance and resilience we were all left with a sturdy tent, mostly. As the day progressed we tried our second task of the week, fire lighting and purposes. We learnt in an engaging talk the different uses of fire and all the ways to create it. We then had a go ourselves using flint and steel. We competed against each other in a fire lighting relay, fluffing up a cotton ball, setting it alight and passing the flint and steel to the person at the front of the queue. We then returned back to the gathering tent and were put into our catering teams. Team 1 was given the task of making dinner and group 2 was responsible for cleaning up. Currently we are having down time, if not helping out, before having our evening meal and going for a night walk. Since I arrived I have been extremely excited to finally be back in the wild, especially with my friends. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week's activities!

Written by Maya

Day 2 – Tuesday 28 July

Awoken either by the shouts of friends, or the shouts of birds, or by the light let in by the “blackout” tents, the day was alive. A simple shower or the promise of breakfast or just necessity got us out of sleeping bags, and although the night had been cold for some, we could all agree that it was endurable. 

The first activity of the day followed on from our blindfolded “icebreaker” the previous day. We stood, blindfolded, with a goal of walking in a straight line, seemingly easy, but as we would soon find, ridiculously challenging. In fact, impossible. (If we couldn’t do this, how would we manage blizzards and sandstorms?) It was infuriatingly hilarious, or hilariously infuriating. My friend walked straight for the first few moments, then proceeded to catch the common cold of dizziness and spun around, slowly, in an 180 degrees angle, acting like everything was completely normal. From others, I could see the force attracting them to the fence, like magnets so strong that only some were immune, proud. 

The next activity involved continuing on our survival pyramid. We learned how to build survival shelters using the staple materials around us. It brought some of us together and rivalry to others. As we ambled through the woods to our “less is more” lunch, we couldn’t help holding our heads higher in pride, or perhaps the knowledge that we wouldn’t die if we were out in the wilderness.

After lunch we reviewed our shelters- screaming and pleading for marks we knew we didn’t deserve. We learned advanced fire structures and fire steel techniques, such as the teepee, the cowboy, and the evasive dakota technique. We now sit in the marquee and as we write this, we can’t help wondering what comes ahead and hope, excited. We leave you now. Goodbye. This is the end.

Written by Channing and Edited by Lee 

Day 3 – Wednesday 29 July

On Wednesday, day three of our bushcraft adventure, we woke up to the sound of rain, and I realised that the weather app on my phone had lied when I checked it on Sunday. Apparently (according to the app) being the sunniest day of this week, today we experienced a light morning drizzle, which slowly progressed to a downpour. Thankfully, the majority of our possessions lying on the porch of our tent were saved from having the consistency equivalent to clothes that had just come out of the washing machine, and we went out to breakfast in our rain jackets. 

Afterwards, we had a variety of fun and interesting activities, such as learning how to make rope out of grass (twisting it around very tightly so it doesn’t unravel) which we made with coloured string and spent the morning making bracelets, basically, which was very fun. 

We stayed in the marquee until the rain died down, then we went for lunch, which was very good (wraps, a personal favourite) and afterwards we went to find out what exactly is good to eat out in the wild (Fun Fact: Dandelions make your bladder swell up so you unfortunately need to go to the bathroom very often and the French way of saying dandelion quite literally means ‘wet the bed’. Also another Fun Fact: NEVER EAT BLUEBELLS, they’re poisonous though a favourite of badgers). 

Then we had such a fun time baking some snacks using flour, water, sugar and chocolate, making a sort of bread. After making the dough, we put it either on a stick, on a frying pan or just chucking it into the fire and afterwards it tasted incredibly tasty. We cooked it over fires which we made and kept alive, just. 

Anyway, I’m so happy to be in bushcraft. It’s a great experience and I'm very glad to be here. I hope the rest of the week is just as fun and exciting. Thank you for taking the time to read this. We hope you are having a lovely time in your city life.

Written by Zosia :)

Day 4 – Thursday 30 July

Today was our final full day at Bushcraft! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. We started today with a fulfilling breakfast of cereal, eggs and bacon sandwiches, cooked by Latymer students. After a thorough wash of bowls and plates (I’m sure many parents will be amazed at the standard of dishwashing when we get home) we went into the marquee to work more on our booklets. We learnt more about the key things needed to survive and thought deeply about the different ways primitive humans survived and thrived. Then we went hands-on on that topic and did knifecraft and weaponry. Don’t worry, nobody was hurt! 

In knifecraft, we were given a piece of wood and a knife to shape it. We sat on our knees then stripped the bark using the straight cut. This cut involved, as the name suggests, cutting a straight line and then slowly rotating the wood and cutting where we left off.  Next we used the stop cut. A stop cut is when you knock your knife into the wood using a larger stick, making a straight dent. You then motorbike (the same motion as accelerating a motorbike) the wood away and you have a straight line which when you cut into it; stops the knife, making a controlled dent. We used our new skills to make wooden tent pegs, which were useful as they don’t bend.

We looked at the different ways cavepeople and other primitive humans made tools and weapons. We learnt about the throwing stick, which was used in forests where more spear-like weapons could not be used as they would just hit the trees! We were split into two teams, Ug and Og, and we ‘hunted’ sticks. I learnt that throwing sticks were powerful if you have good arm strength, but were difficult to aim and often curved when you threw them.

Then we were given a tool called an Atlatl. This was an addition to a spear and was a piece of wood in a hook shape. The spikey end clipped onto the hole which, when thrusted, stayed in your hand while the spear flew through the air. Our guide encouraged us to think about how the first person who created the spear, or the Atlatl, made their incredible discovery. Did they watch people who had long arms and notice that they could throw the spear further, and then experimented with tools to recreate that?

I have loved my time at bushcraft, and I am excited for another day tomorrow. A big hello to everyone in London, we won’t be away for much longer!

By Kit