Woodlore Blog

Woodlore have some very exciting kit news today – after more than a year of research and product development, with Woodlore working closely alongside Swazi Clothing, we can finally reveal the latest addition to the Swazi/Ray Mears range:

The Swazi/Ray Mears Narwhal Gore-Tex Anorak

The Swazi/Ray Mears Narwhal Anorak is an extremely lightweight jacket, made from the durable 2-layer Gore-Tex PacLite fabric, making it completely waterproof, windproof and highly breathable. It’s an ideal piece of clothing for lightweight backpacking, stalking, cross-country skiing, or any activity where space and weight are critical.

Having been instrumental in the design and development process of this garment, we are very happy to see this project come to fruition. The Swazi/Ray Mears Narwhal Anorak is now available exclusively in the UK from Woodlore.

Woodlore’s first two Applied Bushcraft courses took place in Wales last month, with field staff members Paul, James, Emma and Dan on hand to help students with the challenge of travelling light in the backcountry.

The weather in Wales managed to live up to its reputation by delivering a very wet and windy couple of weeks, but despite this, students of both courses seemed to have a great time and got stuck in with the tasks at hand.

Applied Bushcraft students walking amongst the Brecon Beacons in Wales

An excellent range of photos taken by the students of the second week’s course can now be seen in the Applied Bushcraft 2010 Photo Gallery.

Topics covered on this course include:

• Preparation & Planning
• Risk management
• Clothing & equipment
• Lightweight shelters
• Trail foods and nutritional requirements
• Keeping food fresh & safe from wildlife
• Trail cooking
• Caring for your feet and trail first-aid
• Weather – appraisal and forecasting
• Navigation techniques
• River crossings & other hazards
• Survival equipment & emergency bivouacs
• Communication & Signalling
• Laws and regulation
• Ethics & environmental protection

We’ve recently had a couple of cancellations on this year’s Journeyman courses, taking place at the end of August. The Journeyman is Woodlore’s advanced-level Bushcraft course that takes place in Scotland, which people can attend once they have passed the Woodlore Fundamental Bushcraft course.

For more information please do not hesitate to call the office on 01580 819668 or, alternatively, book your place on the website. Please note that these places will sell quickly, so please book soon to avoid disappointment.

Mark and Lucy Hotson, long time customers and friends of Woodlore, recently sent in this fantastic picture from their holiday to Dorset:

Mark & Lucy's Super Tarp pitched over their canoe

Set on a beautiful stretch of beach, it shows their Ray Mears Super Tarp pitched over their upturned canoe, providing a bit of much-needed shelter from the sun. Nice touch with the cooking tripod too!

Ray Mears with Davey Hughes of Swazi Clothing

This week, we’ve had the pleasure of being in the company of the one and only Mr. Davey Hughes, a good friend all the way from Swazi Clothing headquarters over in New Zealand.

Here in the UK on business, Davey visited Woodlore for a couple of days to talk hunting, look at some new clothing ideas and, most importantly, pose for a manly picture for the blog.

A new photo gallery is now live on our website for the Introduction to Bushcraft course, showing some of the pictures taken by staff and students over this year’s course season.

Just one of the leaf shelters built by students this year

For what seemed like the first time in years, students were lucky enough to have the sun shining over them while pitching their tarps, learning fire-lighting techniques, cooking over the campfire and building their leaf shelters.

The following article was kindly written by Woodlore field staff member Sarah Day:

I found this moth larvae on an apple tree in my garden. It is the larvae of a vapourer moth as far as I can tell though it doesn’t have the ‘tail’ tuft shown in a lot of photos. The odd thing about this species is that the female is flightless, looking a bit like a hairy overweight woodlouse! They live on a variety of trees and shrubs, as well as broad bean plants it would seem, as they have demolished mine very efficiently.

A larvae of a vapourer moth found in Woodlore field staff member Sarah's garden

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, Steve from the Woodlore offices went with Ray to visit our brand new Applied Bushcraft course in Wales. Arriving on the Monday night, they awoke to join the students for the day’s task – river crossings.

The first part of the task involved wading across running water with the help of a staff. After a demonstration from course leader Paul Kirtley, the students got stuck in, two-by-two, carefully edging their way across the river.

Once everyone had made it across the river and back, the group moved upstream to deeper waters. Here, instructor Dan Hume demonstrated how best to cross the river when wearing a rucksack, using the bag’s buoyancy to his advantage. Again, after the demonstration, it was the students’ turn to cross.

Ray Mears explaining the importance of using a staff for support when crossing the river

Course leader Paul Kirtley demonstrating the crossing

Students Sean and Purnima tackling the river

Carefully working their way to the river bank

Annemarie Hopper, a student of a number of Woodlore’s courses between 1998 – 1999, including the Introduction to Bushcraft as well as a wilderness cooking course, kindly got in touch with us recently to say she had some photos to hand that she had taken all those years back.

The resulting pictures were great to see, offering a glimpse into Woodlore’s past. After all these years, it’s amazing to see just how much has changed, while so much has stayed the same…

Ray Mears demonstrating the bow drill technique of fire lighting

Ray sharpening his knife using waterstones

Preparing a meal to cook over the campfire

We're not sure what's going on here - judo possibly?!

The following article was kindly written by Woodlore Field Staff member Sarah Day: