Survival Course

In Spring 2008 I ran a non-commercial survival course for two self employed kitchen fitters, John and Chris, as a thank you for Johns assistance in obtaining kitchen units at trade price and with fitting the tops. The course covering the fundamentals of shelter building, fire lighting, water and wild food lasted one week and took place on the North West coast of Scotland. During my usual solo wilderness activities I normally use a coracle to access remote areas via water but considering the distances involved and that neither of my companions were coraclemen, a 17 foot modern Canadian canoe was deemed to be a better choice of transport than three coracles.

Survival students John and Chris securing the foundation poles of the earthlodge.

Other concessions to my usual activities included taking several commercial whelk and prawn pots which are lighter and more compact than my own wicker salt water grigs. Further traps could then be improvised from any locally suitable materials if time allowed although my usual craft wicker work was beyond the scope of the course.

Me demonstrating flint and steel fire lighting during the early stages of lodge construction when midges or the wee beasties were still a problem.

Due to the physical effort involved in getting to and from the training area and safety considerations concerning our isolated location, man-powered sea travel and the planned intensity of our activities, some very limited rations were taken. These were inspired by the North American voyageurs and frontiersmen of the 18th and 19th Centuries and the small quantities of flour, oats and coffee taken still very much placed the onus on obtaining adequate food from the land and sea. Sleeping bags, torches, cooking pots and cutting tools were permitted. Tents, stoves and matches were not.

Chris and I outside the earthlodge. John joked that it was like sleeping in a giant wrens nest, but joking aside there is much to be learnt about survival from the animal kingdom.

Kit was carried in modern dry bags and bouyancy aids worn at all times in the canoe as a precaution in the unfortunate event of a capsize. A First Aid kit, tide tables, navigational and signalling equipment were also taken. Despite choppy conditions, good progress was made on the canoe in, something helped by being in the company of equally physically fit and experienced paddlers.

Chris and John gathering limpets and other seashore edibles. Limpets are more tender and tasty when turned upside down in hot embers and cooked in their own juices.

The training area was reached around tea time and the increased evening daylight meant that after a demonstration of lashings and a talk by me on the physical and spiritual aspects of the circular earthlodge shelter John and Chris, with my assistance, began constructing the foundation framework from standing dead spruce poles.

Me with a hand line caught pollack. Even after a few days I look more like Compo than a survival instructor something not helped by a bad hat day. At least I cant be accused of being a hotel-fresh TV pretender.

By nightfall the lodge framework had been supplemented with futher snedded spruce poles and sufficiently brushed in to be largely wind and shower proof. An internal stone lined central fire place for heating and cooking along with three bough and moss beds proved that with the necessary skills and effort a high degree of comfort and convenience is achievable under bush conditions. Midges remained a problem whenever the fire wasnt lit until the lodge reached a more finished state and a door added on the second day. From then on it was a matter of improving the beds and further weatherproofing the roof thatch in between other jobs and activities. The selective pruning of spruce boughs and the similarly selective gathering of moss and forest debris helped minimise our presence on our surroundings. The earthlodge blended physically and spiritually with the land.

Pollack fillet cooking over embers. A pot of smaller fillets coated in flour for frying are visible in the top of the picture.

Whilst the earthlodge is in many respects an advanced shelter I felt that it best suited our needs. Also being built in the wickiup style, it still involved all of the more basic shelter building techniques found in the classic survival course lean to and A frame bivouac shelters. From the very first evening in the training area food had to be gathered and a trap line established with the pots and set lines.

Initially easily gathered protein such as limpets, winkles (a personal favourite), cockles, mussels etc were replaced by crabs, prawns, whelks and various fish, pollack especially, some of which were caught from the canoe on hand lines baited with both natural bait and various lures. Mackeral feathers in particular proved to be deadly with pollack with some sizeable fish caught. The local wildlife, grey seals in particular, indicated where the shoals were to be found which were then intercepted with the canoe.

Chris and John collecting bog myrtle or sweet gale (Myrica gale) to make herbal tea. Sweet gale is also used in Fraoch, a favourite Scottish ale.

The various traps and lines were set and lifted at dawn, dusk and low tide with the pots yielding large quantities of quality whelks, prawns and crabs along with all manner of other creatures which were thrown back with any surplus. Pots were generally baited with fish heads and viscera and moved into new locations with each rebaiting. Sealed plastic 4 pint milk containers served as improvised marker buoys. Food was never an issue all week and being something of a sea food fanatic I thought we ate like kings, especially with our catches being so fresh, a view shared by my companions. Other foods such as sea lettuce, scurvy grass, cuckoo flower leaves, sorrels and even chickweed were gathered along with herbal tea ingredients such as spruce and bog myrtle. Sadly but not surprisingly the ramsons I had been picking and eating on Skye the week before was not present in the training area along with other edibles not suited to the local conditions. As always the onus is on finding and using what is there on both land and sea.

A good haul of pot caught whelks in the canoe. Pots catch all sorts of other interesting but inedible species which can be released unharmed with any edible surplus.

Pot cooking was kept to a minimum although some of the fish were dipped in flour and fried in some oil Chris had brought and some of the winkles and prawns boiled. The bulk of the cooking however was done using more aboriginal means such as cooking in embers, on hot rocks and on green stick griddles. Morsels of fish, crab, whelks etc were also rolled in the bannock bread made from the flour and oats to make delicious hot wraps. After the initial flurry of activity involved with constructing the lodge, securing water, fuel and setting up trap lines, there was increasingly greater amounts of time for other activities. This was something I really wanted to bring home to my two students as such gradual relaxing is normal when the priorities of survival are met with good planning and well honed skills.

Whelks cooking in embers on the lodge fire. Whelks cooked in this way taste far better than the often insipid rubbery lumps bought from some fishmongers.

Food in particular was savoured and enjoyed with meals being a celebration of our unity with the natural world rather than being bolted down fast food style with little thought being given to the origins of the ingredients. This is one of the reasons why I feel that the Old Ways are really the essence of true civilization which is to be found in the hearts of largely unknown and unsung indigenous people who live close to the Earth. They are the real survival experts.

Gathering mussels from rocks at low tide. Mussels gathered well off the sand tend to be less gritty.

During both the course activities and the canoe travel, all manner of wildlife was encountered. Besides the numerous grey seals, other mammals seen included otter, pine martin, red deer, red fox and porpoises, the latter being encountered during the canoe out. Bird life included a plethora of sea birds along with raptors such as golden eagles and buzzards. In addition a number of islands were bagged during the canoe out which was made easier by calmer conditions.

Survival students preparing fish for cooking. Most people would baulk at doing their own dirty work but I feel that anyone eating meat or fish should be prepared to kill and process it themselves or become vegetarian.

A reluctant return to civilization was eased by a few pints of ale, (a traditional end to successful courses!) before a dreadful night on a camp site and the following mornings drive south back to the frenzied madness that passes as normality. Whilst I generally prefer my own company in wild places, ex park ranger John and canoeist Chris were refreshingly good company in the wilderness. Also their level of physical fitness, sense of humour and our gentlemans agreement that particiapation was at own risk told me that a course of such duration and isolation for beginners was unlikely to be a problem. I would be happy to share their company again in any wild place. Cheers lads and mines another ale please!

Men who should know better behaving badly?
Despite the serious course content the week was light hearted and fun.



One whelk or two gentlemen?
Me with a beach fire toasted whelk during the canoe out.