Woodlore Blog

The following article was kindly written by Woodlore Field Staff member Keith Whitehead:

On my way home from a course, I was walking a stretch which takes in part of the Basingstoke canal’s towpath. One stretch, between two locks, had been drained for maintenance and the muddy bed was covered in what looked like mussels. I decided to take a closer look and removed my pack so that I could climb down the bank.

One of the mussel shells found by Keith

I found tens of empty freshwater mussel shells, some of which were of a considerable size. All of them had been scavenged by the time that I found them, but I was still amazed by the richness of the resource that I had been completely unaware of beforehand.

Whether eating a filter-feeding shellfish from a stretch of water such as the canal would be a wise thing or not, is another matter. I’m just glad that I know that they’re there and that my eyes have been opened a little further.

The extremely popular Trips Money Can’t Buy programme, featuring Ray Mears and Ewan McGregor in the Honduran jungle, is repeated later this week on the UKTV Documentary channel Eden.

It’s a great chance to catch this programme which was unfortunately never released on DVD. If you’ve never seen it before, the above clip should give you an idea of what to expect.

Thursday 15th July

12:00, 15:00 & 20:00 PM

Sky 532, Virgin Media 208

The following weeks will see Woodlore’s first ever Applied Bushcraft courses taking place, running back-to-back from this coming Sunday. The team are very excited to be occupying a new site in Wales and to be running this newly-developed course, all based on travelling light in the woods. The Land Rovers are now packed, cleaned and ready to go! 

All packed and ready to go...

We’ll keep you all updated on how they went once the courses have finished.  We wish the team and all the students taking part all the best for their respective courses and a safe journey.

As many of you may have noticed, deliveries of the popular Short Tripod that we sell have been few and far between recently. One positive move that has come from this, however, is that Ray has now worked with British blacksmith and long-time friend of Woodlore’s, Andrew Kirkham, to design their very own take on the bushcraft cooking tripod.

The Ray Mears Folding Trivet in use with a Zebra Billy Can

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Woodlore office member Harvey spotted this highly poisonous fungus on his recent Introduction to Bushcraft course. Is anyone able to identify it? The first correct answer wins a £10.00 Woodlore Voucher. Correctly identified by J. Deval.

Poisonous fungus found on our Intro course, identified as the Panther Cap (Amanita pantherina)

Field Staff member Ian Lawson (who led Harvey’s Introduction course and originally identified the Panther Cap shown above) has passed a photo onto us of a Fly Agaric which he found last year. Ian felt this would be useful to see as a handful of the comments we received had mentioned this species:

Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria)

A couple of us from the Woodlore offices took some time out to visit the Intermediate Bushcraft course last week to see how everyone was getting on. This is a brand new course for Woodlore which, alongside our new Applied Bushcraft course, is designed as a ‘next step’ from the Fundamental. The Intermediate course is aimed at teaching you how to live comfortably in the forest with minimal equipment.

Steve having a go at the hand drill method with some help from Dan

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Last weekend saw the very last of our Introduction to Bushcraft courses for the year. Our newest member of the office team, Harvey, went along to join in with the fun and see what happens on our courses.

The British weather did not let Harvey and the rest of the group down, staying beautifully hot for the duration of the course. Surely it’s going to chuck it down soon?!

The Hootchie - Harvey's home for the first night